Introduction to OERs and Open Practice:

things to consider when re-using or creating OERs

Based on Slides by Jane Secker (LSE), Vivien Sieber (CoPILOT) and Marion Kelt

(Glasgow Caledonian University)

Overview:

• We will look at what OERs are• The OER movement• Advantages/disadvantages to sharing

resources• Why consider sharing and using OERs• Things to consider when thinking about

reusing or creating OERs

Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning or

research materials that are in the public domain or released

with an intellectual property license that allows for free use,

adaptation, and distribution.

UNESCO 2002

What is Open Education?

• MIT Open Courseware Initiative (OCI) (2002)

• Open Educational Resources UK

• JISC/HEA projects: “What do we need to do to share and reuse courseware?” 2009-10

• Open University

• Jorum (Repository)

• Dependent on CC licences

OER movement?

Advantages / disadvantages….? what do you share already?

Why share materials?

5 minutesDiscuss with neighbours

• Sharing and reuse

• Reinventing the wheel

• E-learning expensive

• Learn from others

Advantages

• Using OERs isn’t always “quick fix”- can

sometimes be time consuming

• There are many issues to consider when you

think about using OERs to enhance your in

house content.

• How open the resource is

• File formats and working with unfamiliar file

formats

Disadvantages

• Information and digital literacy resources widely used in HE

• Support students at different levels and in different disciplines

• A core of widely accepted knowledge and skills

• Great potential to avoid re-inventing the wheel and share good practice

• Highly established profession with strong networks ideal for sharing

• Librarians can be advocates of OERs -understanding licensing and copyright issues

Why share IL / DL materials?

Why use OERs?

• Building on best practice

• Low staffing levels

• Short timescales

• Building on existing resources

• Use external expertise on new subject areas

• Confidence in creative commons licenses

• Promotion of the use of OERs by example!

Things to consider:

• When you are reusing OERs

• Or you are considering producing OERs

How much effort is needed to produce plain English or house style?

Sometimes resources are not written in a way that match your house style

Require editing

Takes time

Does it fit with your educational, legal and social care system?

OERs can come from all over the world-important to be aware of where something originates

Licencing

• A Key Feature of an Open Educational Resource is that it will be Openly Licenced and re-usable

• Creative Commons Licences are commonly used

• You should still give attribution which can lead to Attribution Stacking

http://creativecommons.org/

• Nonprofit

• Increase sharing & collaboration

• 4 types of licence (6 combinations)

• Author retains copyright

• Or you can choose CC0:

https://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/

Creative Commons

Amalgamation of several OERs to get the content you need – you may find it

difficult to manage attribution

Tutorial on Open Licences

• http://soundsphenomenal.org/projects/commoncreativity/landing.html

When creating OERs

• Making sure that you have permission to publish materials- copyright cleared materials

• What kind of licence you can apply to your work

– Especially if you are re-using OERs

– There are sometimes when Licences do not work together

When creating OERs

• Important to consider where you are going to “share-a-like”

• Is a VLE sharing-a-like?

• May have to consider more open modes of publishing

• Where to deposit/host your OER

When creating OERs

• Finding images that Openly Licenced:

http://search.creativecommons.org/

• General google searches and limit the licence type to creative commons

When creating OERs

• Software that you use can be important to consider

• The type of software that you use can affect the OERs reuse

• if you are editing an OER you may need to develop a knowledge of the software used to create it

• When creating OERs and resources it is good to be able to call on a network

• Ask questions- seek help