OSSCAR, an open platform for collaborative development of computational tools for education in science

TL;DR

OSSCAR is an open platform that enables collaborative development and sharing of web-based educational tools in science, aiming to enhance learning and reduce duplication of effort among educators and researchers.

Contribution

The paper introduces OSSCAR, an open, collaborative platform integrating standard and custom tools for creating and sharing science education resources online.

Findings

Demonstrates applications in physics, chemistry, and materials science.

Tools are user-friendly and promote community engagement.

Content is reliable, sustainable, and easy to adopt.

Abstract

In this paper we present the Open Software Services for Classrooms and Research (OSSCAR) platform. OSSCAR provides an open collaborative environment to develop, deploy and access educational resources in the form of web applications. To minimize efforts in the creation and use of new educational material, it combines software tools that have emerged as standards with custom domain-specific ones. The technical solutions adopted to create and distribute content are described and motivated on the basis of reliability, sustainability, ease of uptake and use. Examples from courses in the domains of physics, chemistry, and materials science are shown to demonstrate the style and level of interactivity of typical applications. The tools presented are easy to use, and create a uniform and open environment exploitable by a large community of teachers, students, and researchers with the goal of facilitating learning and avoiding, when possible, duplication of efforts in creating teaching material. Contributions to expand the educational content of the OSSCAR project are welcome.