Creating, Using, and Sharing Open Educational Resources: Five Things to Consider

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Today’s post was written to encourage you as a faculty member to go out bravely into the landscape of OER and fight the fears you may have of open licensing , fair use, and public domain resources.  I know these issues can be confusing.  These five tips will help you begin to get up to speed on the issues and fight those fears of the unknown!  Don’t stay in the dark!  Face your fears!

#1 Open Licensing is a good thing!  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  You make educational resources, you share them with your students at no cost.  You share them with the world.  Plain and simple.  Well, not really. But truthfully, open licensing is not that hard. Simply licensing your work as fully open (CC by)  gives anyone in the world the rights to retain, revise, reuse, remix, and redistribute it.  However, you can limit the level of openness if you choose.  
#2 Creative Commons(CC) licensing helps simplify the sharing of educational resources .  You as a creator (or adapter/remixer) can choose to add a simple CC license to your creations.  Rather than all rights reserved of traditional publishing it allows you to share and tell the world that some rights are reserved and it gives other automatic permission to use your work.
#3  Remixing can save you time.  But, remix with care.  You must determine whether or not the resources you want to mix match up or will fit together under CC licensing standards. Be sure to pay attention to the presence of ND, NC, and SA restrictions.  This will affect the license you will need to use on your final creation.  In the case of ND licenses, you will not be able to remix it at all.  But you can use it in its current form.       
#4 Fair Use is tricky.  But this should not be a deterrent to using copyrighted resources in your courses or your open creations.  You just need to know the rules!  It is your responsibility to determine whether or not resources you’d like to use can be used under the rules of fair use.  Resources are available  that can help you determine this.  The University of Minnesota Libraries have created a tool that can help you determine if you use intentions fit the dictates of fair use.  
#5 Public Domain publications are useful.  You can sometimes find interesting resources to include in your course content. You just need to learn the basics for using them. Stanford University offers a comprehensive overview of public domain works to help you get up to speed.

I hope these tips encourage you to get started on a quest to explore creating, adopting, and remixing open educational resources.  Remember if you have questions or need assistance, the University Libraries/Global Campus OER Team is here to help!  Email us at oer@uark.edu.    

References
Opencontent.org.  “Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Educational Resources”
Stanford University Libraries.  “Welcome to the Public Domain.”
University of Minnesota Libraries.  “Thinking Through Fair Use.”

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