cFS Basecamp: A Flight Software STEM Education Ecosystem

The open-source core Flight System (cFS) Basecamp ecosystem includes several cFS-based STEM educational projects and provides the infrastructure for users to create their own. Basecamp\u27s tool suite and app repositories function much like a smartphone\u27s App Store model. The initial cFS Basecamp installation includes several built-in tutorials that help users learn NASA\u27s cFS application environment and shorten their path to productivity. Online resources describe Basecamp\u27s goal-oriented software/hardware projects. These projects are designed so students understand how to create app-based solutions to meet a particular goal. This approach evolved after years of being engaged with teaching the cFS and learning which teaching methods were most effective. Users began by installing a lightweight Python GUI with minimal external dependencies. This approach helps avoid platform-specific issues so Basecamp can be used in classroom settings where students have diverse computing platforms. With Basecamp\u27s GUI installed, students are ready to work on projects. A preinstalled demonstration app in conjunction with a self-guided tutorital helps users understand an app\u27s command/telemetry interface and the cFS application runtime environment. A built-in app generation tool creates a Hello World app to help students take a first step into cFS app development. From there, they can work through Code-As-You-Go (CAYG) lessons that introduce topics. Each new topic is reinforced with hands-on exercises. These lessons are more suitable for instructor-led classes that can be held virtually or in person. The next level of projects requires Basecamp\u27s github app repositories. Using the GUI, students can select and install Basecamp cFS apps from github with only a few mouse clicks. For example, the General-Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) Demo project requires a cFS Raspberry Pi interface library and an app to control an LED connected to a Raspberry Pi through the GPIO connector. To implement this project, students first connect an LED to a Raspberry Pi, install Basecamp on the Pi, download/install the library/app, and rebuild/run the cFS. A second Basecamp instance installed on a separate computer can remotely control the Raspberry Pi. This is achieved by using Basecamp\u27s MQTT Gateway app. This app utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT) MQTT messaging service that has freely available broker services. Basecamp\u27s modular approach with plug \u27n play cFS apps make it an ideal platform for creating STEM educational projects. These projects will help students learn valuable hardware/software skills while using NASA\u27s award-winning flight software that has a large user base in the aerospace community

HaIRST: Harvesting Institutional Resources in Scotland Testbed. Final Project Report

The HaIRST project conducted research into the design, implementation and deployment of a pilot service for UK-wide access of autonomously created institutional resources in Scotland, the aim being to investigate and advise on some of the technical, cultural, and organisational requirements associated with the deposit, disclosure, and discovery of institutional resources in the JISC Information Environment. The project involved a consortium of Scottish higher and further education institutions, with significant assistance from the Scottish Library and Information Council. The project investigated the use of technologies based on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI), including the implementation of OAI-compatible repositories for metadata which describe and link to institutional digital resources, the use of the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH) to automatically copy the metadata from multiple repositories to a central repository, and the creation of a service to search and identify resources described in the central repository. An important aim of the project was to identify issues of metadata interoperability arising from the requirements of individual institutional repositories and their impact on services based on the aggregation of metadata through harvesting. The project also sought to investigate issues in using these technologies for a wide range of resources including learning, teaching and administrative materials as well as the research and scholarly communication materials considered by many of the other projects in the JISC Focus on Access to Institutional Resources (FAIR) Programme, of which HaIRST was a part. The project tested and implemented a number of open source software packages supporting OAI, and was successful in creating a pilot service which provides effective information retrieval of a range of resources created by the project consortium institutions. The pilot service has been extended to cover research and scholarly communication materials produced by other Scottish universities, and administrative materials produced by a non-educational institution in Scotland. It is an effective testbed for further research and development in these areas. The project has worked extensively with a new OAI standard for 'static repositories' which offers a low-barrier, low-cost mechanism for participation in OAI-based consortia by smaller institutions with a low volume of resources. The project identified and successfully tested tools for transforming pre-existing metadata into a format compliant with OAI standards. The project identified and assessed OAI-related documentation in English from around the world, and has produced metadata for retrieving and accessing it. The project created a Web-based advisory service for institutions and consortia. The OAI Scotland Information Service (OAISIS) provides links to related standards, guidance and documentation, and discusses the findings of HaIRST relating to interoperability and the pilot harvesting service. The project found that open source packages relating to OAI can be installed and made to interoperate to create a viable method of sharing institutional resources within a consortium. HaIRST identified issues affecting the interoperability of shared metadata and suggested ways of resolving them to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of shared information retrieval environments based on OAI. The project demonstrated that application of OAI technologies to administrative materials is an effective way for institutions to meet obligations under Freedom of Information legislation

Establishing an international computational network for librarians and archivists

