The Computational Science Resource Community: A HighOctane Merlot

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The Computational Science Resource CommunityA
High-Octane Merlot
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What is it? Whos the audience?

• The Computational Science Resource Community
  (CSRC) is a growing online membership-based
  repository where (primarily) university faculty
  and academic technology support staff may locate
  useful resources with an emphasis on their use in
  the undergraduate computational science
  curriculum.

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Main goals

• Short term - To provide a Gateway to
  Computational Science Resources for Undergraduate
  Faculty, Staff, and Students
• Medium term - To support sharing and
  dissemination of computational science resources
  by leveraging existing membership in MERLOT (the
  Multimedia Educational Repository for Learning
  and Online Teaching).
• Long term - To help establish a bridge between
  discipline- or tool-specific Portals and
  educational Repositories/Communities

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Rationale for the CSRC

• Growing number and complexity of online
  computational science resources of varying
• Quality
• Purpose
• State of Development

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Yet More Rationale

• Impossible for faculty in the researcher/mentor
  model to manage it all without help
• Faculty and their students need learning
  on-demand assistance with computational
  resources
• Just-in-time learning requires 24-hour/day
  access
• Help existing Portals to avoid having to create
  these supportive community-based repositories
  themselves

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Yet Even More Rationale

• Resource information must be online, searchable
• Search results must be well-organized
• Appropriateness of Resource must be readily
  identifiable
• Community-based model must encourage alignment
  with existing professional communities
• Resources must be rated or even peer-reviewed

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The CSRC is a CSU/NPACI Collaboration
California State University

• National Partnership for Advanced Computational
  Infrastructure
• National Computational Science Alliance
• Education, Outreach and Training Partnership for
  Advanced Computational Infrastructure

OCSK
Computational Science Resource Community
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The Online Community Starter Kit(the OCSK)

• Developed by the CSU Center for Distributed
  Learning using the Enhydra Open Source API

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The CSRC Interface
http//www.edcenter.sdsu.edu/csrc/
Browse or Search
Member profile page
Home page
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CSRC Features and Functions

• Members and non-members may browse complete
  database of resources
• Users must become Members to make contributions
• Membership is fast and free
• Supports User Comments about specific Resource
• Members are encouraged to post Assignments
  created with a CSRC Resource
• Resource descriptions include details about the
  resource as it is used in research or education

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CSRC Features and Functions

• Searchable web-based repository of computational
  science resources with usage characterizations
• Characterizations include details about the
  resource as it is used in research or education
• Community-oriented interface provides members
  with a personalized touch
• Enhydra Java servlet interface to an Oracle
  database engine supports modularized
  component-based web page creation

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Future CSRC Wish List

• A more enhanced pedagogical context, concept maps
  or knowledge artifact maps, an
• Discipline specific "road-maps or navigational
  guides
• Supplementary synchronous/asynchronous
  communication tools
• Weekly or monthly email announcements
• Tight(er) links to discipline-specific
  research-and-education portals and other digital
  libraries

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Unique Undergraduate Experience

• Recently completed the first phase of the
  collaborative development effort between the
  Center for Distributed Learning and the ECCSE
• Chip McMakin, one of our team of talented
  undergraduate programmers, added a password
  encryption feature providing added security to
  user accounts in the CSRC

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Dissemination

• Development collaboration positions the ECCSE
  well as an active contributor to the digital
  library development effort
• CSRC is the first implementation of the
  OCSK/Merlot type of repository outside of the CDL
• Chips development efforts are also a first
  outside of the CDL
• MERLOT now has over 4000 members and more than
  5000 resources
• The National Science Foundations National SMETE
  Digital Library project has made MERLOT an
  official Affiliate in 2001
• Theres growing interest in establishing
  independent online communities with the OCSK

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Join the CSRC!
If you have created a useful resource or know of
one you think others should know about, please
take the time to enter it into the CSRC
at http//www.edcenter.sdsu.edu/csrc/
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Contact Us
Kris Stewart, Director stewart_at_sdsu.edu Jeff
Sale jsale_at_edcenter.sdsu.edu Kirsten
Barber barber_at_edcenter.sdsu.edu