This document discusses open educational resources (OERs) and things to consider when reusing or creating OERs. It defines OERs as teaching, learning, or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an open license allowing free use, adaptation, and distribution. Advantages of sharing materials as OERs include avoiding duplicating work and building on best practices, while disadvantages can include additional effort needed for formatting or ensuring content fits different educational systems. Key considerations for reusing and creating OERs involve checking licensing, attributing original sources, choosing openly licensed content and hosting platforms, and using compatible software and formats.

1. 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)

2. 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

3. 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?

4. OER movement?
• 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

5. Why share materials?
Advantages / disadvantages….? what do you share already?
5 minutes
Discuss with neighbours

6. Advantages
• Sharing and reuse
• Reinventing the wheel
• E-learning expensive
• Learn from others

7. Disadvantages
• 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

8. Why share IL / DL materials?
• 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

9. 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!

10. Things to consider:
• When you are reusing OERs
• Or you are considering producing OERs

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Creative Commons
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/

17. Amalgamation of several OERs to get
the content you need – you may find it
difficult to manage attribution

18. Tutorial on Open Licences
• http://soundsphenomenal.org/projects/com
moncreativity/landing.html

19. 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

20. 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

21. When creating OERs
• Finding images that Openly Licenced:
http://search.creativecommons.org/
• General google searches and limit the licence
type to creative commons

22. 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

23. • When creating OERs and resources it is good
to be able to call on a network
• Ask questions- seek help