Research and experimentation are underway in libraries, archives, and research institutions on various digital strategies, including computational methods and tools, to manage "Collections as Data." This involves new ways for librarians and archivists to manage, preserve, and provide access to their digital collections. A major component in this ongoing process is the education and training needed by information professionals to function effectively in the 21st century. Accessible and transferable infrastructure is a key requirement in creating a network of collaboration for information professionals to fully realize the full potential of managing "Collections as Data." Elements needed include: 1. Open source research and educational platforms to remove barriers to access to curation tools and resources. These are needed to deliver and share computational educational programs. 2. Creation of a Cloud-based student-learning environment. 3. Development of Open Source software architectures that use computational infrastructure. 4. Exploration of new pedagogies for educating librarians and archivists in computational methods and tools. 5. Establishment of a community of practice for developing collaborative projects, and liaising with the wider international iSchool community and practitioners in the field. Our "Blue Sky" proposal seeks to explore a number of these challenges (infrastructure, computation, collaboration, learning) that stimulate the iSchool research community and have the potential to jumpstart international collaborative networks. The goal is to establish an international computational network for supporting librarians and archivists, akin to the existing Sloan Foundation funded "Data Curation Network", which seeks to model a cross-institutional staffing approach for curating research data in digital repositories.Ope

A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities

Examines the state of the foundation's efforts to improve educational opportunities worldwide through universal access to and use of high-quality academic content

Open educational resources : conversations in cyberspace

172 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.Libro ElectrónicoEducation systems today face two major challenges: expanding the reach of education and improving its quality. Traditional solutions will not suffice, especially in the context of today's knowledge-intensive societies. The Open Educational Resources movement offers one solution for extending the reach of education and expanding learning opportunities. The goal of the movement is to equalize access to knowledge worldwide through openly and freely available online high-quality content. Over the course of two years, the international community came together in a series of online discussion forums to discuss the concept of Open Educational Resources and its potential. This publication makes the background papers and reports from those discussions available in print.--Publisher's description.A first forum : presenting the open educational resources (OER) movement. Open educational resources : an introductory note / Sally Johnstone -- Providing OER and related issues : an introductory note / Anne Margulies, ... [et al.] -- Using OER and related issues : in introductory note / Mohammed-Nabil Sabry, ... [et al.] -- Discussion highlights / Paul Albright -- Ongoing discussion. A research agenda for OER : discussion highlights / Kim Tucker and Peter Bateman -- A 'do-it-yourself' resource for OER : discussion highlights / Boris Vukovic -- Free and open source software (FOSS) and OER -- A second forum : discussing the OECD study of OER. Mapping procedures and users / Jan Hylén -- Why individuals and institutions share and use OER / Jan Hylén -- Discussion highlights / Alexa Joyce -- Priorities for action. Open educational resources : the way forward / Susan D'Antoni

Scientific Literacy in the digital age: tools, environments and resources for co-inquiry

This paper describes some European and International projects to promote Scientific Literacy in the digital age as well as technologies, environments and resources for co-inquiry. The aim of this research is also to describe computer applications, software tools and environments that were designed to support processes of collaborative inquiry learning to promote Scientific Literacy. These tools are analyzed by describing their interfaces and functionalities. The outcomes of this descriptive research points out some effects on student learning and competences developed known from the literature. This paper argues the importance of promoting scientific citizenship not only through schools and Universities (formal learning), but also non-credit online courses and community-based learning programmes (non-formal context), as well as daily life activities, educational open digital materials through social networks (informal scenario)

Co-authorship in the age of cyberculture: Open Educational Resources at the Open University of the United Kingdom

Locating Open Educational Resources (OER) as a phenomenon of cyberculture, this paper presents a reflection on the possibilities of co-authorship that are entailed in OER initiatives of different natures and settings within a large organisation. A selection of OER-related projects and activities carried out at the Open University of United Kingdom (UKOU) are examined from the perspective of a comparative framework proposed by Okada (2010). The framework identifies key features and differences between ‘Closed’ and ‘Open’ Education, that is, respectively, formal education, which takes place within the constraints of institutional Virtual Learning Environments, and informal education, which is gradually taking place more widely in cyberspace. The paper is introduced with a succinct discussion of the connection between cyberculture and the emergence of OER, followed by a presentation of the comparative framework adopted. The UKOU´s structure and methods are then presented, and various projects are discussed. The article concludes by proposing a brief commentary on the creative potential that is being unleashed at the very boundaries between formal and informal educational spaces that cyberculture is challenging

Learning Design and Service Oriented Architectures:a mutual dependency?

This paper looks at how the concept of reusability has gained currency in e-learning. Initial attention was focused on reuse of content, but recently attention has focused on reusable software tools and reusable activity structures. The former has led to the proposal of service-oriented architectures, and the latter has seen the development of the Learning Design specification. The authors suggest that there is a mutual dependency between the success of these two approaches, as complex Learning Designs require the ability to call on a range of tools, while remaining technology neutral. The paper describes a project at the UK Open University, SLeD, which sought to develop a Learning Design player that would utilise the service-oriented approach. This acted both as a means of exploring some of the issues implicit within both approaches and also provided a practical tool. The SLeD system was successfully implemented in a different university, Liverpool Hope, demonstrating some of the principles of re-use

The adoption of open sources within higher education in Europe : a dissemination case study

For some time now, the open-source (OS) phenomenon has been making its presence felt; disrupting the economics of the software industry and, by proxy, the business of education. A combination of the financial pressure Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) find themselves under and the increasing focus on the use of technology to enhance students' learning have encouraged many HEIs to look towards alternative approaches to teaching and learning. Meanwhile, the "OS" has challenged assumptions about how intellectual products are created and protected and has greatly increased the quantity and arguably the quality of educational technologies available to HEIs