The TU Wien Library is expanding its current range of consulting and training courses into a comprehensive blended learning course programme for academic work. We are currently looking at e-learning elements such as webinars, as well as the flipped or inverted classroom method. Online media play an important part here: they are made available to students to prepare for and follow-up on attended classes. Learning videos are particularly important. These can be used to convert background knowledge or method knowledge into suitable visuals more easily and can be used anywhere. For example, take a look at these comic videos to teach information skills, opens an external URL in a new window that I produced with my previous team in Berlin: [embedded video]

The TU Wien Library also has the expertise for creating learning videos (storyboards, video editing, etc.), so our staff will be happy to provide teaching staff with information, discuss experiences with them and give them some tips. In the context of TU Wien's digitalization strategy, we also envisage that, together with TU.it, opens an external URL in a new window solutions, the TUWEL team and others, we can be more involved in the production of videos (e.g. rooms available with appropriate equipment) and a technical service for video production right across TU Wien.

If you would like to obtain financial support for video production, please refer to the current call for tenders from the Forum for new media in education in Austria, opens an external URL in a new window. Applications for funding for digital media projects in higher education can be submitted to this organisation until 09/09/2019.

Scientific videos and video articles as a 'moving' alternative

In science, videos are increasingly being used as an illustrative supplement or even as a substitute for articles, mostly to provide better or clearer explanations of experiments. These 'science videos' or 'video articles' are subject to the peer-review process, just like any other article.

From this year, TU Wien Library has been enabling IP-based access to 4 sections of the JoVE video journals, opens an external URL in a new windowacross the TU campus in the form of a paid test: biology, engineering, biotechnology and chemistry. You may also find videos relevant to teaching here.

JoVE is not only a publication body for video articles produced by researchers; for a fee, it also produces videos together with researchers. However, in line with open access, JoVE does incur additional charges to make videos accessible.

TU Wien Academic Press could, of course, also produce, publish and make available this type of 'science video' or 'video article' in line with Gold open access. We would not introduce a separate journal for this, but would provide the videos in TU Wien's institutional repository reposiTUm, opens an external URL in a new window as individual documents with DOIs and use metadata delivery to ensure their distribution and international visibility.