iBerry

Free access to Higher Education (HE) resources and Open Courseware (OCW)
from the Universities and Colleges of the world.

(To expand a page or post a comment on it, click on the red-colored
heading in the white box or on 'read more')

We also bring you the latest HE and educational technology newsfeeds and blogs. You do not need to register to use these facilities or post comments.

Please register only if you wish to use one or more of the following features. You will be asked to contribute a profile and you will need a valid email address to which your password will be sent immediately. This password is valid for 7 days only so use it at once to login and then change it. There is no point in registering unless you pickup your password so make sure it isn't lost to your email spam filter!

Once yiou have registered you can:

• view profiles of other registered users and communicate with them (without revealing your private email address).

• create and edit OCW items using your own user name
• customize your displays and set your own local time
• help others make the best use of Open Courseware by creating and publishing your own material in a Subject Porthole
• have the opportunity to guide and influence further community development - contact us !

• What is Open Courseware (OCW)?

  "Courseware" implies any type of "knowledge product" associated with the delivery of a lecture course or program of study. Digitised material such as lecture notes, handouts, slides, tutorial material, exam questions, quizzes, videos and demonstrations are all typical examples. "Open Courseware" is courseware that has been made publicly available, free of charge, by the author to any user with web access anywhere in the world. To find out more about OCW take a look at some of the websites in this section of the iBerry Open Courseware Directory.

• As a self-learner, can I use Open Courseware to construct my own program of study?

  Yes of course you can but don't make the mistake of confusing courseware with a complete course. The latter is a total educational experience that includes courseware among many other value adding factors such as expert tuition, feedback, assessment and interaction with fellow students so you will probably have to decide for yourself how to benefit from Open Courseware. By all means construct your own programs of study but don't expect support from the authors and institutions that publish the courseware. At a more introductory level, you may simply wish to browse through a range of "taster" material before deciding to enrol in a formal program of studies at an institution.

• As an educator, can I use Open Courseware in developing my own courses?

  The advantages of using already available material on the web are numerous. The time spent on a new piece of courseware is likely to be reduced, reusing already validated material is likely to lead to less errors, multiple views on a topic can be presented and so on. (This very much applies to developing countries attempting rapid expansion of their own higher education systems.) Use Open Courseware to find supporting materials and information while preparing your own courses but if you wish to make direct use of materials, particularly for commercial purposes rather than self-study and research, you should be aware of any copyright restrictions. Many authors of original materials permit some direct use of these by others provided due acknowledgment is made but if this is not made clear ask for the author's permission first.

• As a student, is Open Courseware relevant if I'm already following a course of study?

  Very much so! You can find a wealth of information to complement and supplement your education. Remarkable and fascinating material is freely available covering most subject areas - animations, videoed live lectures by renowned experts, fully illustrated lecture notes etc etc. The learning process can only benefit from different approaches and interpretations, at least some of which may well be more suited to your own educational background.

• What is the role of iberry.com in compiling the Open Courseware Directory?

  Education and discovery are best advanced when knowledge is shared openly and freely. Open Courseware has now become a vast collection of educational resources with much potential for development and widespread exchange of ideas about their use in teaching and learning. We are attempting to provide a free, comprehensive and up-to-date directory to the Open Courseware originating from the Universities and Colleges of the world and covering all academic subject areas.

• Any further questions? - Please contact us!
  

• What information do I give if I register with iBerry?

  A nickname, your country/city and any personal information you wish to provide is required for your profile. You are also asked to give some indication of your academic interests (by ticking boxes). Registered users can view all profiles and can contact each other through iBerry without revealing their private email addresses. If you don't want to be contacted you can easily switch off this facility.

• I frequently use facilities such as the iBerry Opencourseware Finder and the News Aggregator - should I register?

  Yes - then you can control the appearance of up to 9 blocks in the sidebars - e.g. you might want to

We would like to extend our mindmapping experiments by attempting to represent not only the open courseware links that we already have in our database but also links to other educational resources such as learning support. The idea is that

When I started 'Not a Blog' on iBerry about two years ago I was very diffident about blogging and I warbled, "I'm dubious about devoting time and energy to blogging as such. In setting up the News Aggregator I've looked at quite a few educational blogs. Some are fascinating and endless hours can be spent reading them but I've no particular wish, or more accurately the knowledge, to join the crowd and sound off on

This Mindmap (map by Freemind) is a first attempt to represent the Open Courseware Directory as a network of interconnecting nodes. It is experimental and incomplete at present. However, it has the potential for virtually unlimited expansion (notes, further 'child' menus etc). Comments and suggestions for improvements are welcome!

Use is fairly intuitive. Start by clicking on nodes to unfold (or fold) further nodes. The red arrows are links into the database. The entire map can be moved around by 'click and drag'

iBerry is a non-profit making, private website. Serving the international academic community since 1999, iBerry connects to information and resources for learners, educators, researchers and anyone else with an interest in Higher Education (HE). Our focus is on connection rather than content; we see iBerry as one small part of an emerging and open global education network that one day will bring inexpensive education to anyone, anywhere, regardless of their circumstances.

iBerry is free to use and there is no need for

Please add requests for information, announcements etc as comments below (spam will be ignored!). If you are not registered, or wish to receive private replies from any user, you will have to give an email address but disguise it somehow to avoid use by spammers - e.g. " fred at xyz.com ". You can reply to a message publicly by adding a further comment or privately by email (without revealing your own email address if you and the message's author are registered).

Professor Knowmore, podium under his arm, strode purposefully into the reception area of the new Networked Education Complex (NEC). Well it wasn't really all that new. The foundations had been laid some time ago but it was still under construction with a multitude of new rooms to explore and humming with diverse and ever-changing educational activities. The Professor fired a few well-chosen technical terms at the receptionist, Miss Oogle. She thought for a moment and began to

This table provides a quick search of the Open Courseware Directory. (For more detailed searches see 'How to use the Open Courseware Directory' in the left sidebar. A Subject Index is also available)

Go to the square corresponding to the intersection of a main subject row with the required 'media type' column - Click on 'ALL' inside a square to find items at all academic levels; otherwise click on:

1. for 'introductory' (university first year undergraduate level - or equivalent)

2. for 'intermediate' (university undergraduate level but excluding first year - or equivalent)
3. for 'advanced' (university graduate level - or equivalent)

Example: To find OCW items containing exam material (sample exams, old papers etc) in introductory Social Sciences go to the bottom right hand corner and click on '1'.

Clicking on one of the Main Subject Areas in the left column will give all OCW items for that subject area.