From 19th January 2010, Jorum opens up to sharing of learning and teaching resources using Creative Commons (CC) licences – under the banner of JorumOpen. This allows access free to the web, for all to benefit worldwide, providing even further content to assist and enhance lesson planning.

They are accepting deposits now via the Jorum OER Deposit Tool. This simple to use tool is available to UK FE /HE institutions who wish to deposit resources that can be shared under a creative commons licence. Simply upload the resource, submit metadata and then indicate your choice of CC licence to authorize re-use, so that your resources are ‘ready’ for JorumOpen. You can use the UK Access Management Federation to authenticate. All deposits will automatically be made available as open content, adding to content already being deposited by projects in the UKOER Programme.

You can access further information about the deposit process via the OER Deposit tab on the Jorum website or at the Jorum Community Bay. Here you will find everything you need to know in relation to using the deposit tool which also includes a downloadable step-by-step guide to assist you and your colleagues.

What about content already available in Jorum?

The existing content already held in Jorum, deposited under the older, more restrictive licences, requiring institutional registration, will now be known as – JorumUK. All current content, licensed within JorumUK will still be available for members of UK Further and Higher Education Institutions.

Looking ahead to 2010

In spring 2010 further enhancements to the Jorum service will include:

• a unified search – enabling users to search across resources held under both JorumOpen and JorumUK licensing
• an extension of JorumUK - a new licence to support sharing across UK Further and Higher Education Institutions without an institutional subscription

In summer 2010:

• a central deposit tool – a single point for depositors to contribute resources automatically under JorumOpen or JorumUK licensing.

Further information can be found on the Jorum website: http://www.jorum.ac.uk/