Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.

This fact sheet for adult educators provides a brief overview of OER and licensing.

According to United Nations Educational, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) “Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation” ( UNESCO, 2002). The organization, a forum comprised of many people who were interested in developing together a universal educational resource available for the whole of humanity. The committee chose the term “open educational resources” to describe their efforts.

This lesson plan walks students through the copyright licenses and open educational resources.  Students will learn how to author resources using the OER Commons platform, align them to standards, and evaluate them using the Achieve Rubrics.

Open licensing of instructional materials such as textbooks, videos, and other related resources makes possible free sharing and remixing which reduces cost barriers for students. Creative Commons provides the legal infrastructure for easily sharing creative works including instructional materials but how do the different licenses indicate a resource can be re-used. Join us for an interactive session of playbook license scenarios where you test your knowledge of the OER re-use based on license type.

Use this checklist to make sure that your resource meets all the requirements for open licensing. Please note that it is very helpful to review this checklist BEFORE you begin development work so that you are designing your resource with open licensing requirements in mind from the beginning.

This link goes to the Strategic Action group on OER Commons where you can download a pdf version of the document or remix the editable version.

Use this checklist to make sure that all the requirements for open licensing are met. Please note that it is very helpful to review this checklist BEFORE you begin development work so that you are designing your resource with open licensing requirements in mind from the beginning.

This is a supplementary video for the Commonwealth of Learning Open Textbook Manual. It shows how to create Lessons in OER Commons. The OER Commons Lesson Builder allows instructors to create resources that are viewable by students as lessons, and by teachers as lesson plans with supplemental instructional resources.

This is a supplementary video to support the Commonwealth of Learning's Open Textbook Manual. It shows you how to use the OER Commons Open Author Tool to create Open Textbooks.

This is a short micro-course that will introduce students to open education, copyright, and open licensing. It is helpful because it contains reading and practice assignments that guide students through copyright. There are optional pre-tests where you can test what you already know about the subject before engaging with the material as well. Throughout the modules, quizzes not only help to keep you engaged, but show you whether you are learning the material.
You are required to create a free account to access the course materials.
It is important to note that this is not strictly based on United States copyright law, but it does provide a good overview of general copyright rules.

Created as part of the Creative Commons Licensing Certificate, this video provides an introduction to Open Educational Resources, Open Access, and Creative Commons licensing for faculty who may be interested in publishing or using open resources.

CC BY 4.0

This guide provides a primer on copyright and use permissions. It is intended to support teachers, librarians, curriculum experts and others in identifying the terms of use for digital resources, so that the resources may be appropriately (and legally) used as part of lessons and instruction. The guide also helps educators and curriculum experts in approaching the task of securing permission to use copyrighted materials in their classrooms, collections, libraries or elsewhere in new ways and with fewer restrictions than fair use potentially offers. The guide was created as part of ISKME's Primary Source Project, and is the result of collaboration with copyright holders, intellectual property experts, and educators.

This guide provides a primer on copyright and use permissions. It is intended to support teachers, librarians, curriculum experts and others in identifying the terms of use for digital resources, so that the resources may be appropriately (and legally) used as part of lessons and instruction. The guide also helps educators and curriculum experts in approaching the task of securing permission to use copyrighted materials in their classrooms, collections, libraries or elsewhere in new ways and with fewer restrictions than fair use potentially offers. The guide was created as part of ISKME's Primary Source Project, and is the result of collaboration with copyright holders, intellectual property experts, and educators.* "Copyright license choice" by opensource.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

The following content is developed for satisify course requirements for the MDDE 622 course in Fall 2018.In the era of remixing and sharing, it is important to understand how copyright and licensing impact content creation. This learning module will introduce the topic of copyright and licensing to the reader. The module will also include an introduction to Creative Commons, the tools and resource provided by CC, the CC licenses, and finally how to properly provide attribution when using CC licensed content.The intended audience for this learning module includes faculty, instructional designers, and content developers who create and share educational content. This module can be embedded into instructional design courses that introduce topics such as sourcing, licensing, copyright, Creative Commons, and attribution.Note: All content provided here is licensed under CC BY unless specified otherwise.

This workflow can help you understand the major steps in the production of OER and manage your own progress towards creating OER. Key questions are asked at various points and direction to support from library. We ask faculty and departments authoring open content to engage in this process in order for their OER to be recognized. This work, created by Billy Meinke and University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 International license - Revisions by Regina Gong at Lansing Community College and OPEN SLCC.

This guide provides information on how to locate and provide attribution for openly licensed images as well as guidance on which images cannot be used due lack of copyright permission.

This guide provides information on:searching openly licensed image librarieshow to locate and provide attribution for openly licensed imagesguidance on which images cannot be used due lack of copyright permission

Short Description:
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) is a living repository of collective knowledge, written to equip all those who want to publish open textbooks with the resources they need. Representing two years of collaboration, innumerable conversations and exchanges, and a wide range of collective knowledge and experience, the Guide is a book-in-progress and will evolve and grow over time. Join the project discussion and help shape its development! Version 3.0 of this Guide has been updated as of July 2022.

Long Description:
The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) is for anyone thinking about starting an open textbook project. It starts at the beginning of the process, with chapters on project scoping and building a team, and then moves on to content creation and editing, getting feedback and reviews, coordinating release and adoptions, and sustaining the book’s community.

The book is also a work-in-progress, an effort that will evolve and grow over time. Through conversations, use, new writers’ and editors’ contributions, and ongoing reflection and revision, it will reflect our changing perspectives on how and why we make open textbooks. Initiated by Rebus team members Zoe Wake Hyde and Apurva Ashok, the text is the result of innumerable conversations and exchanges within the Rebus Community, representing a wide range of collective knowledge and experience.

Please note those two little words in parentheses in the title: there are plenty of new learnings, knowledge, and reflexive revisions to come! Everyone is therefore invited to become a part of the project and follow its progress, as well as leave feedback, comments, and recommendations for corrections on the Rebus Community platform.

Word Count: 56612

ISBN: 978-1-989014-11-0

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This document is an evidence-based guide that outlines the practical and policy supports needed to enable K-12 school librarians to take on leadership roles around OER, and to support OER curation efforts by librarians and all educators.

This guide is based on a study led by ISKME (iskme.org) in collaboration with Florida State University's School of Information. The study is titled “Exploring OER Curation and the Role of School Librarians". ISKME designs guides and toolkits that help educators navigate and implement new teaching and learning practices. Grounded in research, our evidence-based guides and toolkits help articulate what actually works in real education settings—and are tailored to the unique professional learning needs of our clients and their stakeholders.

The study was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (www.imls.gov), under grant number LG-86-17-0035-17. The findings and recommendations expressed in this document do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

This book is a practical guide to adapting or creating open textbooks using the Pressbooks platform. It is continually evolving as new information, practices and processes are developed. The primary audience for this book is community members at Ryerson University, Ontario who are interested in creating Open Educational Resources; however, there may be content within this book that is useful to others working on similar Open Educational Resource initiatives.