OER Commons Help Center

Alignment Tag

Alignment tags are based on Utah education standards. They are organized by subject area and can be applied to educational resources in eMedia to indicate that a particular resource helps instructors meet a specific standard. Only users with permission can add state standard alignment tags to content.

Application Programming Interface (API)

A set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API specifies how software components should interact and APIs are used when programming graphical user interface components.

Assessment

Refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.

Create

eMedia has a variety of tools where members can create educational resources using text, graphics, video and other digital media. Tools used to create resources include Open Author, Lesson Builder, and Module Builder.

Collections

Curated collections of educational materials from producers of instructional content around the world. Each of the collection is described and indexed.

Copyright license

A copyright license is an authorization by the copyright owner to enable another party to engage in behavior that would otherwise be the exclusive right of the copyright owner, but without transferring title in those rights. This permission can be granted for the copyright itself.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that works to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) available in “the commons” — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing. Learn more about the different types of licenses at Creative Commons.

Curriculum/Instruction

The lessons and academic content taught in a school or in a specific course or program.

Groups

Groups are created by eMedia members to collaborate and share educational resources. When a group is created, members can comment, add, and share resources within the group environment.

Informal Education

Education outside of a standard school setting. Informal Education is the wise, respectful, and spontaneous process of cultivating learning. It works through conversation and the exploration and enlargement of experience.

Hub

A Hub is a custom resource center on eMedia where a network of users can create and share collections, administer groups, and share news and events associated with a project or organization.

Projects, districts, states and initiatives make use of Hubs to bring groups of educators together to create, organize, and share OER collections that meet their common goals.

Learning Domain

The three domains of learning include cognitive domain (acquisition of knowledge), affective (growth in feelings or attitudes), and psychomotor (development of manual or physical skills).

Learning Management System (LMS)

A software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of electronic educational technology courses or training programs. Canvas, Blackboard, EdX, Schoology, Moodle are popular examples of learning management systems.

Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI)

A standard created by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. Its primary purpose is to connect learning systems such as Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, and Schoology with external service tools in a standard way. ISKME supports Moodle, Canvas, and Blackboard with LTI 1.3. ISKME supports Schoology with LTI 1.1. Updated July 8, 2021: When ISKME begins rolling out LTI 1.3 in 2022, no new installations of LTI 1.1 (except for Schoology) will be offered, and LTI 1.1 support will be discontinued. LTI 1.3 support for D2L Brightspace is not currently offered but is being considered for future releases. 

Lesson Builder

The Lesson Builder is a tool that allows authors to create both student and teacher facing content views. Authors can include overviews, pedagogical supporting text, and instructions for both students and other users of the resource. The Lesson consists of sequenced tasks, which can incorporate a step-by-step approach to learning. Each task can have associated resources available for download.

Microsite

A Microsite is a website built on the OER Commons platform. A Microsite can have a unique URL or domain name and is hosted on the ISKME servers. Microsites can be customized to meet the needs and goals of an organization, including unique branding, custom taxonomies, and new content types. eMedia is an example of an OER Commons Microsite.

Module Builder

The Module Builder is a tool that allows authors to create both student and instructor facing content views. Authors can include overviews, pedagogical supporting text, and instructions for both students and other users of the resource. The Module can consist of sequenced tasks, which can incorporate a step-by-step approach to learning. Each task can have associated resources available for download.

Open Author

A software tool that allows users to build and create courses, lessons, activities, and presentations for students or other educators. With the tool, users can write and upload links and media to create, license, and publish resources on eMedia.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student or self-learner. Examples of OER include full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.

Organizations

Organizations are designed to help distribute the administration of the microsite across smaller organizational units. Each user must belong to one organization. In Higher Education, Organizations usually align to institutions. In K-12, Organizations may align with districts or regional administration units. Organizations can be linked to email domains.

Pass the torch

The act of passing responsibility for the group administrator role of a group in eMedia to another member of the group.

Professional Development

Specialized training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness.

Remix

Adapting, reorganizing, and remaking existing resources to create something new.

Resource (Educational)

Texts, videos, software, and other materials that teachers use to assist students to meet the expectations for learning.

Providers

Providers are trusted organizations that provide educational resources for teaching and learning on eMedia. You can search for resources not only by subject matter but browse by trusted content providers as well.

Share-alike

Share-alike is a copyright licensing term, used by the Creative Commons project, to describe works or licences that require copies or adaptations of the work to be released under the same or similar licence as the original.

Teaching Bundle (download)

Open Author resources, metadata, and all of their related media files, may be exported using the ‘download teaching bundle’ feature. This allows you to use Open Author resources in other environments, such as for presentations or in a local content management system.

Usage Right

Usage rights define the way teaching, learning, and resource materials found on eMedia have been released. Typically, OER is protected under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.