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The open educational resources (OER) movement has gained momentum in the past few years. With this new drive towards making knowledge open and accessible, a large number of OER repositories have been established and made available online throughout the world. However, the inability of existing search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to effectively search for useful OER which are of acceptable academic standard for teaching purposes is a major factor contributing to the slow uptake of the entire movement. As a major step towards solving this issue, this paper proposes OERScout, a technology framework based on text mining solutions. The objectives of our work are to (i) develop a technology framework which will parametrically measure the usefulness of an OER for a particular academic purpose based on the openness, accessibility, and relevance attributes; and (ii) provide academics with a mechanism to locate OER which are of an acceptable academic standard. From our user tests, we have identified that OERScout is a sound solution for effectively zeroing in on OER which can be readily used for teaching and learning purposes.

Keywords: OERScout, Open Educational Resources, OER, OER Search, Desirability of OER, OER Curation

As a research tool, the library catalogue allows the public to use specific information, such as the author and title, to find documents. However, given the many user-friendly tools that exist, researchers perceive the catalogue as being less relevant and appealing. Some libraries have tried to regain the confidence of users by renewing the traditional library catalogue by making it visually more attractive and more user-friendly. This article describes the new generation of library catalogues available to the public with the hope that it may help institutions in the decision-making process. A shorter version of this article was presented at a CBPQ/ASTED colloquium held in Montréal in May 2008.

This instructional engineering research aims to promote affordance, in environmental conditions, of educational technology exemplified by the Facebook (FB) network in situ. Through quantitative and qualitative data, we observe differences between groups of students that account for variability of sociocultural affordances (allocentric, egocentric, deontic, collective). The prescribed teaching scenario influences the potential for perceived action as part of a situational dynamic and an acculturation process that depends, in part, on the students' antecedent relationship to the tool. More generally, we observe that FB's sociocultural affability involves the use of additional communication tools (SMS, email, Google Drive, WhatsApp) that wasn't predefined by the prescribed teaching scenario. Therefore, any designer of an educational scenario with FB must position it as a link in a larger technical and sociocultural ecosystem according to two criteria: they must formalize the meaning of the communication tool (FB) in relation to the tasks to be performed; and they must consider that this meaning will be the focus of the acculturation process by allowing students to make wider use of other situational tools in their network communications.

Keywords: Affordance socioculturelle, communication en ligne, Facebook, ingénierie pédagogique, Educational scenario, engineering, Facebook, online communication, sociocultural affordance

The procedural innovations introduced by digital technology are altering all aspects of the scientific communication system, as much for research results in the natural sciences as for those in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Innovations to the dissemination process are having an impact that is particularly significant in terms of the economy and social structure of publishing fields. A return to Pierre Bourdieu's notion of “field” invites a representation of the scientific communication system according to spaces defined by the positions, practices and relations among actors, according to publishing genres. This article analyses the structuring processes and the relationships among the actors in the scientific research publishing field. It arrives at an objectivation of the transition methods of the publishing world towards a hybrid or exclusively electronic environment. This transformation of the mediator function, more or less successful and complete depending on the actors, poses considerable risks for the entire research community and for scientific communication system institutions.

Diverse representations of bodies in videogames has become a point of contention among developers and consumers alike, which has lead scholars to question why videogame production is breaking with trends of recognizable, anthropocentric characters in favor of “diverse” bodies. This paper contends that the overarching reason for this is that the capitalist socius (Deluze and Guattari, 1986) has become more readily equipped to be able to monetize and streamline diversity away from being an act of subversion and into an easily manipulatable source of revenue. In examining how the capitalist socius overlays onto the videogame production process, a few things become apparent. Because videogame production operates within the capitalist socius, their goals are the similar: to become autopoietic (able to reach a point of homeostasis in which the entity is able to reproduce and maintain its structural integrity) and to turn any and all resources into sources of capital generation. The expectation of bodies working in these regimes is to be as non-threatening and as pliable to new modes of subjectivation and capital generation as possible, but that means that bodies must undergo certain political transformations to adhere to these needs of the capitalist socius and videogame production process. As with any hegemonic structure, there are pockets of resistance that look to buck the current trends of subjectivation and capital generation. The form of resistance this paper examines is personal-games and affective experiences, but as with most things pertaining to the capitalist socius, personal-games are dangerously close to being swept up, monetized, and crunched down.

In 2016, Goblin: The Lonely and Great God, a South Korean television series, was partly filmed in Quebec City. Its popularity in South Korea is without question as large as the fans’ willingness to visit the filming locations. This article documents the film location tourism phenomenon generated by this series in Quebec City. Its innovative contribution lies in the study of the transformation of the circle of representations by modern media. Film-tourists seek to find the filming sites, they reproduce the same images by substituting themselves for the heroes in their photos, but they will also visit non-tourist, off-centre sites, and broadcast new images. “Ordinary sites” thus acquire an extraordinary appeal, demonstrating the strength of the imagination created by the series. The data collected thus illustrate the establishment of the “circle of representations.” The analysis of the tourist fluctuation also shows the variability of the phenomenon of film-tourism. Although the city experienced a notable increase in the number of film-tourists the year following the series’ release, this increase did not last. Despite the destination’s efforts to attract film-tourists, external factors, such as the difficult economic situation, seem to have been responsible for the increase in attendance.

Keywords: ciné-tourisme, cercle des représentations, tourisme de contenu, ville de Québec, Instagram, film location tourism, circle of representations, content tourism, Québec City, Instagram.

Libraries have existed for millennia, but today many question their necessity. In an ever more digital and connected world, do we still need places of books in our towns, colleges, or schools? If libraries aren't about books, what are they about? In Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries For Today's Complex World, Lankes walks you through what to expect out of your library. Lankes argues that, to thrive, communities need libraries that go beyond bricks and mortar, and beyond books and literature. We need to expect more out of our libraries. They should be places of learning and advocates for our communities in terms of privacy, intellectual property, and economic development. Expect More is a rallying call to communities to raise the bar, and their expectations, for great libraries.

Keywords: bibliothèques, bibliothéconomie, communauté, apprentissage, innovation, création de connaissances, libraries, librarianship, community, learning, innovation, knowledge creation