Title: Study Material - Working with OERs
Course: Working with Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Study Materials for Module 2 developed by Doreen Mushi and Albert Ishengoma.

Front Matter

Course Code: ODF 001

Course Name: Academic Digital Fluency

Module Number: 2

Module Name: Working with Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Module Description & Learning Objectives

Module Description

Module Description

Nowadays there are a large amount of educational materials available online for teaching and learning and research purposes. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide a means to produce and share knowledge by taking advantage of the digital environment supported by the internet. Through using OER guided by open licences, users can freely retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute content over the internet, thereby enhancing teaching and learning experiences. This module is aimed at providing the learner with basic guidance on OER, including underlying concepts, and encouraging practical use of OER.

The first topic covers the basic definition of OER, their forms and repositories. Topic two introduces the learner to OER licensing, particularly Creative Commons licences (CC). The third topic covers ways that OER can be adapted and produced. Topic four highlights the importance of an institutional OER policy and its associated formulation considerations.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this module learners are expected to have developed skills and knowledge related to:

- The OER concept and its importance in education
- Different OER repositories and OER searching techniques
- OER copyright and licensing
- Practicalities of using OER

Schedule, Assessment, Evaluation & Accreditation

Module Topics, Teaching and Learning Media, and Schedule

Topic # | Topic Name | T & L Media | Expected Schedule
0 | Startup week (participants verify their access to the virtual learning environment) | VLE; Video; Discussion Forum; File download (spreadsheet); | >1 hour: access the VLE; introductions;
1 | Open Educational Resources (OER) Concepts | VLE; Video; Discussion Forum; Blog; External Web sites; | > 6 hours’ engagement over 1 week
2 | Creative Commons Licensing (CC) | VLE; Video; Discussion Forum; Blog; Quiz; Internet Search Engine; | > 6 hours’ engagement over 1 week
 | Consolidation Break (enables catchup and reflection)
3 | Mixing, adapting, and reusing OERs | VLE; Video; Discussion Forum; Assignment upload; Blog; Word processor; | > 6 hours’ engagement over 1 week
4 | OER Production | VLE; Video; Assignment upload; Drawing tool; Blog; | > 6 hours’ engagement over 1 week

Assessment Plan

Depending on the institution and its purpose in offering this module, Module 2 could be assessed using formative and summative forms as indicated below:

Formative Assessment: | Summative Assessment
Level of learner interaction | Portfolio (formative 60%)
Self-Assessment | Final assignment (40%)
Quizzes |
Activities as specified |

Module Evaluation

A module evaluation should be conducted during and after each instance of running the course in order to effect improvement.

Certification/ Accreditation

Completion of 80% of module activities contributes to an award / certificate and/or digital badge.

If this course is offered formally by the Open University of Tanzania, completion will result in module credit towards the Digital Fluency course.

Acknowledgements

This work is Module 2 of the Digital Fluency course created by IEMT staff and Faculty at OUT in collaboration with OER Africa.

In particular, appreciation is due to the:

Developers: Ms. Doreen Mushi (Assistant Lecturer and Instructional Designer, IEMT, OUT) and Mr. Albert Ishengoma (Programmer, IEMT, OUT);

Reviewers: Professor. Cornelia Muganda (Director, Library Services, OUT) and Ms. Chausiku Mwinyimbegu (Quality Assurance Officer and Editor, OUT Library);

Project Coordinator: Ms. Maria Augusti (Institute of Educational and Management Technologies, IEMT, OUT);

With support from: Senior Management, Open University of Tanzania (OUT); and Brenda Mallinson, OER Africa / Saide

Licensing

Except where otherwise noted, content in this module is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Every effort has been made to adhere to the licenses of OERs incorporated in the module. Should there be any queries around individual licensing of module components, please contact the Director of Quality Assurance at OUT: dqac@out.ac.tz

Citation: Open University of Tanzania (2015). Digital Fluency Course: Module 2 – Working with Open Educational Resources.

Topic 1: The Open Educational Resources (OER) Concept

Introduction

There are a lot of materials that one can use to accomplish studies, research as well as knowledge creation and application. Some of these materials are available for sale; some are restricted by copyright, while others are free to use with less restrictions. In the current era, many learning materials in most cases online are increasingly obtained freely. These freely obtained materials are known as Open Educational Resources (OERs). In this unit you will learn about OERs including the concept, types and use.

Objectives

At the end of this topic you should be able to:

- Define OERs and their various forms
- Understand  the importance of OERs in our educational context
- Search and locate OERs using well known repositories
- Evaluate OERs

How to navigate through this digital resource:

When working through the Study Materials, you will find the Table of Contents on the left hand side of your screen.

You may use the Table of Contents to navigate by clicking on the title of a section
OR
You could move through the materials sequentially, by simply clicking on the right arrow on the right hand side of each page.

Note that the Activities are placed at the relevant points where they should best be undertaken. They will link directly through to the activity detail on the Module 2 home page.

1.1 Definition and Historical Development of OERs

1.1.1 The Concept of OER

OER stands for Open Educational Resources. These are teaching, learning, and research resources (educational materials) released under an open license that permits their free use and repurposing by others, with no or limited restrictions.  OERs can be full courses, course materials, lesson plans, open textbooks, learning objects, videos, games, assignments, projects, tests, animation, software, or any other tool, material, or technique that supports access to knowledge.  The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them, according to the open license terms that the copyright holder has selected.

The concept of OERs has been expanding to include resources and development of tools to facilitate the production of e-content, e.g. eduCommons and Connexions. These tools have been used to develop, use and distribute content under the guidance of implementation resources such as Creative Commons licenses (Atkins et.al, 2007; OECD, 2007).

The concept of OER also involves considerations of philosophy of education as a common good. Commonness in this case emphasizes massification and democratization of education. The guiding principles of OERs are non-commercial and non-monopolistic in line with open licenses such as Creative Commons licenses (Mushi and Muganda 2013).

OERs can be accessed at no cost or by payment of minimal production cost. Such educational information is disseminated through online sites as well as through the common media such as the print, CD-ROMs, artifacts and performing arts. Many OERs are developed through collaborative efforts created by networks of experts. Users can adopt, adapt, mix, remix and redistribute according to the agreement expressed under Creative Commons licenses. They can also share in the creation and re-creation of e courseware, contents, courses or programmes through avenues of sharing experiences and expertise governed by the respective Creative Commons license (Mushi and Muganda 2013).

1.1.2    Origins and Development of OERs

OERs are both a concept and a movement. The OER movement is increasingly growing in terms of support and forms ranging from courseware development, content, programmes to the OER University, consortia and MOOCs.

The OER movement originated with the MIT OpenCourseWare project initiated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 1990s. At the 2002 UNESCO Forum on the Impact of Open Course Ware for Higher Education Institutions in Developing Countries the concept/term Open Education Resources (OERs) was coined. The forum acknowledged the potential of the initiative and defined OERs as: “the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes” (UNESCO 2002).

 As the OER movement grew over time, the concept of OERs has been expanding to include the tools used in development, designing, production and distribution.  By 2008 the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, one of the primary champions in the movement, redefined OERs as “the teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge.“ (D'Antoni, 2009)

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration (2008) situated OERs in the broader context of open education. It states that:

…open education is not limited to just open educational resources. It also draws upon open technologies that facilitate collaborative, flexible learning and the open sharing of teaching practices that empower educators to benefit from the best ideas of their colleagues. It may also grow to include new approaches to assessment, accreditation and collaborative learning. (Cape Town Open Education Declaration, 2008).

