The Polytechnic Digital Initiative, the new UPC service of learning materials and scientific publications
UPC rector, Antoni Giró, has presided the presentation act of this new service of publications, which is based on open knowledge.
BY BIOCAT
The basis of the Polytechnic Digital Initiative (IDP) is the every time most intensive use of technologies applied to formation and the emergent publishing model with electronic and digital support. The new service of publications of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) —which will occupy the UPC space of Editions—, will coordinate and will promote projects related with the elaboration, production and use of academic digital contents and it will make them accessible to the university community and society in general. We are speaking about books, digital magazines, learning multimedia materials and several research electronic products.
The official presentation has been made this week at Bookshop Bertrand in Barcelona, with the presence of UPC rector, Antoni Giró.
In order to make the academic, scientific and technical production of the University available for everybody, the IDP, which depends on the Vice-rector for Teaching and Students, will manage the publications exploitation rights of the university teaching and research staff. In this sense, all the new published titles will be of free access online for a maximum period of three years after its publication. In the case of UPC students, the access is free for all UPC registered students.
So far, two new collections have been edited about educational contents for UPC degrees, postgraduate courses and masters. Also, there is a collection of multidisciplinary scientific divulging, Hyperion-Manuals, of scientific survival for the 21st century coordinated by teacher Jordi José, of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering. A new project of UPC subjects’ à la carte to record and spread the sessions and educational contents in digital format will be also carried out. All publications and contents will be accessible through the UPC platform of edition OpenCourseWare.
New distribution channels
The new UPC digital publishing service will establish agreements with on-line sale distributors and platforms, and, as regards as traditional paper format sales, they will be focused to bookshops and printing ordered in advance. The educational platform Atenea will also facilitate access to text contents.