OER's @ York

2807176376_78fcf91153_o

Sorry we're open by kittyz202. CC Attribution License 2.0

Open Educational Resourcing (OER's) @ York

Lisa O'Neill, Teaching Commons

As we begin a new academic year, it's timely to reconsider how we develop engaging educational resources. If an image is worth a thousand words lets utilize them in our communications with learners alongside video, audio, and data visualizations!

We don't have to reinvent the wheel by creating these resources from scratch thanks to the open education movement, and the growing library of open educational resources (OER's) that are just a click away. We just need a bit of a clearer 'picture' of which items are within our rights to utilize, which may be copyrighted but fall under our fair dealing exemptions, and which are currently infringing on an author's copyright (if so we ask them for their permission or replace them with similar, open licensed works). Because OER's are produced with the intention of being shared, reused and/or remixed they don't infringe on the right of the owner of media/text in the same way as using copyrighted materials would.

The York University copyright policy is a valuable tool when resourcing your course materials if they include copyrighted materials. These seemingly opposing forces (copyright and open resources) actually work in partnership because a combination of open and copyrighted materials are often utilized in teaching and learning,

To sum up... when considering OER's, consider some of these connected best practices:

  • Find resources that are explicitly usable (are in the public domain, or open licensed),
  • Find resources that can be linked instead of copying in to your course files,
  • Don't equate media/text you can access with 'free' or 'open',
  • Email/ask the author/owner for permission if you're unsure of the allowance to utilize,

and of course...

  • Read the fine print. Permission to 'use' may not mean permission to 'modify'.

So then what about Fair Dealing...

Short excerpts of copyright protected works are considered 'acceptable use' in a classroom (a private physical or virtual space), for educational purposes under a Fair Dealing exemption. Our educational context covers us for “dealing", while “Fair” refers to the limited amount you can use from a much larger work.

An example: You can use a poem from a book provided you only give access to the poem and not the entire book.

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 8.56.13 AM To learn more about fair dealing review the following PDF: York's fair dealings guideline.

Utilizing Creative Commons Assets

The Creative Commons site is one of the most common locations to find OER's, and also one of the most important places for you to explore, if you are considering sharing your developed educational assets!

To explore Creative Commons further watch the video titled A shared Culture . This will give you some insight into why we use CC content in TC workshops.

Most important when using CC licensed content is your review of the fine print. Each OER has its own license. Free use of an asset may not allow you editing or "remixing" of that content. To keep this movement flourishing please identify and then respect the creators required attribution.

Screen Shot 2016-05-17 at 8.56.55 AM You can learn how to attribute oer's appropriately on Moly Kleinmans blog.

Take time to explore

Think about your fall term course, consider what you are covering in your first couple of lectures or online modules, and explore some of the growing library of resources available to you:

General searching


Image searching

  • Google (same as above, but using the images tab to review results)
  • Flickr commons - Looking up photo permissions on flickr
  • Morguefile - A free photo archive "by creatives for creatives"

Audio searching

Return to blog homepage