The move towards opening up education to a wider audience is highlighted by the prolific development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). While the types of MOOC may vary in degrees of openness and extent of use of OER, they are widely understood to be free to access (if no formal accreditation sought), with no prerequisites, no fees, and are characterised by a social networking approach, and facilitated by experts in the field (McAuley, Stewart, Siemens and Cormier, 2010). Further detail on MOOCs is provided in Section 1.3.

A recent initiative in the OER movement is the establishment of the OER University (OERu). This “new initiative is designed to provide opportunities for the informal OER learners to gain formal academic credit for their learning using high quality OER designed for independent study and distance education delivery methods” (WikiEducator, 2011). The champions of this movement contend that OERu will widen access to high quality informal learning using a combination of Open Education Resources (OERs) and the open web as well as  provide flexible pathways for learners to achieve formal credit and qualifications (WikiEducator, 2011).

1.2 Importance of OERs in our educational context

- OERs provide free and legal access to some of the world’s best courses, content and educational tools which can be adapted to local context and be used in learning, teaching and research as a basis for innovation. For example, if you are interested in learning about aeronautical engineering from a science whiz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), you can check out lecture notes and videos from MIT courses. Courses that can be accessed from the MIT website are offered for free and that is why they are known as Open courseware (OCW).

- Through the use of internet, OER enhances fast dissemination of knowledge and to a wider scale of users across the globe. Information can be accessed and fetched instantly by users from other parts of the world with low or no marginal cost.
- Educators are privileged to access affordable and high quality resources which can be adapted to suit their specific needs and contexts.

- As educators share their resources, they open the door of opportunity for others to help develop knowledge and skills needed in various academic disciplines.

- The collaborative development of courses and materials frequently results in far richer products and processes than any individual or institution might have created on their own
- OERs make it possible for people of all ages and backgrounds to freely get information and learn more about the world around them and access the tools they need to improve their lives and livelihoods.

Furthermore, the benefits of OER in an institution can be described as follows:

Benefits of OER for faculty:

- Educators get recognition for their teaching
- Provides opportunities for publishing and promoting their resources
- Enhances collaboration with other educators in their discipline
- Extend their reach and visibility

Benefits of OER for institution:

- Potentially more cost-effective and provide up to date offerings
- Enhanced quality assurance
- Resource based learning to cope with larger classes

In general OER have the potential to:

1. To increase availability of high quality, relevant and need-targeted learning materials;
2. To reduce the cost of accessing educational materials;
3. To allow adaptation of materials and possibly contribute to enabling learners to be active participants in educational processes;
4. To achieve collaborative partnership of people working in communities of practice, preferably across/within institutions;
5. To build capacity in African higher education institutions by providing educators with access, at low or no cost, to the tools and content required to produce high quality educational materials.

Activity 1.1 - Existing OER practices in Africa

Aim: To understand the importance of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Africa

Motivation:To discover ‘who is doing what’ concerning OER in African Higher Education Institutions.

Please undertake Activity 1.1 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

1.3 OERs, OCWs and MOOCs

OERs are used for teaching, learning and for research. They have been very helpful in the recent years as they are freely available especially online. One can search for any area of interest and find lots of OERs providing the information on that particular area. OERs may be in a form of content of a particular field, for example the materials of the Teacher Education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) Programme; open books, open journals, open research reports or as Open CourseWare (OCW).

Open CourseWare (OCW) is a free and open digital publication of high quality college and university level educational materials.  These materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content. Open CourseWare are free and openly licensed, accessible to anyone, anytime via the internet.

Currently, some higher education institutions’ library websites are providing links to a number of courseware. The Open University of Tanzania website, for example, provides links to MIT, AVU and OUT/STHEP Courseware.

The Difference between OERs and OCWs is that OCWs are full-fledged course or educational programme while OERs encompass all freely available educational materials whether they are organized as a course or not. They can be just subject matter content or process models that one can integrate, adapt or adopt as part of a course or programme.

Figure 1. 1: OCW can be related as a subset of OER (Source: OER Africa / Saide)

OCW initiatives range from traditional classroom sized courses to the upcoming Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which host a large-scale participation through internet access.

MOOCs

A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC; /mu;k/) can be described as an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for students, professors and teaching assistants (TA). MOOCs are a recent development in distance education which began to emerge in 2012.

Although early MOOCs often emphasized open access features such as connectivism and open licensing of content, structure and learning goals to promote the reuse and remixing of resources, some notable newer MOOCs use closed licenses for their course materials, while maintaining free access for students. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course)

NOTE: OCWs are full-fledged/ organized courses or educational programmes which are freely available, some MOOCs use closed licenses for their course materials, while maintaining free access for students. OERs encompass all freely available educational materials whether they are organized as a course or not. Closed materials in some MOOCs are not OERs.

1.3.1 Examples of OER Projects

The Vision for a Health OER Network in Africa is an OER initiative started by experts in health science institutions across Africa to openly share education materials. These materials are used by health professionals in Africa to enhance their knowledge and Training as well as by students and educators around the world.

Another OER started by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands includes courses on clean water technology for developing countries. These resources have been updated by universities in South Africa, Singapore, the Antilles and Indonesia to include information on water treatment processes from their regions making a collaborative resource on drinking water engineering available online to anyone who wishes to learn more.

Another example of OER initiatives are material by Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA), an International reasearch and development initiative which brings together teachers and teacher educators from across Sub-Saharan Africa. It offers a range of Materials (Open Educational Resources) in four languages to support school based teacher education and training (http://www.tessafrica.net/)

1.4 Finding OERs

There are many repositories online which host OER in various academic disciplines. The main purpose of these repositories is to make it easier for users to locate, identify and access OERs across the internet. There are different kinds of repositories; some are focused on particular subjects while others are more general. It is really up to the user to be keen and adapt various searching techniques in order to arrive to its needed resource.

HOW to search efficiently and find what you are looking for:

1. Start with African OER initiatives that you know about and see how they can help you, e.g.

  - OER Africa
  - Open Content UCT
  - African Virtual University (OER @ AVU)

1. Embark on a thorough search for suitable material using Google, OER search engines, OER repositories. Within the repositories you can use a combination of keywords to search for specific resources you are looking for.
2. For Google searches type in <name of your topic> + 'Creative Commons'

Some common OER Repositories:

- Institutional Repositories:
  - African Virtual University (OER@AVU)  http://oer.avu.org/
  - OER Africa http://www.oerafrica.org
  - OpenUCT https://open.uct.ac.za/
- OER Commons, US http://www.oercommons.org
- JORUM, UK http://www.jorum.ac.uk
- Lists of Repositories:
  - OER Quality Project (2014) Directory of OER Repositories
  - WikiEducator (2014) Exemplary Collection of Open eLearning Content Repositories
  - Algonquin College (2015) List of OER Repositories – annotated by discipline.
- Open Access Journal Collections:
  - Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) http://www.doaj.com
  - Academic Conferences and Publishing International (ACPI) http://academic-conferences.org/ejournals.htm
  - African Journals Online (AJOL) http://www.ajol.info/
  - AgEcon Research: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/
- JISC, UK http://www.jisc.ac.uk
- The Open Education Consortium: http://oeconsortium.org
- The OpenCourseWare Consortium:  http://ocw.mit.edu/
- Coursera Open Courses: https://www.coursera.org/

Activity 1.2 Searching for OERs in recognized repositories

Aim: To search for and locate OERs in your own academic discipline or sub-discipline from well-known OER repositories

Motivation: To become conversant with OER repositories in order to locate resources to use in your own teaching

Please undertake Activity 1.2 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

Activity 1.3 - Evaluating OERs

Aim: To analyse and evaluate OERs found in the repositories

Motivation: To be able to identify and use quality OERs which align to  your requirements

Please undertake Activity 1.3 by clicking the link.

Please note that the Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 homepage.

1.5 Evaluating OERs

Assessing OERs available online is important in order to ascertain the quality and their relevance to the intended need.  Once OERs are created and shared by authors in their repositories, it is a good practice for reviewers to evaluate the materials before they are used for various purposes.

The most known OER evaluation tool is from Achieve organization.  Achieve in collaboration with leaders in OER commons have developed an evaluation toolkit which is characterized by eight rubrics. The rubrics were primarily developed to help educational users align resources to common core state standards and evaluate the resources for quality.  The tool together with its evaluated data is hosted at OER Commons which is a repository for openly licensed educational materials.

The rubrics are:

Rubric I. Degree of alignment to standards

Rubric II. Quality of Explanation of the Subject Matter

Rubric III. Utility of Materials Designed to Support Teaching

Rubric IV. Quality of Assessment

Rubric V. Quality of Technological Interactivity

Rubric VI. Quality of Instructional Tasks and Practice Exercises

Rubric VII: Opportunities for Deeper Learning

Rubric VIII. Assurance of Accessibility

More resources on the rubrics can be found here: http://achieve.org/oer-rubrics

The evaluation process starts by identifying the learning objects contained in the course. The learning objects can be lessons, images, assessments, videos etc. The rubrics are then applied to the smallest meaningful unit and it is up to the reviewer to determine which parts of the materials are to be evaluated.

Rubrics are scored independently by five scores which describe levels of quality, usefulness, or alignment to standards:

Score 3: Superior

Score 2: Strong

Score 1: Limited

Score 0: Very weak/ None

N/A: Rubric Not Applicable

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Detailed description of what each score means in the independent rubrics is provided here:

http://achieve.org/files/AchieveOERRubrics.pdf

Summary

In this unit we have described OERs as freely and openly licensed educational materials that a user can copy, use, adapt and re-distribute.  Many benefits of OER have been identified for individuals and institutions. Reduced costs, quality materials, enhanced collaboration and innovation are among the key attributes associated with OER in the educational environment. We have also looked at various forms of OERs and how they can be located in their respective repositories. OER Africa and OER Commons are among the initiatives which have concentrated in promoting the development of various OER projects and also hosting a collection of resources that can be used freely.

Review Questions

Review Questions

1. Briefly explain what Open Educational Resources (OERs) are and their importance
2. OERs, OCW and MOOCs are all free educational resources. Briefly explain what differentiate each from the other.
3. Describe the purpose of OER repositories.
4. OERs are normally found in the OER repositories. Explain briefly, step by step, how one can find OERs in a specific field of study, and name some common OER repositories.
5. OERs should be evaluated. Explain why OERs are evaluated and how an OER is evaluated

References

Atkins, D. E., Brown, J. S. and Hammond, A. L. (2007). A review of the open educational resources (OER) movement: Achievements, challenges, and new opportunities (pp. 1-84). Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from: https://oerknowledgecloud.org/sites/oerknowledgecloud.org/files/ReviewoftheOERMovement.pdf

Butcher, N., Kanwar, A. and Uvalic-Trumbic, S. (2011). A basic guide to open educational resources (OER). Commonwealth of Learning / UNESCO. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002158/215804e.pdf

Cape Town Open Education Declaration (2008). “Unlocking the promise of open educational resources”. Retrieved on June 20, 2014 from www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration

D'Antoni, S. and Savage, C. (Eds) (2009). Open educational resources: conversations in cyberspace. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Maxwell, E. (2010). Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 2010, vol. 5, issue 2, pages 155-166. Forum on the impact of open courseware for higher education in developing countries: Final report. Retrieved on June 21, 2014 from http://econpapers.repec.org/article/tprinntgg/v_3a5_3ay_3a2010_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a155-166.htm

McAuley, A., Stewart, B., Siemens, G. and Cormier, D. (2010). The MOOC Model for Digital Practice. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from http://davecormier.com/edblog/wp-content/uploads/MOOC_Final.pdf

Mushi, H.M.K., and Muganda, C.K. (2013). Open Educational Resources (OER) for National Development in Tanzania . Retrieved on September 15, 2015 from: http://repository.out.ac.tz/371/1/JIPE_Vol_5_No.pdf

Ngimwa, P. (2010). OER Readiness in Africa. OLnet project. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from http://www.olnet.org/OER_Africa

OECD (2007) Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergency of Open Educational Resources. Retrieved on September 14, 2015 from: http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/38654317.pdf

TESSA (n.d.). Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa website. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from http://www.tessafrica.net

UNESCO (2002). Forum on the impact of open courseware for higher education in developing countries: Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001285/128515e.pdf

WikiEducator (2011) OER for Assessment and Credit for Students. Retrieved on August 20, 2015 from: http://wikieducator.org/OER_for_Assessment_and_Credit_for_Students/About

Topic 2: Creative Commons Licensing

Introduction

Educational materials that are made available online are by default copyrighted to their creator, author or the copyright holder. However, OERs which are made available at no cost to a user include an open license that guides the user as to how that are permitted to use the resource. The most common open licensing is done through an organisation called Creative Commons (CC). In this unit we will discuss the relationship between Creative Commons licenses and OERs, identify different possible licenses for OERs and how to apply these licenses.

Objectives

At the end of this topic you should be able to:

- Describe the Creative Commons and licenses
- Describe the relationship between CC and OER
- Identify different licenses on OERs
- Apply different licenses on OER

2.1 Copyright and Legal Aspects

By default, when a work such as website, music, movie/film, academic article or paper is created, the author or creator has ownership of that work unless there is a different contractual arrangement relating to the copyright. Therefore the creator holds the copyright and no one is allowed to use the work without obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder. Copyright legislation differs from country to country, but there are several international agreements that provide standards. Most countries in Africa subscribe to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Therefore should a person be found using a work undesirably, in terms of the law he/she could be taken to court and fined or jailed.

OERs are licensed under certain agreement terms and conditions selected by the owner of a work. This license must not be confused with copyright and the accompanying statement “all rights reserved” with a © sign and the year of publication. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. Their licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use in line with conditions of the creators’ choice. Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright.  They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your need. (http://creativecommons.org/about)

A further strategy for opening access to resources is Copyleft with the icon similar to that of copyright except the ‘c’ faces to the left instead of right. Copyleft is a strategy of utilizing copyright law to pursue the policy goal of fostering and encouraging the equal and inalienable right to copy, share, modify and improve creative works of authorship. Copyleft as a concept is usually implemented in the details of a specific copyright license, such as the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License. Copyright holders of creative work can unilaterally implement these licenses for their own works to build communities that collaboratively share and improve those Copylefted creative works. (Copyleft.org).

2.1.1    Why is it Crucial to Obtain Copyright Permission?

If materials are released as ‘open educational resources’, and they contain materials that are not appropriately licensed (be it text, graphic, photograph, video, music or any other copyright work), reuse of those non-conforming materials is a copyright infringement. For example, if a successful resource is used by thousands of people, the creator of the OER could be legally forced to remove the copyrighted material from their OER which could have a negative impact on the continued use of the OER. It is therefore important that the creator of the OER ensures that it truly is an ‘open’ resource, by diligently ensuring that a valid license is applied to the work.

