Introduction to Contributing to OER

Editor's Notes

1. On 12 Feb 2010, UCT launched its OpenContent directory and thereby joining the broader OER movement
2. MIT really initiated the idea of OER on a broad scale even though technically the Rice University Connexions project was technically the first to make OER available. Many higher educational intuitions are now offering OER
3. Image 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/courosa/2922421696/ Image 2: http:// veja.abril.com.br/imagem/professorantenado.jpg Image 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stylianosm/3706684606/ Image 4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/langwitches/3460307056/
4. www. oercommons .org/
5. Academic Earth which aggregates academic videos from various institutions around the globe (http://academicearth.org/)
6. http://www.opencontent.org.uk/steeple/index.php And http://www.steeple.org.uk/wiki/Main_Page
7. We have built up a ‘dictionary’ of terms that we use to categorize and describe OER content at UCT. We use terms like title, author, faculty, department, media type, language and license to describe teaching and learning materials . These are controlled vocabularies which allow similar materials to be categorized and viewed together. We also would like to allow the users of OER to contribute in assigning keywords to resources, sharing materials on social sites such as twitter or facebook, emailing interesting materials to their friends, and subscribing to their favourite academic’s feed of OER materials. The web enables all of this social interaction with content – and we believe that teaching and learning materials have the potential to grow, improve and increase their reach and impact using these social tools.
8. We also intend to build functionality which will allow the creator to track the use of their resources around the world through web statistic services such as google analytics. Key indicators such when my resource was accessed, from where, how did they find the resource, etc will become important and interesting statistics at the individual level as well as for the departments and the institution. The OER UCT Directory is scheduled to go live in February 2010.
9. First, an important distinction… The difference between "online content" and "open content" Much of the content we interact on a daily basis is online, but that does not necessarily make it open. Reuse – the right to reuse the content in its unaltered / verbatim form Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new Redistribute – the right to make and share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others  How do we know its open? Through open license models such as Creative Commons
10. The UCT OpenContent directory hosts openly licensed teaching and learning resources created by academics and students at UCT This could range from a number of different materials: Instructional websites , Handbooks, Image Collections, textbooks, Presentations, Vula sites, Podcasts, video lectures Basically anything used in the teaching and learning process Needs to be something that you have created most likely due to some curriculum need and are interested to share on a wider basis. Question: What resources do you have that you could share?
11. Once we have identified something we would like to share, we need to scrutinize it for any potential third party copyright considerations. This is the least fun part of the process! Remember that textual quotes or references from scholarly materials are ok to include as long as you reference properly. The problem is usually media, images, charts, graphs, etc. Often we create materials that use other’s content simply because we found it online – remember online does not necessarily mean open ! If you have used content which you do not have the right to share openly, you have three options: Replace the resource with an openly licensed alternative Obtain permission from the publisher, author, or organization that holds copyright (we have seen this work!) If all else fails – reconsider using the material at all
12. **OPTIONAL** This is the Health Sciences example I used for Occupational Therapy.
13. **OPTIONAL**   This I reproduced in Powerpoint using a vector graphic and text box graphics. 
14. **OPTIONAL**   The second Health Sciences example.
15. **OPTIONAL** Also reproduced in Powerpoint using textboxes and drawings.
16. Copyrighted diagrams and charts can be recreated using popular office applications such as PowerPoint, Excel, or Word. This also allows the craetor to put their own spin on the media – maybe even making it better and improving their thinking about it GoogleDocs and Gliffy are online diagram creation tools which are free and easy to use for diagram creation.
17. There are plenty of options for finding alternatives image using openly licensed content sources: Great Search Creative Commons Flickr images search engine called compfight Images on Wikipedia are either Creative Commons or PD – did you hear that! Over 6 million media files licensed under creative commons available for reuse!! Part of Wikipedia - Medical Images - Grays Anatomy  Re-creation of the image for your own purposes – I have given you some links for these software tools. GoogleDocs drawing /diagram tool http://www.gliffy.com/ Lastly, one can recrete using Powerpoint, Word, Excel, or by using scanned hand-drawn graphics
18. Once you have found something that is openly licensed to use, you will need to reference it. There is no one standard for referencing open content. We believe it is best practice to include License  Creators Name (ususally a user name which may not be their given names) A link to source file online May differ according to where its used, print – include URL, online - link to
19. Creative commons gives us space to operate between full copyright and public domain. I just want to mention here that so often, without realizing it, we put our work under full copyright –without even really knowing why. If you don’t specify an open license such as creative commons, you automatically retain full copyright. So of you put something online, and don’t specifiy an open license, you retain full copyright – although its online for anyone to access – and someone will probably use it some way too! These are some of the issues with our 300 year old copyright laws in a digital age.
20. Attribution is always implied when using the Creative Commons license. Users - This license will ensure anyone who uses your work will give you credit for being the creator. Creators - You can use the content as long as you reference the original creator. Non-Commercial Users - You can freely use the work as long as it is not for commercial gain. Creators - Your work will not be used by others for commercial gain. No Derivatives Users - You can use the work in its original verbatim form alone. You may not adapt or re-work the material. Creators - Your work will be available for use in its original form and will not be modified. Share Alike Users - You can use the content freely as long as you also share it using the same license in which you found it. Creators - Anyone who uses your work will share it the same way you have, ensuring the continuing openness of your original work.
21. Some of the license options based on the two key decisions you need to make about licensing: Do you allow commercial uses of your work? Would you allow modifications of your work?
22. Consider the example of the resource constrained school teacher who wants to print out and distribute Creative Commons material to students.  They may need to charge a small fee to recoup the cost of printing.  This could be forbidden under a NC clause.   The Share-Alike clause ensures that your work will be shared in the same fashion you shared it. In order for a company to make a substantial profit from the work, they would have to provide added value beyond what is available for free. A NC license stops any such attempt to add value, is this what we really want?
23. We have copied the licenses locally at UCT to enable academics to get the license badge and text as easily as possible. Lets take a look… its as easy as cutting and pasting the license you want to use into your resource. Demo with oer_Psychological Tools and Mediated Learning
24. Hopefully the resource is already online (Vula, Departmental server, etc.) WE believe that often its best to choose your host most suitable to the file type: Lets look at some examples of content currently on OpenContent in various file types. Slideshare (Example) HTML sites (Example) Document on Vula (Example) Flickr Youtube No matter where it is hosted, you will be able to describe it and make it more discoverable using the OpenContent Directory!