Workshop on "Open Educational Resources Network. VCPH-VHLWith very satisfactory results developed between 7 and 9 December at the site of BIREME, Sao Paulo, the Workshop for Open Educational Resource Network (Red REA / ERO) by its initials in Spanish and English respectively.

The workshop was attended by representatives of countries Nodes of the Network of Campus Virtual Public Health (VCPH), Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, the team of Regional and VCPH BIREME. Also attended by a representative of Paraguay prepares to have its Node Campus in 2010.

The work focused on the training of representatives of countries nodes, at work and CWIS configuration to update the repository of each country as well as training in management in Drupal. Seizing the opportunity presented itself to the countries the proposed Regional Node for the design of the Portal of each country.

The final session concluded with the words of Dr. Abel Packer, BIREME, and Dr. Jose B. Jardines, Regional Coordinator CVSP. The most important agreements taken during the workshop were:

  1. Specific actions must be taken in each country VCPH Node for the operation and provision of educational resources is a networking, with input from the different institutions and not only of the Coordinating Institution.
  2. VCPH must be prioritized in the integration of the institutions through the establishment in each of the Institutional Nodes, its own digital repository (DSPACE or  CWIS) that is interoperable with the national repository of VCPH. In this regard it is essential to impart training to be Node Country teams of the institutions.
  3. VCPH Nodes countries must take ownership of the courses published by the Campus regionally and nationally contextualising. The major existing educational resources in those courses will be published as learning objects in the Network OER during the first quarter of 2010
  4. Also country VCPH nodes in the network must publish OER learning objects in more quality Public Health as part of the virtual courses in the country.
  5. With Metadata approved for the Red OER and shall be the minimum to achieve interoperability, compliance must be careful during the publication of educational resources. These resources will be referenced in the language of the resource itself, but can be done in a brief description in the language of the country.
  6. During the first quarter of 2010 will work to complete the explanation (AID) of each metadata and controlled vocabulary. This technical team members in VCPH nodes, may participate in the wiki space for developers of VHL. http://reddes.bvsalud.org/projects/oer-repository be assessed by BIREME the feasibility of translating the interface of CWIS in the languages of Spanish and Portuguese.
  7. BIREME and the the regional campus team will continue working in integrating Related (Descriptors in Health Sciences), the data entry form of CWIS.
  8. Since changes to the metadata fields of the form of new resources in CWIS, each node VCPH country should review the educational resources currently published to comply with all fields. It is very important to standardize the quality of the filling of all public resources and ensure that it systematically.
  9. To ensure the quality of the published resources is necessary to evaluate two aspects: quality in filling the form fields and scientific-technical and teacher of the resource itself. This is necessary to have at least two people (a pro-teacher and a librarian) to be responsible for the review and publication in Institutional Repositories and National Node level VCPH.
  10. n January 2010 the technical equipment of the network will have a workspace and permanent communication VCPH regional portal, which includes Elluminate own room and access to the BIREME developer Wiki. Additionally we will make use of the Ning and the Forum's own campus.
  11. It was agreed by consensus that the design of the new site colors VCPH countries are consistent with the general Banner presented and to include as a minimum sections in all the portals have the following: Network Node, News, Learning Network and Institutions .
  12. In January 2010, both the regional portal as the countries will have a counter to control own views and access.
  13. Workshop attendees should analyze your national node in the template submitted for the new portal VCPH countries and submit a proposal during the Elluminate session in the second half of January.

Workshop Agenda