2.1.2    Who Owns the Copyright?

The creator of a copyright work is, in general, the first copyright owner of that work.  However, the owner of the work may transfer (the legal term is ‘assign’) his or her ownership to someone else, and that person will become the owner of the copyright.  Only the copyright owner can grant permission (known in law as a ‘license’) to others to use the work.  Permission granted from someone other than the copyright owner has no validity at all.  Although sometimes an open license can only be applied validly to another person’s work if the actual copyright owner’s permission has been given.

There are particular issues with respect to materials created by a member of staff or student at a college or university.  In relation to university staff, most employee contracts state that works created within the course of employment will first belong to the employer, unless there is an agreement to the contrary.  Where material is created within the course of employment, without agreement to the contrary, a member of staff authorized to act on behalf of the institution may decide to release that material under an open license.  However, if there is any ambiguity as to who is the copyright holder, it might be advised to get the approval of the employee before adding an open license to the resource.

Students are in most cases owners of their own work. However, some institutions have provisions in their registration agreement requiring student to transfer copyright to the institution in all work that is submitted to the institution.  However with recent advancements in open education, most institutions have set policies that promote publication of students assignments, masters and doctoral thesis as OERs. The availability of open access repositories for publishing student work ensure that the resources are made available to the community and sustained. In terms of licences, the choice lies with the underlying agreement between the institution and the student. In order to reserve authors’ rights, students work can be published under a CC BY SA NC ND licence, which to some extent protects the integrity of creator’s work.

2.1.3    Dealing with Third Party Materials

It should be noted that clearing third party materials for release under an open license can be difficult, particularly in relation to multimedia materials such as recorded video (where the soundtrack, performance, screenplay and recording may all have different rights’ owners).  Where permission is being sought, care should be taken to ensure that the right person is being asked (that they are actually the copyright owner of the third party material in question), and that they are truly consenting to the release of the material under an open license (for example, merely asking for permission to ‘use’ the resources would not be sufficient).

The following are a number of approaches that may be adopted in relation to the third party materials contained within a candidate resource for release under an open license (Creative Commons, n.d.).

- Accept the burden of clearing the materials for release under an open license, accepting that some owners might refuse, some might ask for payment for permission, and it may be impossible to track down some owners, or they may not answer your enquiries.
- Remove third party material, and limit the resource to materials where you are the copyright owner, or where the third party materials are already available under a suitable CC license.  This can be extended to third party materials where you know that gaining permission of the copyright owner will not be burdensome (e.g. copyright held by a partner institution, or someone easily identifiable that is likely to support the release of the materials).  Where resources have to be excluded, it may be useful to include a placeholder detailing what material has been removed, and any information as to how the eventual user of the OER can get permission to use the removed material. Where the decision is to omit third party materials, consideration might be given to replacing them with materials already licensed under an appropriate CC license, or which are otherwise available.
- In some cases, a resource can be released as an OER where certain parts of it are not CC-licensed but permission has nevertheless been acquired to make use of the material.  It is important to clearly mark that the material in question is not part of the openly licensed resource and this may be achieved by a caption or other marker.
- It should be noted that the institution giving access to the third party material will still need to have permission to do so, even if they are not giving ‘open’ reuse access under a CC license.  An approach which might be easier for a user of OER might be to extract the third party material from the body of the resource and include it in an appendix that is clearly marked as being non-CC-licensed.
- The issues involved with releasing third party material as part of an OER may seem onerous, tiresome and bureaucratic, but it is a basic tenet of copyright law that you cannot give away another person’s property (including intellectual property) without their permission.  This is unlikely to change in the near future.

Activity 2.1 - Identifying licenses in documents and various rich media resources.

Aim: To Identify different copyright licenses in different documents and websites on the internet.

Motivation: To gain an understanding of different licenses displayed on documents and media which will allow you to recognize the permissions and limitations for the usage of the material accessed.

Tools: Discussion forum; Internet search engine (e.g. Google).

Please undertake Activity 2.1 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available from the Module 2 homepage.

2.2 Creative Commons Licensing

The Creative Commons copyright licenses and tools forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates. Their tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. The combination of CC tools and the users is a vast and growing digital commons, a pool of content that can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license)

2.2.1    Four Usage Conditions for Creative Commons Licenses

The Creative Commons licenses comprises four aspects as summarized in Table 2.1. below.

Table 2.1: Creative Commons Icons and Detailed Meaning

ICON | DETAILED MEANING
 | Attribution. All CC licenses require that others who use your work in any way must attribute it – i.e. must reference the work, giving you credit for it – the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use of the work. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first.
 | Non-Commercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, perform and (unless you have chosen No Derivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially. If they want to use your work commercially, they must get your permission first.
 | No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.
 | Share Alike. You let others copy, distribute, display, perform and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.

Source:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ (Creative Commons, 2014)

The icons in Table 1 along with their explanations, form the choices by which the licensor (creator of the OER) must choose for the OER. They are more like conditions and agreement to which the user must adhere. This is regarded as the first step in attaching a license to OER through the Creative Commons licensing tools.

After selecting the conditions, the second step is to combine the conditions according to your requirements. Table 2.2 shows sample combinations of licenses found on OERs.

Table 2.2: Sample OER Licenses

ICON LICENSE | DETAILED MEANING
Attribution CC BY
View License Deed | View Legal Code
Attribution Non-Commercial CC BY-NC
View License Deed | View Legal Code
Attribution  No  Derivatives CC BY-ND
View License Deed | View Legal Code
Attribution  Share  Alike CC BY-SA
View License Deed | View Legal Code
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike CC BY-NC-SA
View License Deed | View Legal Code
Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives CC BY-NC-ND
View License Deed | View Legal Code

Source: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ (Creative Commons, 2014)

If authors do not wish to enforce any of the four conditions, they may waive attribution and all copyright related to a work through the Creative Commons Zero Waiver.

By using Creative Commons Zero Waiver (CC0), you are using a tool for freeing your own work of copyright restrictions around the world. Creative Commons does not recommend this tool for works that are already in the public domain worldwide recommending the use of the Public Domain Mark in this regard.

If your work contains third party (i.e. not created by you) content then the Creative Commons license compatibility wizard (OER Africa, can assist in providing guidance for the most suitable license to be used, because not all of the licenses are compatible with one another.

Activity 2.2 - Exploring Practical Creative Commons Licensing

Aim: To deepen your understanding of how Creative Commons licensing works

Motivation: To become familiar with practices using Creative Commons licensing

Please undertake Activity 2.2 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available from the Module 2 homepage.

Activity 2.3 - Recognizing the Meaning of Creative Commons Licenses

Aim: To be able to recognize licenses in Open Educational Resources (OER), what they mean, and understand their implications

Motivation: So that in the future you can add a Creative Commons (CC) license in your own OER and select the permissions for use by others.

Task & Tool: Quiz activity in MOODLE

What: Undertake this Activity by clicking on Activity 2.3

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

2.3 Relationship between CC and OERs

For a resource to be an OER it requires some form of licensing. Even though they are free, the creator can make a decision as what kind of use to permit in terms of the licensing conditions. The OER creator could decide whether or not the OER could be reproduced, shared, copied and as well as the one to use it. That is where Creative Commons’ tools come in. These tools as explained earlier play part in forming copyright just as the formal “All Rights Reserved” along with the © icon.  The licensing that is found in OER is usually made by the licensor using CC tools. The first step is to select the conditions as explained earlier, then the license displays after agreeing to the CC tool. At the same time one may decide to impose any restrictions by using the same CC waiver tool. Therefore the relationship existing between CC and OER is mainly on license provision.

