Do you have a lesson, website, or other resource that you created or found on the web and would like to share it with other educators? Add it to Open Space! Ian Quillen on KQED’s MindShift shares the following tips for sharing great open instructional materials and touches on why educators might want to share resources:

• Good content comes from personal passion.
• Great teachers share their gems.
• Hand off the lessons you’ve tired of.
• Share your problems; someone will see an answer.
• Collaborate with students as well as colleagues.
• Value your students as an educational resource.
• Don’t be afraid of failure.

There are two primary methods for adding content to Open Space: Submit from Web and Open Author. Let’s take a closer look.

Submit from Web

The Submit from Web option is more commonly used when adding content to Open Space. Here are some highlights:

• Main Use: Adding instructional materials that already exist on the web, including those hosted within Google Docs and Microsoft OneDrive.
• Benefits: It is a quick submission process and attempts to pull title and description for you. It is great for sharing your existing resources.
• Limitations: The resources must already exist and be accessible on the web.
• Examples: Welcome to Living Maya Time lesson. Appositives at the End 1 interactive lab.

To submit a resource that already exists somewhere on the web, click the Add OER button in the top menu of Open Space (1 in the image below). Next, click the Submit Link button under the Submit from Web section (2).

Next, fill in as many details as possible, such as title, description, author, license, subject, and education level. Also be sure to include the following so others can more easily search for and use the resource.

• Alignment to Ohio’s Learning Standards. Attaching standards can help educators choose materials and integrate them more easily into their courses. Users also have the option to search by standard.
• Relevant tags. Tags, or keywords, are used by Open Space’s search engine and more precisely depict the content being added. For example, the Welcome to Living Maya Time lesson focused on the culture and calendar of the Mayan civilization, yet the word “calendar” didn’t appear in the description. Therefore, the keywords “Mayan calendar” and “Mesoamerica” were added to increase the likelihood of the resource appearing in searches.

After clicking continue, you will see a preview of your entry. Clicking Submit will send the resource to INFOhio staff for final approval. Watch the video below to see a submission in action: