Module 8: Adapting, Creating & Sharing OER

In the previous seven modules, you’ve learned a great deal about open educational resources and how they can be used as effective teaching and learning materials in your courses.  In this module, you will gain experience in applying what you’ve learned to successfully adopt, adapt, and create an OER. 

Adapting an Existing Open Educational Resources

The term adaptation is commonly used to describe the process of making changes to an existing work. We also can replace “adapt” with revise, modify, alter, customize, or other synonym that describes the act of making a change.

One advantage of choosing an open educational resource is it gives faculty the legal right to add to, adapt, or delete content from the the open work to fit their specific course without obtaining permission from the copyright holder. As you learned in Module 7, this is possible because the copyright holder already has granted permission by releasing their work using an open — or Creative Commons — license. 

Creating OER

The ALMS Framework

For work to be truly “open” and allow the 5-Rs permissions, the work should be meaningfully accessible and editable. How can you ensure adopters can easily reuse, revise, remix, redistribute, and retain the work? The ALMS framework, established by Hilton, Wiley, Stein, and Johnson (2010), highlights the vital importance of offering source files and creating work in easily adoptable formats. 

• • • ACCESS: Offer in a format that can be easily edited with freely accessible tools 

    • LEVEL: Format should not require advanced technical expertise to revise content

    • MEANINGFUL: Offer in an editable format 

    • SOURCE: Source file that is accessible and editable

Using the ALMS framework offers OER creators a structure guiding the openness of the content while ensuring access to adopters in a meaningful way. When creating work, consider sharing it in several formats that permits accessible classroom adoption: MS Word, PDF, and Google doc. 

Which source file do you prefer to use?

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources

This Code was mentioned earlier in Module 4. The detailed Code does not provide rules or decision-making shortcuts on the application of fair use for creators. Nor does the Code describe all situations in which fair use may be available to someone creating, modifying, or adapting an OER.  Instead, through the most common scenarios and examples the code describes an approach and analytical framework for creators to use when considering the inclusion of third-party copyrighted resources (described as 'inserts' in the code) into their OER.  As a creator of an OER, if you find yourself asking - can I use that copyrighted image, text, or video in my OER? This code can help guide you to an appropriate decision and provide you with an understanding of how fair use may or may not apply.

The code breaks down a series of four common situations by discussing:

• description of the OER and work to be incorporated

• principles that reflect best practices from the OER community in applying fair use in repeated scenarios

• considerations for the creator to examine when applying the principles outlined

• hard cases which reflect agreement about some situations in which educators relying on fair use should exercise special care

The common four situations discussed in the code and relevant to creators of OER include: 

1. Using inserts as objects of criticism and commentary

2. Including inserts for the purpose of illustration

3. Incorporating content as learning resource materials

4. Repurposing pedagogical content from existing educational materials

Resources for Creating OER

There are plenty of great resources and creation tools available to get you started. Take a look at the ACC Library OER Guide’s section on Creating OER for links to these resources:

• http://researchguides.austincc.edu/oer/create

Consider using tools you already know and are familiar with such as Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sites, or Blackboard.  If you choose Blackboard, keep in mind that the platform is not technically an 'open' platform. Only students enrolled in your class (for that semester) or colleagues who you add to your course are able to view your content,  if it only exists in Blackboard.  However, if you are more comfortable sharing your openly licensed work with a smaller audience first, then Blackboard is a viable alternative.

While ACC does not require the use of one creation platform over another, OER Commons Open Author is used by several faculty at ACC and is supported.  With the launch of the OERTX statewide repository in the fall of 2020, the same Open Author Tool is also available from the OERTX site. Open Author is a free and easy to use tool for creating and remixing OER.  The video below provides a short overview of how to use Open Author from the OERTX site. To use Open Author from OERTX you must first create  a free account.  

Creating and Remixing Using Open Author

Licensing Your Work

Don’t forget to choose a license for your work! Look at this extensive list of considerations for licensors and licensees before deciding which license to apply to your work. Use the Creative Commons license chooser as well.