2.4 Creative Commons Licences Design and Rationale

Every Creative Commons license has many important features in common and helps creators (licensors) to use their tools, retain copyright, but all ow others to copy, distribute and make some uses of their work. The CC license ensures that licensors get credit for the work they deserve and the license lasts as long as applicable copyright lasts. (Creative Commons, n.d.)

In choosing a license the licensor asks a few simple questions as to what permissions they wish to allow in the use of their resource:

- Do I want to allow commercial use?
- Do I want to allow derivative works or not?
- Must the user (licensee) make their new work available under the same license terms – this is “Share Alike”.

Creative Commons Licenses do not affect the freedom that the law grants to users of creative works otherwise protected by copyright, such as exceptions and limitations to copyright law like fair dealing. Creative Commons licenses require licensees to get permission to do any of the things with a work that the law reserves exclusively to a licensor and that the license does not expressly allow. Licensees must credit the licensor, keep copyright notices intact on all copies of the work and link to the license from copies of the work. Licensees cannot use technological measures to restrict access to the work by others. For further information on ‘Fair Use’, see http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator_version_one/Introduction/The_Copyright_Paradox

2.4.1    Three Layers of Licenses

Creative Commons’ public copyright licenses incorporate a unique and innovative “three-layer” design. Each license begins as a traditional legal tool, in the kind of language and text formats that most lawyers know and love. We call this the Legal Code layer of each license.

A simpler version of the licenses is also available in a format that lay people can read — the Commons Deed (also known as the “human readable” version of the license). The Commons Deed is a handy reference for licensors and licensees, summarizing and expressing some of the most important terms and conditions. Think of the Commons Deed as a user-friendly interface to the Legal Code beneath, although the Deed itself is not a license, and its contents are not part of the Legal Code itself.

The final layer of the license design recognizes that software, from search engines to office productivity to music editing, plays an enormous role in the creation, copying, discovery, and distribution of works. In order to make it easy for the Web to know when a work is available under a Creative Commons license, a “machine readable” version of the license is provided — a summary of the key freedoms and obligations written into a format that software systems, search engines, and other kinds of technology can understand. Creative Commons developed a standardized way to describe licenses that software can understand called CC Rights Expression Language (CC REL) to accomplish this.

Searching for open content is an important function enabled by Creative Commons approach. You can use Google to search for Creative Commons licensed content, look for pictures at Flickr (a photo sharing site), albums at Jamendo (royalty free music downloads), and search for and share a variety of media by license using SpinXpress. In addition, the Wikimedia Commons is the multimedia repository of Wikipedia.

Taken together, these three layers of licenses ensure that the spectrum of rights is not just a legal concept. It’s something that the creators of works can understand, their users can understand, and even the Web itself can understand.

Figure 2.1: The Three Layers of CC licenses

Activity 2.4 - Assigning an OER License Hypothetically to one of your own Resources

Aim: To reflect on which (if any) CC license you think may be suitable for a real teaching and learning resource that you have developed previously

Motivation: To gain an understanding of what the implications are for licensing your own work under Creative Commons.

Task: Assigning a license hypothetically to one of your own resources

What to do: Undertake this Activity by clicking on Activity 2.4

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

Reflection Activity

Please use the Moodle course blog facility to write your Weekly Reflection on your experiences and engagement with this week’s topic. (15 mins)

Summary

OERs may be created and made freely available at no cost. Being free does not mean that there is not any kind of copyright agreement between the creator of the OER and the user. Once an OER is created, in order for it to be published there should be some form of license agreement. The creator of OER or Licensor, should follow a few steps in ensuring their copyright is not abused by providing guidelines as to the use of the OER through CC licenses. It could be for copying, sharing and others. This involves the institutional support team as well as end users plus any institutional partners plus international educators.

Review Questions

1. Explain the importance of someone getting copyright or some license restrictions in their work.
2. How does the Creative Commons license differ from the normal Copyright with the mark © at the end?
3. Briefly explain the Creative Commons Zero Waiver (CC0) and how it can be applied on someone’s work.
4. What is the relationship between Creative Commons and OERs?
5. The three Layers of CC license include: the legal code, the common deed and the machine readable. Briefly explain each layer.

References

McGill, L. (2013, January 1). Legal Aspects of OER. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/25308415/Legal Aspects of OER.

What are the types of Creative Commons licences?. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://www.oerafrica.org/copyright-and-licensing-toolkit/what-are-types-creative-commons-licences

CC0. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/

About the licenses. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Topic 3: OERs Mixing, Adapting, Reusing and Producing

Introduction

OERs are available for free and therefore allowing each and everyone to use for research and educational purposes. Licensing is available on OERs as means of agreement between the OER creator (licensor) and the user specifying the conditions and terms of the use of OER. In this topic you will learn on how to use OERs by mixing, adapting, reusing and producing one.

Objectives

 At the end of this topic you should be able to

- Describe the OER lifecycle
- Describe the options for reuse and the context of adaptation in accordance with the stipulated conditions of Creative Commons (CC)
- Discuss the usage of OER as a Learner and Educator
- Create and publish OER

3.1 OER Lifecycle

3.1    OER Lifecycle

According to the WikiEducator OER handbook for Educators (WikiEducator, 2008), the OER lifecycle begins with a desire or need to learn or teach something. Many cases even when programmers decide to design a certain program, normally they start by gathering ideas before producing a prototype and finally implementing and maintaining the final product. Another example is when designing a website, gathering information is the first step. A need or desire to create something must begin by gathering information.

Below is a sequence of steps illustrating a typical development process:-

1. Find: Start by looking for suitable resources which contribute to meeting the need or satisfying the desire or need. This may include using general search engines such as Google, searching specific repositories and finding individual websites. Some potential components may be available offline, such as last year’s lecture notes, class projects, or hand-outs for learners. It could include videos of lectures, different tutorials and simulations.
2. Compose: With a collection of resources at your disposal, start piecing them together accordingly to form a learning resource for yourself, your fellow educators and/or learners. This is a creative design process of building an educational resource from scratch and/or using information that you have collected.
3. Adapt: While composing OER, it will nearly always be necessary to adapt components to your local context. This may involve minor corrections and improvements, remixing components, localization and even complete rework for use in diverse contexts
4. Use: The actual use of OER in the classroom, online, during informal learning activities, research and other uses as stipulated in the license agreement of CC.

Furthermore, according to Andrew Moore and Tessa Welch from SAIDE, OER lifecycle involves the following processes:-

1. Search and find OER: One should search OER repositories;
2. Compose (Piece together): The information is gathered, translated if necessary and contextualize materials;
3. Adapt the OERs to local context: This is where you get to ReUse, ReWork and Remix OER materials however one should true to copyrighted material;
4. Produce a Learning Resource;
5. Deploy and use resource;
6. Refine learning resource;
7. Share and make available for reuse.

Figure 3.1 shows the processes involved in the OER life cycle (Moore and Welch, Saide).

Figure 3: OER Life Cycle

Source:  OER Africa / Saide

3.2 OER Use and Reuse

3.2  OER Use and Reuse

As explained earlier, OER are free materials for usage in accordance with license stipulated by CC. Academics, research fellows and education managers can access the OER to create another OER, in research or learning.

Learners can access the OER depending on the area of study concerned and use it either for learning or research.

