OpenSeminar: Web-based Collaboration Tool for Open Educational Resources

Today, it is common for university instructors to compile links to online resources for the courses they teach, either as a supplement to a textbook, reading packet or, in some cases, as a replacement. Finding resources and keeping them up to date is time consuming. Instructors who teach similar subjects at different universities might benefit from working together to compile and share online resources for their courses. This paper describes a tool for sharing instructional materials called OpenSeminar. The purpose of OpenSeminar is to facilitate the structured compilation of open, online resources among a group of collaborators who share a common area of interest. Using OpenSeminar, the selection of resources can be customized and deployed to meet the specific needs of each professor. OpenSeminar adopts an editorial peer review framework to ensure content quality control. An illustration of OpenSeminar in the field of software engineering is provided