Today I have been experimenting with SlideShare as a place to host OER.

Formats

As its name implies, it started as a place to upload and share (PowerPoint) slide presentations. It has since expanded and now supports:

Presentations: pdf, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, pot, potx (Powerpoint); odp (OpenOffice); key, zip (Apple Keynote).

Documents: pdf, doc, docx, rtf, xls (MSOffice); odt, ods(OpenOffice); Apple iWork Pages.

Upload

Upload can be of a single or of multiple documents, including from the web, via email and plugins. It is possible, and easy, to make amendments to the metadata once the upload is complete if mistakes have been made or new information needs to be added (e.g. extra keywords). The file size upload limit is 100MB. There is a short delay before uploaded documents appear.

License

The default is (C) but a Creative Commons licence can be added after upload and the graphic is displayed next to the document.

Download

It is possible to select whether or not download of the document is permitted from the site. Downloads are counted and displayed publically next to the documents. It is also possible to embed the document (the code is made available next the document) and downloads of the embedded document are counted and displayed separately.

Comments

There is the availability for visitors to leave comments for each document.

Creating an Account

Creating an account to enable you to upload is very easy. No checks are made so obviously you may know nothing about the person you download a resource from.

Positives

The whole site is kept simple, from opening an account to uploading.

No software to download.

Multiple document upload possible.

Mistakes made on upload can be rectified by the user.

Getting feedback on their resources was a very strong motivating factor for our project members, so I particularly appreciate the display of statistics next to each document and a place for comments.

Negatives

Limited number of formats available.

No member verfication beyond email address.

For the future

I have started uploading suitable documents from a Skills for Scientists account and will be interested to see if we have any evidence of downloads or receive any comments. I have also formed a Skills for Scientist group which will offer a way to keep the project momentum going for other SlideShare users. In the future, project members and others can create their own SlideShare accounts and join this group as a way of sharing their outputs.

Skills for Scientists on SlideShare

Presentations and Documents

Skills for Scientist Group (anyone on SlideShare can join this group if interested)

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