The licenses provided by Creative Commons (CC), normally shows and explain clearly on how the OER can be used. In the previous topic we learned about Creative Commons (CC) licensing as well as the process on how to get the license and how it will appear. Normally the license appears with the bibliographic reference.

OERs are used more and more every day by many people around the world. However there is no strong evidence to prove to what extent they are used or reused (JISC, 2015; WikiEducator, 2008). It is relatively easy to track and measure metrics such as number of downloads of materials, time spent on site and location of visitors, but it is more challenging to find out if and how they have actually been used. Comment and rating systems may be used but, again, are not necessarily a guarantee of use.

Activity 3.1 - OER Life Cycle Practice

Aim: To enable you to practice the OER lifecycle towards creating an OER

Motivation: Learn how to create a simple material which could then be an OER.

Task: Creating a simple document or any other production following the OER lifecycle.

Please undertake Activity 3.1 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

3.3 Integrating OERs in Teaching and Learning

3.3    Integrating OERs in Teaching and Learning

Little is known about how OER can be included as source materials for learning, or created by students and teachers as part of the learning and teaching process. Some institutions are using and producing OER as part of innovative teaching practices, but research on the impact on quality of education, and the ways we can assess students and quality is only starting to emerge.

Uses of OER can be roughly divided into two perspectives: Learner and Educator. Some are concerned that OER isn't facilitating learner-centered instruction (Geser, 2006). How much of this learner centricity is generated by prevailing notions of a "better" method of teaching and how much is based on actual research is unknown.

On a conceptual level, using an OER is similar to using proprietary materials. After all, the reason you use these materials in the classroom or any other learning environment is because they have educational value for your students. However, OER are different in that they allow for extra flexibility in the classroom.

There are eight steps to OER integration.

1. Assess the validity and reliability of the OER.
2. Determine placement within the curriculum, if not already done. Note that some OER integration may be abandoned at this point if the OER relates poorly to the rest of the curriculum.
3. Check for license compatibility. (See License Incompatibility in Licensing for more details).
4. Eliminate extraneous content within the OER (assuming the license permits derivatives).
5. Identify areas of localization
6. Remix with other educational materials, if applicable.
7. Determine the logistics of using the OER within the lesson. For example, you may need to print handouts for learners. In other cases special software may be needed.
8. Devise a method of evaluation or whether the currently planned evaluation needs adjustment (see Evaluation for more details).

So far this topic has discussed how you, as an educator, can compose and adapt OER for your class. But it has not yet discussed how learners themselves can engage in the OER life cycle. This is a powerful teaching opportunity as it empowers students to take control of their own learning. Another result of this flexibility is the option to have students openly publish their work.

3.3.1    Usage of OER on the Learner’s Perspective

Learners can derive their own unique benefits from using OER and promote their use through the following types of activities (within the constraints of applicable licenses):

- Sharing lecture notes (and audio recordings), exam texts, and model answers with other students (on public web-sites) can create useful knowledge repositories that support study efforts.
- Encouraging educators to use OER readings where good alternatives to proprietary textbooks and articles exist; and using Google Scholar to identify open versions of closed materials.
- Writing summaries of academic articles that are read during course work, and sharing them with peers on public websites to enable access to some of the knowledge that would otherwise only be available through closed journals and publications.
- Using social bookmarking (see Self-publishing in Share OER) and ranking tools to evaluate usefulness of resources; building social recommendation networks that make finding good resources easier.
- Reviewing published OER can help potential students determine which institution offers courses that best fit their interests. Once enrolled, looking through course descriptions helps them choose the courses they want to take.
- Not just educators, but students are benefiting from opening up their own work to an international audience for feedback and comment. Having a public blog or participating in online discussion forums is one way to showcase their work. In a more formal academic environment, publishing in open access journals ensures maximum visibility.

There have been several projects in which students have made their OER available. An Example of such projects is: The Open Water Project

3.3.2    Usage of OER on the Educator’s Perspective

The Educators which include the academicians can also use OER by creating and designing new ones or use them to educate their learners. Below is a list of ways on how the Educator can promote OER.

- Adapting and extending existing OERs for the local purpose, can enable access to high-quality materials, and save time during preparation of course materials.
- Choosing OER as part of the readings to support a growing international movement towards more and higher quality OER
- Publishing own materials as OER by simply allowing public access to online courses (if e-learning is used) or self-archiving of the key materials on sites that offer free hosting (for example, flickr.com for images, www.slideshare.com for presentations, etc.)
- Sharing ones work in ways that makes it easy for others to access it and collaborate on adding more materials or examples, or translating the content into other languages (licensing content under free and open content licenses that allows this is a first step).
- Teaching in ways that encourage students to access and produce OERs, supporting development of cognitive skills necessary to determine quality of on-line content, and experimenting with peer-based assessment models and reputation mechanisms that students are familiar with from social networking and e-commerce sites.

3.4 Adapting OER

3.4   Adapting OER

The statement adapting OER, means inserting as well as removing components, changing the sequence of learning activities, editing as well remixing text, audio, video, pictures and animations with the aim of having a style that the educator feels it suits the learner. Below are the reasons for adapting OER:-

1. To address a particular teaching style or learning style
2. To adapt for a different grade level
3. To adapt for a different discipline
4. To adjust for a different learning environment
5. To address diversity needs
6. To address a cultural preference
7. To support a specific pedagogical need
8. To address either a school or a district’s standardized curriculum

Note that OERs with the creative commons license “No Derivative (ND)” cannot be adapted or translated. You should also remember that OERs can be translated to other languages however this is somehow difficult. It is difficult in the sense that some meaning could be distorted. Translation takes quite more expertise to do so. That is someone who is a professional talented should be available to translate a huge number of page document.

Activity 3.2 - OER Adaptation

Activity 3.2 OER Adaptation

Aim: To familiarize yourself with adaptating an OER

Motivation: To experience the planning stage of adapting an OER for your own repurposes.

Task: Select an OER found on any OER repositories and adapt it by following procedures

Please undertake Activity 3.2 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

Activity 3.3 - Preparing and Establishing OER Awareness

Aim: To prepare a survey instrument to establish the current status of OER in use at an institution.

Motivation: To work towards creating an institutional baseline for further promotion of OER integration.

Please undertake Activity 3.3 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available from the Module 2 homepage.

Summary

Summary

In this topic you have learnt on the usage of OERs where the most issue to consider is the Creative Commons license on the particular OER. Users of these materials can be grouped into two: the Learner and Educator. The educator can adapt OER such that a feeling is reached that it is in the order that suits the learner. More over on the OER lifecycle which begins with a need to train leading to finding or searching for different materials, collecting them and finally the work of composing starts. After that a license is set to the final paper and published.

Review Questions

Review Questions

1. Briefly explain the OER life cycle?
2. OERs can be used for many reasons. Explain how they can be used in teaching.
3. When one needs to create an OER instead of doing it from scratch he or she can prefer to adapt OER. Explain what it means by adapting an OER and its limitations.
4. OERs can be integrated in teaching and learning. Explain this and outline the steps on how to integrate OER.
5. Briefly explain on the step by step process of creating an OER to the level of publishing it.

