Descriptions

Descriptions are finally where you have the freedom to talk about your work and its context. The description field is distinct in that it has no character limit and provides you with a rich text editor, meaning that you can add formatting, links, images, and videos. Users will only see descriptions after they have decided to view the full record. The information in the description should again be distinct from that in the title and abstract. There are no distinct requirements for descriptions, and the best practices are more flexible. 

Best Practices for Writing Descriptions

• Description
  • Details about the topic and all material included as content
• Context for use
  • Where did you use this material? Who is the audience, what is the instructional setting like, how long does the material require to implement, did you use this in conjunction with other materials or resources? 
• Basic instructor notes
  • What other information about the learning environment can you provide? How do you facilitate the material? Do you have things that you plan to do differently next time you use this material?
• Technical
  • These fields do not save automatically; do not compose your text in the description field. Write it in a Word or Google document in case you accidentally navigate away from the the submission page. When you have a complete description copy and paste the text without formatting (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+v) into the description field.

What really matters about descriptions though, are what you think is important to include. You search for learning materials all the time, what do you look for in a description? What do you wish you saw more of ? What helps you decide if you want to use a resource or not?

Take some time to reflect, and then answer what do you like to see in resource descriptions when you are searching for your own class? Responses are being collected in the word cloud below. After submitting your responses you will need to refresh the page to see how your answers affect the word cloud.

Contribute to the word cloud

Describe your resource

Write a title, abstract, and description for your resource in the "Description" tab. 

Next: Authorship