Infrastructure and lightweight markup language for OER:

The case of emacs-reveal

Reality Check

  • Open Educational Resources (OER), characterized by 5 Rs of openness (4 Rs in [HWSJ10])
    • Permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute
  • Suppose that after this conference you aim to remix a presentation
    • As usual, you obtain a PDF version

      Conflict

      Conflict” by priyanka under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • How do you transfer contents into your OER?
        • PDF layout conflicts with your organization’s
    • Maybe, you obtain a Powerpoint source file

      mistake

      mistake” by Kamin Ginkaew under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Layout likely to be destroyed in LibreOffice and OnlyOffice
      • Even if you used Powerpoint, positioning of elements in your organization’s style likely to be incorrect
    • Now, you revise the contents in a silo

      Conflict

      Conflict” by lastspark under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • (E.g., fix typos, update contents based on more recent research)
      • Do you notify the author? Do you collaborate? How?
      • How and where do you redistribute?

Agenda

Basic Terms

(OER: UNESCO Definition)

(Free Software)

Git

Git as Decentralized VCS

  • Version control systems (VCSs) keep track of shared repositories
    • Repository: Collection of documents (software, learning and teaching resources)
    • Keep track
      • Who changed what when why?
      • Synchronize (or restore) shared state
    • A popular VCS: Git as free software
  • Git created by Linus Torvalds for development of kernel Linux
    • Reference: Pro Git book

      Git Logo

      Git Logo” by Jason Long under CC BY 3.0; from git-scm.com

    • Git as example of decentralized VCS
      • Every author has own copy of all documents and their history
      • Supports offline work without server connectivity
        • Of course, collaboration requires network connectivity
      • Distributed trust/control/visibility/surveillance

GitLab

  • Various companies offer to host Git repositories on the web
    • GitLab is one of them

      GitLab Logo

      GitLab Logo” by GitLab under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; from gitlab.com

    • Free software, which you could run on your own server
    • DevOps platform
      • CI/CD (continuous integration, continuous deployment)
  • Manage Git repositories
    • Web GUI for forks, commits, pull requests, issues, and much more
    • Notifications for lots of events

Git and We

  • I believe that we should learn version control when we learn digital writing
    • This includes (digital) OER
  • See [Ova19] for discussion in OER context with Git commands
    1. Notification of original author if content changed
    2. Showing how the content was changed
    3. Linking changed content to original
  • OER self-study introduction to Git

Requirements for OER

(Licensing)

  • Sample licenses in line with 5 Rs
    • CC0, public domain: Creator waives all rights
      • Beware! Proper academic conduct requires attribution anyways
    • CC BY (Attribution): License and creator need to be credited
    • CC BY-SA (Attribution and ShareAlike): License and creator need to be credited and derived works must be distributed under “same” license terms
  • Other licenses, incompatible with 5 Rs
    • Non Commercial: Does not grant right to reuse, e.g., on Wikipedia or at university
    • No Derivatives: Does not grant rights to revise and remix

(ALMS Framework)

  • Criteria for OER and software proposed in [HWSJ10]
    • In brief, software and resources should be freely accessible
 ALMS criterion        Examples             Counter examples           
 Access to    
 editing tools       
                     
                     
 Free/Libre and     
 Open Source Soft-  
 ware (e.g., LaTeX, 
 LibreOffice)       
 Powerpoint                 
 Google Docs                
                            
                            
 Level of     
 expertise required  
 to revise or remix  
               Not only for nOERds               
                                                 
               Challenging topic …               
 Meaningfully 
 editable            
 LaTeX, Org mode    
 (HTML)             
 (Scanned) PDF,             
 flash, video               
 Source-file  
 access              
 LaTeX, Org mode    
 (HTML)             
 PDF for LaTeX              
 PDF for office presentation

More OER Requirements

  • Extension of ALMS framework [Lec19]
    • Requirements for “A”: Free/libre and open source software (FLOSS)
      • Free software for learners and teachers, OER users and creators
      • Platform independent
      • Also mobile and offline
    • Requirements for “M” and “S”: Single sourcing [Roc01]
      • Single, collaboratively maintained source, no copy&paste
      • Separation of contents and layout
      • Source files with lightweight markup for collaboration with comparison and integration with version control systems such as Git

        Git Logo

        Git Logo” by Jason Long under CC BY 3.0; from git-scm.com

Emacs-reveal

Presentation Features

  • HTML slideshows using reveal.js with audio explanations

    Online Resources

    Online Resources” by LUTFI GANI AL ACHMAD under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

    • To be viewed with standard Web browsers (platform independent), either on- or offline
    • Features include
      • Animations and slide transitions; speaker’s view with preview, notes, and timer; embedding of images, audio, video, mathematical formulas; table of contents; bibliography; keyword index; hyperlinks within and between presentations; themes for different styling; responsive design with touch support; quizzes for retrieval practice; code highlighting and evaluation for programming languages
  • Satisfies above requirements

OER Presentations with Emacs-Reveal

  • Presentations written in Org mode
    • Lightweight markup language coming with editor GNU Emacs
      • Contents separated from layout
  • Org mode converted to HTML with emacs-reveal via GitLab CI/CD
    • With proper license attribution for images [Lec19c]

      licensing

      licensing” by Ralf Schmitzer under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Human-readable, e.g., images on this slide
      • Machine-readable with RDFa (in HTML source code)
    • PDF variants as secondary formats