References

References

Dyson, J. (2011, May 24). What is the OER life cycle? Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://www.open.ac.uk/score/print/faq-categories/what-oer-life-cycle

Learner Perspective. (2010, February 19). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/Use/Learner_perspective

Educator Perspective. (2010, February 19). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/Use/Lecturer_perspective

License Compatibility. (2010, February 19). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/License/License_compatibility

Schmidt, J. (2007). UNESCO OER Toolkit Draft. Available at http://wikieducator.org/UNESCO_OER_Toolkit_Draft#Learner_perspective [15/5/2014]

Integrating OERs in teaching and learning. (2008, July 3). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/Use/Integrating_OERs_in_teaching_and_learning

Admin. (2012, September 4). OpenWater. Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://www.openwaterproject.org/what-is-openwater/

Compose. (2008, July 8). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator/Compose

Moore, A., & Welch, T. (n.d.). OER Lifecycle. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from http://www.google.co.tz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CGAQFjAG&url=http://www.saide.org.za/sites/default/files/course_design/The%20OER%20Life%20Cycle.pptx&ei=26mCU8y_C4jKOdvOgZgL&usg=AFQjCNGNVASLrnzlJYU9nZ-B7RkJWIyC9g&bvm=bv.67720277,d.ZWU

Topic 4: Institutionalising OER Production and Use

Introduction

Institutional workflow frameworks and policies are important in guiding the implementation and sustainability of OER activities in an institution. Defined processes and policies should consider factors that can directly or indirectly influence the key role players in using and creating OERs. Setting up institutional policy for guiding the implementation of OER activities should consider factors which can be directly or indirectly influenced by different operation areas of institutions such as governance, finance, administration, human resources, ICT e.tc. In this topic you will learn the OER production workflow process in an institution and be able to apply it on your own institution as an educator and as well as a learner. The topic also covers factors that should be considered while setting up OER policies in institutions.

Objectives

At the end of this topic you should be able to:

- Analyse the CORRE and DScribe frameworks and be able to adapt them in establishing a production workflow in an institution
- Understand the factors to consider while setting up an OER policy in an institution

Activity 4.1 Implementing your institutional survey

Aim: To establish the current status of OER use at your institution.

Motivation: To create an institutional baseline for further promotion of OER integration.

Please undertake Activity 4.1 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

4.1 The CORRE framework

The CORRE framework

CORRE (Content Openness Reuse Repurpose Evidence) is a workflow framework for evaluating and transforming teaching materials into publicly usable OERs. This framework has been developed by the University of Leicester (UoL) OTTER project (Open Transferable Technology – enabled Educational Resource). It provides the stages of the whole process to produce and release OERs. CORRE framework is a major element of the “Scaffold for Institutional Adoption and Implementation of OERs”, and should be used in conjunction with the detailed CORRE checklist and tracking sheets. There are four main aspects of the framework, each of which is defined by a set of criteria that are then matched to a set of indicative evidence. Below is a brief description of the elements of the framework.

Stage 1: Content

This stage involves identifying existing materials within an institution. For the case of UoL, this refers to the materials we receive from UoL partners “as-it-is”. There are two types of activities associated with “content-in”.

First the process of gathering materials from our partners, getting them to sign up to the project, checking that there are no gaps in the materials they supply to us and estimating the credit weighting of each.

The second activity is an assessment (screening) of the material in terms of the type of content, medium, structure, language and pedagogy.

Stage 2: Openness

This reflects the legal, pedagogical and technical perspectives of the process. The criterion involves Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) clearance, transformation and digitization. Specific questions asked around each of these criteria such as: identifying right holders; aspects of the content that need to be removed or replaced; and whether the learning material could be made available in a mix of formats.

Stage 3: Reuse/Repurpose

This is the third stage of CORRE evaluation process and it generally involves obtaining input, views and opinions from external and internal stakeholders of OER on how the content is fit for purpose in terms of reuse and remixing. This stage reflects socio-cultural perspectives of the OER.

Stage 4: Evidence

The final stage is evidence. The framework is designed to assess the value and usefulness of the OER through a process of tracking using an end-user survey mechanism. We ask questions such as the identity of the user, the value of the OER, what adaptations have been made to the OER and challenges experienced accessing and using it.

Such feedback would be useful for sustainability and also for making the business case of how we move forward with the future development of OERs.

Figure 4:The Four Stages of the CORRE framework (Source: OTTER Blog)

Source: http://projectotter.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/from-%E2%80%9Ccorre%E2%80%9D-to-%E2%80%9Coer%E2%80%9D-a-framework-for-evaluating-learning-materials/

The CORRE framework is informed by existing literature on OERs and internal consultation with the UoL partners and the BDRA team.

Figure 5: Summary of the CORRE framework (Source: OTTER Blog)

This framework is used for evaluation. “The evaluation models available are fairly limited and use approaches that have been traditionally developed for evaluating web-based learning despite the inherent differences in the learning objects approach”( Daniel, B.K and Mohan, P. 2004)  “A model for evaluating Learning Objects”)

4.2 DScribe Framework

DScribe Framework

DScribe stands for digital and distributed scribes. It is a framework developed by the university of Michigan to guide staff and students on the process of transforming educational material into OERs.

https://open.umich.edu/wiki/DScribe

Figure 6: DScribe Publishing Process (Source: Open Michigan)

Activity 4.2 Drafting an institutional OER workflow production process

Aim: Make a start on developing/ adapting an OER production workflow process for your institution.

Motivation: To initiate the establishment of a systematic process that can guide the OER production in your institution

Please undertake Activity 4.2 by clicking the link.

Please note that this Activity is also available directly from the Module 2 home page.

4.3 Developing an OER policy

Developing an OER policy

An OER policy can be regarded as a set of principles that govern and support OER practices in an institution.  A good starting point for OER initiatives is to have clear policies that will guide issues regarding Intellectual property (IPR) and copyright.

It is therefore very important for institutions to either review their current policies or set up new policy frameworks to facilitate collaboration, development and sharing of OER.

Furthermore, Institutions can collaboratively form policies as part of national strategies and emerging global OER networks and repositories. Governments, staff and students should be considered while reviewing OER environments in respective institutions. The advantage and value of collaborative policy making process is that it involves all key players in setting up the objectives of the institution and matching them to relative solutions.

According to the OER Africa Policy Review and Development Toolkit, the policy making process involves five main steps:

Figure 7: Five steps of the policy making process (OER Policy Review and Development Toolkit, Saide, 2012b) Source: OER Africa / Saide

Step 1: Formulate the policy

This is the preliminary stage which involves identification of key objectives of the policy and what are the intended end results. Other questions that will be answered during this stage is (i) whether the policy is necessary? (ii) What will it accomplish? And (iii) what other policies will influence or be influenced by this policy

Step 2: Get the policy approved

In this stage the draft policy is getting reviewed for accuracy, brevity and completeness. The level of authority should be clear and certain for approval and making final recommendations. The approving bodies could be senior management, senate and the council.

Step 3: Release and interpret the policy

The approved policy document can be released in a systematic manner and with making sure that the intended parties are aware and have access to the document. Ground rules, guidelines and procedures on the daily administration of the policy should also be put in place

Step 4: Put the policy into effect

Designate responsibility, accountability, responsibility and authority for putting the policy in place. Proper and clear controls should also be set.

Step 5: Keep the policy up to date

There should be a proper timeframe established for policy review. Once the review is conducted, evaluation and reporting of the results should be done.  Postmortem check should be done to ascertain whether there was any resistance noted and remedial action should be taken.

4.4 Factors to consider when formulating an OER policy

Factors to consider while formulating an OER policy

In engaging with OER initiatives institutions have to consider the following issues:

- The extent to which the current policies, motivate educators to invest and engage themselves in the ongoing teaching and learning environments, for the courses and programmes.
- IPR and Copyright policies that are currently in place to guide the respective rights of its staff, students and other stakeholders in matters relating to intellectual capital.
- The institution has to consider how its current policies and practices reward creation of new materials and promote collaboration. Collaboration between peers in improving existing materials is believed to be more efficient and yields quality results compared to having individuals working on their content in collaboration. Policies should therefore facilitate and support individual efforts towards collaboration with other peers.

