1. What are they?
Finding and evaluating them
Creating and licensing them
By Kathleen Stone and Sarah Morehouse

3.  Online delivery method
 But can have a physical version
 Any format or medium
 Any genre
 Any size/length or level of granularity

4.  Open Textbooks are one kind of OER
 Free
 Online
 Often customizable by the professor
 Many have the same kinds of editorial support
and peer review as traditional textbooks

5.  15 peer reviewed FREE ONLINE textbooks in
critical subject areas
 Will be published this fall through SUNY
Press
 The IITG grant got renewed, so keep your
ears open for the next call for proposals.

6. FREE
 No cost to access
 Can link to it
OPEN
 No cost to access
 Can link to it
 Can copy and share copies
 Sometimes can create
derivative works
 No need to ask permission
 No royalties

7.  Copyright allows major content providers
(publishers, vendors) to:
 Make content too expensive
 Put up barriers to good educational practice
 Creative Commons is a workaround within
the copyright system
 Copyright owners can opt in to Creative
Commons

8.  Opt-in system of license that allows the
copyright owner to specify what
permissions are automatically granted:
 Make copies and share copies
 Make derivative works
 And to whom:
 Everyone or non-commercial only?
 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

10.  Creative Commons:
http://search.creativecommons.org
 Google Advanced Search:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search

11.  OER Commons:
http://www.oercommons.org/
 MERLOT:
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

12.  Connexions: http://cnx.org
 The Orange Grove:
http://florida.theorangegrove.org/og/access
/home.do
 Vimeo: https://vimeo.com
 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/

13.  OER Assessment Rubric –
http://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?
code=L9WC6X&sp=yes

15.  Enlightened self-interest - participate in
something that benefits you
 Gain a wider audience
 Improve higher education and help control
the costs
 Make it easier for your colleagues to reuse
and repurpose your work

16.  Make sure others can translate it and adapt
it for local needs
 Non-proprietary format (a.k.a. open format)
 Allow derivative works
 Make it accessible for people with
disabilities
 Make it accessible for people with old/slow
technology

17.  What if somebody uses it in an
inappropriate context or changes it in a bad
way?
 It doesn’t reflect on you any more than it would
if they had cited you.
 They have to link back to your original, so people
will see what you actually intended.
 You can add instructions or recommendations
for use.

18.  OER Authoring Tools -
http://subjectguides.esc.edu/oerauthoringto
ols
 Some you install, some you use online
 Some free and open source, others just free

20.  You need to own the copyright
 Your co-authors agree to it
 It’s not a work for hire
 You didn’t sign the copyright over to a
publisher/journal
 You’ve cleared the copyrights for any other
works that are part of it

21.  Creative Commons License Chooser
http://creativecommons.org/choose/

22.  Put it out there:
 MERLOT and YouTube/Scribd/Slideshare are
good places to start.
 Share it with your colleagues
 Give it a title and keywords (metadata, tags)
that will help people find it