Sample Markup

Sample OER Courses

Separation of Contents and Layout

  • Shown above: Contents specified in text files (Org mode)
    • Layout information separately in CSS files
  • Consequences
    1. Content experts do not need to be layout experts
    2. Remixing independent of layout conventions (of, say, different collaborating institutions)

Include Mechanism

  • Org provides in include mechanism
    • Remixing of smaller learning objects into larger units without copy&paste
    • E.g., a Docker Introduction:

      #+TITLE: Docker Introduction
      #+DESCRIPTION: OER introduction to Docker and comparison of containerization with virtualization
      
      #+INCLUDE: "programming/Docker.org"
      #+INCLUDE: "programming/Docker-First-Steps.org" :minlevel 1
      #+INCLUDE: "programming/Docker-Conclusions.org" :minlevel 1
      
      #+INCLUDE: "~/.emacs.d/oer-reveal-org/backmatter.org"
      
  • Thus, updates and improvements do not exist in isolated silos but in shared repository

Use of SPDX Headers

  • Emacs-reveal adopts licensing recommendations of REUSE project
  • Each source file contains so-called SPDX headers, e.g., Docker.org from previous slide:

    #+SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018-2021 Jens Lechtenbörger <https://lechten.gitlab.io/#me>
    #+SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0
    
    • License information of remixed OER generated automatically
      • With backmatter.org from previous slide
      • Human and machine readable (with RDFa, based on extension of CC REL [AAL+12])

Conclusions

Reality Check Revisited

  • Open Educational Resources (OER), characterized by 5 Rs of openness (4 Rs in [HWSJ10])
    • Permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute
  • Suppose that after this conference you aim to remix a presentation
    • As usual, you obtain a PDF version

      Conflict

      Conflict” by priyanka under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • How do you transfer contents into your OER?
        • PDF layout conflicts with your organization’s
    • Maybe, you obtain a Powerpoint source file

      mistake

      mistake” by Kamin Ginkaew under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Layout likely to be destroyed in LibreOffice and OnlyOffice
      • Even if you used Powerpoint, positioning of elements in your organization’s style likely to be incorrect
    • Now, you revise the contents in a silo

      Conflict

      Conflict” by lastspark under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • (E.g., fix typos, update contents based on more recent research)
      • Do you notify the author? Do you collaborate? How?
      • How and where do you redistribute?

Reality Check Revisited

  • Open Educational Resources (OER), characterized by 5 Rs of openness (4 Rs in [HWSJ10])
    • Permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute
  • Suppose that after this conference you aim to remix a presentation
    • As usual, you obtain a PDF version

      experience

      experience” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Maintain layout separately from contents
        • Each organization with own layout
    • Maybe, you obtain a Powerpoint source file

      mistake

      mistake” by Kamin Ginkaew under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Layout likely to be destroyed in LibreOffice and OnlyOffice
      • Even if you used Powerpoint, positioning of elements in your organization’s style likely to be incorrect
    • Now, you revise the contents in a silo

      Conflict

      Conflict” by lastspark under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • (E.g., fix typos, update contents based on more recent research)
      • Do you notify the author? Do you collaborate? How?
      • How and where do you redistribute?

Reality Check Revisited

  • Open Educational Resources (OER), characterized by 5 Rs of openness (4 Rs in [HWSJ10])
    • Permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute
  • Suppose that after this conference you aim to remix a presentation
    • As usual, you obtain a PDF version

      experience

      experience” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Maintain layout separately from contents
        • Each organization with own layout
    • Maybe, you obtain a Powerpoint source file

      infrastructure

      infrastructure” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Exchange lightweight markup, editable with any software,
        rendered into HTML
      • For platform-independent consumption, including offline and mobile
    • Now, you revise the contents in a silo

      Conflict

      Conflict” by lastspark under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • (E.g., fix typos, update contents based on more recent research)
      • Do you notify the author? Do you collaborate? How?
      • How and where do you redistribute?

Reality Check Revisited

  • Open Educational Resources (OER), characterized by 5 Rs of openness (4 Rs in [HWSJ10])
    • Permission to retain, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute
  • Suppose that after this conference you aim to remix a presentation
    • As usual, you obtain a PDF version

      experience

      experience” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Maintain layout separately from contents
        • Each organization with own layout
    • Maybe, you obtain a Powerpoint source file

      infrastructure

      infrastructure” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Exchange lightweight markup, editable with any software,
        rendered into HTML
      • For platform-independent consumption, including offline and mobile
    • Now, you revise the contents in a silo

      Society

      Society” by Nithinan Tatah under CC BY 3.0 US; cropped from the Noun Project

      • Now, we collaborate with version control

 

Logo of University of Muenster, Germany (WWU Münster)Logo of European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS)

Dr. Jens Lechtenbörger

jens.lechtenboerger@ercis.uni-muenster.de


Leonardo-Campus 3
48149 Münster
Germany

Bibliography

License Information

Except where otherwise noted, the work “Infrastructure and lightweight markup language for OER: The case of emacs-reveal”, © 2021 Jens Lechtenbörger, is published under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0.