Activity 4.2

(Corresponding Moodle activity item: Discussion Forum)

Aim: To identify factors to be considered by your institution while formulating/setting up OER policy

Motivation: To understand what constitutes to an effective policy making process and the stakeholders involved.

Resource: OER Africa Policy Review and Development toolkit

What:

- Read through the OER Africa  Policy Review and Development  toolkit ( Section 2: pgs 4 – 20)

How:

- Document what kind of factors should be considered while doing policy reviews and changes to accommodate OER production in your institution (Mention what offices/faculties/departments that will be affected by the change)
- Think about the key stakeholders in your institution and mention in what aspects can the new policy???????
- Upload your file in the discussion forum for easy sharing with other members

Duration: 30 Minutes

Feedback:

- Peer Review (You can follow through the discussion forum for feedback from peers )
- Read and respond to at least one other persons contribution
- Read the other peoples’ responses to your own contribution and reflect on the comments

According to UNESCO, in order for OER policy to be effective and sustainable, there are at least four main issues that need to be considered

1. Clear provision of policies regarding IPR and copyright: This is mainly related to works and resources created during the course of deployment and how they can be shared by others.

1. Human resource policy considerations which stipulate what are the implications for creation of educational resources in the context of job descriptions, remunerations and promotions.

1. ICT policy guidelines on the support of creation and sharing of resources. These may cover software, hardware, internet connectivity, backups and storage systems.
2. Materials development and Quality assurance policy guidelines to ensure appropriate selection, development, quality assurance, and copyright clearance of works that may be shared

BM: Instead of repeating text from the OER Africa Toolkit – rather formulate an activity and provide the toolkit as a resource. i.e. The students should o and find the information themselves.

According to the OER tool kit, the consideration factors for an OER friendly policy have been grouped into students, staff, governmental and institutional.

.

1. Governmental Considerations

(i) Policies to ensure that a portion of public spending in education is invested in ongoing curriculum design and creation of effective and teaching environments within courses and programmes. This is important in order to provide for the development of high quality teaching and learning materials to address key national needs

(ii) Intellectual property (IP) regimes  should govern public investments in public education programmes

(iii) Awareness by government officials of IPR and copyright challenges posed by digitization of content , and the variety of open licenses available to help deal with these challenges

2. Student Considerations

(i)  The matters to consider as to whether the institution has considered the development of learning resources and research output as part of student’s learning contract

(ii) Training and support  available to students for development of learning resources and if the development and usage of OER is encouraged

(iii) Copyright and private matters regarding the work and output produced by the students. This can relate to research outputs, assignments and co-created resources

(iv) The conditions through which the work created by students can be shared.

3. Staff Considerations

(i)  Staff employment contracts should state and consider the development of works such learning resources, research outputs and reports

(ii)  Training and support available to staff in the development of these works. The use of OER should be encouraged in this process

(iii) Clear copyright guidelines for the works produced by staff

(iv) Conditions through which the work created by staff can be shared by others

4. Institutional Consideration

(i) Institutional policies should clarify about IPR and copyright issues on works created the course employment or study, and how they can be shared by other parties

(ii) HR policy should consider providing guidance regarding whether or not the creation of certain kinds of work constitutes part of job description of staff. It should also clearly stipulate the implications for development, performance management, remuneration and promotion purposes

(iii) Consideration of  ICT policy that will guide access to and use of appropriate technologies ( software , hardware and internet, backup and storage) and technical support

(iv)  Material development and quality assurance policies guidelines to ensure appropriate selection, development, QA and copyright clearance of works that may be shared.

5. Quality Assurance bodies and ‘Other Stakeholders’ considerations

(i)  Awareness by QA and accreditation agencies on IPR and copyright challenges posed by digitization of content and the available open licenses to help deal with the challenges

(ii) Processes to assure the quality of learning materials used in higher education.  Do they take into the account the wide range of types of learning materials and the different purposes for which  - and/or the different contexts in which – they are used?

(iii) In what respect do current policies either encourage or hinder the use of learning materials and in particular any OER

(iv) QA and accreditation processes should be introduced to safeguard quality and encourage constructive change through the adoption of OER

(v)  Can a QA body pronounce on the quality of learning material outside of the context of the course in which it is used

Activity 4.3 - Preparing for Institutional OER policy Development

Aim: To identify factors to be considered by your institution while formulating/setting up OER policy

Motivation: To understand what constitutes to an effective policy making process and the stakeholders involved.

Resource: OER Africa Policy Review and Development toolkit

What:

- Read through the OER Africa  Policy Review and Development  toolkit ( Section 2: pgs 4 – 20)

How:

- Document what kind of factors should be considered while doing policy reviews and changes to accommodate OER production in your institution (Mention what offices/faculties/departments that will be affected by the change)
- Think about the key stakeholders in your institution and mention in what aspects can the new policy???????
- Upload your file in the discussion forum for easy sharing with other members

Duration: 30 Minutes

Feedback:

- Peer Review (You can follow through the discussion forum for feedback from peers )
- Read and respond to at least one other persons contribution
- Read the other peoples’ responses to your own contribution and reflect on the comments

Summary

Summary

It is evident that development of a clear OER policy is essential to ensure effective support of use and production of OER in an institution. We have seen that the responsibility of ensuring an OER friendly policy is highly determined by factors which are directly associated by governments, institutions, staff and students. It is important for policies to clearly consider IP, human resource, ICT support and quality assurance in order to support large scale deployment of OER in teaching and learning. Management should also ensure various initiatives are put in place to ensure the set-up policies are reviewed and updated periodically. This will also contribute to quality assurance and sustainability of the policies

Review Questions

Review Questions

1. Explain the CORRE framework and how it is used to produce OERs
2. Explain the DScribe framework and compare it with the CORRE framework.
3. What is your understanding of the term “OER Policy”? Explain briefly the steps involved in setting up an OER policy.
4. Describe the factors to consider when setting up an OER policy.
5. According to the OER tool kit, the consideration factors for an OER friendly policy have been grouped into students, staff, governmental and institutional. Elaborate on these factors.

References

References

Butcher, N., Kanwar, A and Uvalic-Trumbic (2011) A basic guide to open educational resources (OER) Vancouver, Canada: Commonwealth of Learning and Paris, France: UNESCO. Available online http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=357 (Accessed 27 June 2014)

Nikoi, S. (nd). CORRE: A framework for transforming teaching materials into OERS. Available at http://projectotter.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/corre-a-framework-for-transforming-teaching-materials-into-oers/ 16/5/2014

Nikoi, S. (nd). CORRE: An evaluation framework for transforming teaching materials into OERs. Available at http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/beyond-distance-research-alliance/projects/otter/otter-dissemination/OER%2010%20Conference%20-%20CORRE.ppt 21/5/2014

OER Africa Policy Review and Development Toolkit http://www.oerafrica.org/policy-development-review (Accessed 28 June 2014)

UNESCO –COL (2011) Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education. Available online http://www.col.org/PublicationDocuments/Guidelines_OER_HE.pdf (Accessed 27 June 2014)

UNESCO OER Toolkit http://creativecommons.org/tag/unesco-oer-toolkit (Accessed 27 June 2014)