Suggestion: Student-written notes

[GJP104]

I have a suggestion, but I'm not sure how feasible it is. So please let me down gently if it can't work.

There are a number of threads on the forums where posters are asking for notes for various units to be e-mailed to them. Would it be possible to arrange a place for forum members to upload notes they have written that can be shared? (in MS Word or Excel formats, or Adobe .pdf if we can)

I'm not sure how possible this is technologically, and am a little worried about potential copyright/intellectual property issues. I would happily share what I have and exchange ideas with the wider AAT community.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Does this note-sharing service already exist? If not, who would be interested in using it?

[CJC]

Well it's certainly possible. I've a downloads section on my site for various bits and pieces - http://tcaat.net. I've also put some of my notes up on a wiki - http://www.cjcnet.net/wiki/tiki-index.php. Anyone's welcome to contribute to these or post stuff to me to upload.

Whether anyone would be interested in this is another matter, I mainly use the wiki to point people to when they ask a relevent question on here. I also find that writing things up in a way others might understand is a good way of learning.

I can't see that copyright is a particular issue for notes as long as they've not been copied verbatim from a textbook.

Chris

[han]

:) :( :-o :shock: :? 8) :lol: :x :P :cry: :evil: :twisted: :roll: :wink: :arrow: :idea: :?: :!:

[phunkyphantom22]

That's a whole lot of emotions you're feeling han!! :-)

[blobbyh]

If you've written the notes yourself then surely the copyrights and intellectual property are both owned by the author?

By distributing them without charge you are essentially marketing them as "freeware".

The only other issue I can see may be a compatability one i.e. not everyone may have Office installed at home and thus be unable to open Word or Excel documents. To get around this, documents could be simply converted to the universal pdf format using a freeware (trial) programme such as pdffactory pro which can be downloaded from;

http://www.bumpersoft.com/Business_and_Productivity/Adobe_and_PDF_Utilities_and_Plug_Ins/Review_920_index.htm

Regards,

Robert

[Baggybooks]

That's an excellent PDF link - thank you!

:lol:

[hollers]

I think the idea is great. I've been an OU student for a number of years and most courses have their own conference site. For my last two courses, there was a resource folder within each site for students to upload notes etc that may be useful to others. A number of people used them especially for revision notes around exam times.

Not sure who monitors these forums, or how to go about suggesting it to the AAT.

Ideas anyone?