In March of 2020 ACC updated the Copyright Ownership Administrative Rule 4.02.006 to explicitly state that when applicable faculty can select an open license for their work created at ACC.   According to the rule, "...ACC creators are encouraged to add a CC license to any ACC content distributed to the larger public via the college’s website, with the exception of works that are subject to an intellectual property agreement between the ACC creator and the College, such as works of compelling institutional interest, provided that doing so does not violate the terms of any existing College agreements or government regulations. "

For information on the AR and to read it in full go to: Administrative Rule: Copyright Ownership, pages 2-4.

One Last Reminder:

Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable. This means that you cannot stop someone, who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons license, from using the work according to that license. You can stop offering your work under a Creative Commons license at any time you wish, but this will not affect the rights associated with any copies of your work already in circulation under a Creative Commons license. So, you need to think carefully when choosing a Creative Commons license to make sure that you are happy with people being able to use your work consistent with the terms of the license, even if you later stop distributing your work.

Sharing Your Work

Are you interested in sharing your material? Do you have an engaging course activity, image, assessment item, video, or a whole course that might be beneficial to other ACC or discipline faculty? Sharing your work is a personal choice and can be daunting, but it also can be rewarding. Sharing your work with others allows for increased use as well as opportunities for collaboration, enhancement, and improvement of your work.  You can start small by sharing your work with others in your department or just at ACC. Or, if you are ready, you can share it globally with other educators and students.

Whether you share it locally or globally as an OER, consider the following steps as your guide to sharing your work.

Step 1: Terms of Use

Decide on the terms of use. Do you wish to release your work under Creative Commons license or in the public domain? Please make sure to review the difference between these two copyright terms:

• By releasing your work under a Creative Commons license, you retain ownership while allowing others to use your work (as long as they attribute it to you) without needing to ask permission of you directly.

• By releasing your work in the public domain, your copyright ownership is waived. It is as if you are GIVING your work to the public as a gift. Users may still cite you when adopting your work, but they are not required to do so.

Please see “What is the difference between public domain and open license?” in Module 4 for details.

Step 2: Seeking Copyright Clearance

Be sure that the work is eligible to be shared. To release your work with a CC license or in the public domain, your work should be cleared from all copyright issues. To do so, your work should be one or a combination of the following types:

• 1. your original work,

  2. built from open resources,

  3. built from the public domain,

  4. built from copyrighted work that you obtained permission to use, and distribute for the life of your openly licensed work, or

  5. combination of above works

Note: For any third-party materials, whether openly licensed or copyrighted, those materials need to be attributed as not governed by the CC license you chose for your work, but under different terms and by different authors. Review the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources for additional discussions on appropriate attribution of copyrighted materials.

Getting Permission to Use Copyrighted Materials

If you must use any items that are copyrighted with all-rights reserved, please be sure to obtain the permission letters from the authors. Please find a sample permission request email.

Step 3: Selecting a Repository

For Images

Consider Flickr or Wikimedia Commons. As you upload your image to these repositories, you will see the option to select the terms of use. Open Washington has created simple instructions if you need help in uploading an image to your Flickr account and marking it with a CC license.

For Videos

Consider YouTube  or Vimeo. For help, consult these instructions created by Open Washington for uploading videos in Youtube. Always provide captions to your videos. YouTube automatically creates captions; always verify the captions are correct. They can be edited easily by following these simple instructions. 

For Course Materials

Consider OERTX, the statewide OER repository. Alternatively, since ACC is a Google Apps for Education institution, choosing a web storage space like Google Drive allows for easy and free access.  If you choose a web storage space, make sure to (1) manually mark your work as CC-licensed or in the public domain by placing the copyright notice somewhere visible and (2) make the link accessible by the public.

Attributions

Information for this module was consulted and adapted from

"6 Steps to modifying an Open Textbook" by BC Campus is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Adaptation Guide: What is an Adaptation" by BC Campus is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources" available at auw.cl/oer is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Considerations for licensors and licensees" by Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Creating Open Educational Resources: Tips for New Creators" by Abbey Elder is licensed  under CC BY 4.0

"Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know" by Open Education Network is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Module 4: Copyright & Open Licensing - Assignment: Create OER" in the Open Education Primer by SPARC is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Module 8: Sharing OER" by Open Washington is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"OER at ACC: Developing OER Materials" by ACC Teaching & Learning Excellence is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0