Week 2 Find and evaluate OER
Exploerer_1.0Learning to (Re)Use Open Educational Resources
Week 2 Find and evaluate OER
About this free course
This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course .
This version of the content may include video, images and interactive content that may not be optimised for your device.
You can experience this free course as it was originally designed on OpenLearn, the home of free learning from The Open University –
There you’ll also be able to track your progress via your activity record, which you can use to demonstrate your learning.
Copyright © 2016 The Open University
Intellectual property
Unless otherwise stated, this resource is released under the terms of the Creative Commons Licence v4.0 Within that The Open University interprets this licence in the following way: Copyright and rights falling outside the terms of the Creative Commons Licence are retained or controlled by The Open University. Please read the full text before using any of the content.
We believe the primary barrier to accessing high-quality educational experiences is cost, which is why we aim to publish as much free content as possible under an open licence. If it proves difficult to release content under our preferred Creative Commons licence (e.g. because we can’t afford or gain the clearances or find suitable alternatives), we will still release the materials for free under a personal end-user licence.
This is because the learning experience will always be the same high quality offering and that should always be seen as positive – even if at times the licensing is different to Creative Commons.
When using the content you must attribute us (The Open University) (the OU) and any identified author in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Licence.
The Acknowledgements section is used to list, amongst other things, third party (Proprietary), licensed content which is not subject to Creative Commons licensing.Proprietary content must be used (retained) intact and in context to the content at all times.
The Acknowledgements sectionis also used to bring to your attention any other Special Restrictions which may apply to the content.For example there may be times when the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Sharealike licence does not apply to any of the content even if owned by us (The Open University).In these instances, unless stated otherwise, the content may be used for personal and non-commercial use.
We have also identified as Proprietary other material included in the content which is not subject to Creative Commons Licence.These are OU logos, trading names and may extend to certain photographic and video images and sound recordings and any other material as may be brought to your attention.
Unauthorised use of any of the content may constitute a breach of the terms and conditions and/or intellectual property laws.
We reserve the right to alter, amend or bring to an end any terms and conditions provided here without notice.
All rights falling outside the terms of the Creative Commons licence are retained or controlled by The Open University.
Head of Intellectual Property, The Open University
Contents
- Week 2 Find and evaluate OER
- 2.1 What do you do?
- 2.2 About licensing
- 2.3 Your OER places
- 2.4 An OER rubric
Week 2 Find and evaluate OER
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Photo Credit: About to fly away by Thomas Tolkien, CC BY-NC 2.0
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This week you are invited to jump in and:
- learn about Creative Commons licences
- explore and add to your treasure chest of open resources
- think about how you may go about evaluating the quality of open resources.
2.1 What do you do?
How do you go about preparing for a class? Do you have a look at the textbooks you have at home or in the library? Do you go online? Do you ask your colleagues to share ideas?
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Activity 1
Allow about 15 minutes
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Take a few minutes and jot down your thinking in answer to the questions above.
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Provide your answer...
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In the video below, we’ve asked a language teacher the same question. Watch the video and then have a look at your notes: are your experiences similar to hers?
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Watch the video at YouTube.com.
How do you go about preparing your class?
End of Media Content
End of Question
End of Activity
2.2 About licensing
It is common enough to assume that because something is online, it is also free to use. But is it, really? Do you normally ask the person who uploaded their materials online whether you can use them in your class, in your presentation, in your report…? Of course not! That’s what Creative Commons licences do: they let you know exactly how an author would like you to use their materials while they retain copyright. The following image explains what each of the licences allows you to do.
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Source: How to Attribute Creative Commons Photos, by FOTER.
View description - Uncaptioned figure
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These licences can be combined. For example, the image reproduced right above this paragraph has been released under a CC BY-SA licence, which means that it can be reused in this course as long as it is attributed and shared under the same terms. The author has not added any restrictions with regard to adapting the resource (note that we have cropped it from the original) or using it for commercial purposes.
What is important for you to understand is that only resources allowing for adaptation are actual OER; if you can’t adapt it, then it’s not open. See the slide below: a resource with a No-Derivatives (CC-ND) licence stops you from making any changes to it, therefore it is not open.
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Source: Creative Commons Licenses, by Paul Stacey, CC BY 4.0
View description - Uncaptioned figure
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Watch Josie Fraser talking about Creative Commons licences and the decisions we make when choosing which licence to use.
Start of Activity
Activity 2
Start of Question
Fancy playing a game? Follow the instructions in the link and remix four different media types to create a new resource.
End of Question
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2.3 Your OER places
Although research tells us that open content is hard to find, there is a growing number of repositories and search engines to help you locate what you need.
Here are some suggestions:
- OER Commons contains 50,000 learning materials in a variety of subjects ranging from preschool to adult education.
- OpenLearn is the home of free learning materials from The Open University.
- OpenStax CNX offers thousands of textbook-style resources in a host of disciplines that can be viewed, downloaded, adapted and shared.
- PhET is a collection of free interactive simulations for Math and Science from the University of Colorado.
- For language learning materials, head over to the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning at the University of Texas.
- iBerry The Academic Porthole helps you connect to information and resources in Higher Education.
- Open Education Europa contains a very useful list of European repositories of OER classified by country, language and subject among other categories.
If you are looking for images, Photos for Class allows you to directly search properly attributed, Creative Commons, age-appropriate images from Flickr; Unsplash contains photos licensed Creative Commons Zero, and Pixabay gives you access to hundreds of thousands of public domain images, including vectors and art illustrations.
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Activity 3
Allow about 15 minutes
Start of Question
What websites would you recommend to other people?
Imagine you are helping to crowdsource a list of must-go online places: think of at least one link to your preferred repositories/sites and make a note of it below. Perhaps your colleagues at work would be interested in giving you a hand.
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Provide your answer...
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2.4 An OER rubric
Once you find an openly licensed resource (an image, a lesson, a unit, etc.), how do you decide whether you are going to use it in class or not?
The questions below, adapted from Achieve, suggest some aspects you may want to consider when evaluating the quality of teaching and learning resources.
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Quality of explanation of the subject matter
- How thoroughly is the subject matter explained?
- Are the main ideas clearly identified for the students?
Utility of materials designed to support teaching
- Are materials comprehensive and easy to understand and use?
- Are suggestions for ways to use the materials with a variety of learners included?
Quality of technological interactivity
- If interactive, is this feature purposeful and directly related to learning?
- If interactive, do materials create an individualised learning experience (i.e. do they adapt to students based on what they do?)
Opportunities for deeper learning
- Do materials engage students in working collaboratively, thinking critically and solving complex problems, learning how to learn, communicating effectively, etc.?
Assurance of accessibility
- Are the materials fully accessible for ALL students, i.e. visually impaired, print disabled, etc.?
Source: Rubrics for Evaluating Open Education Resource (OER) Objects by Achieve, CC BY 3.0
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Start of Activity
Activity 4
Allow about 30 minutes
Start of Question
What aspects do you consider when you are evaluating a resource for teaching?
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Provide your answer...
End of Activity
You can now move on to Week 3 Reuse in action.
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Description
The image shows four Creative Commons licences. (From left to right) Attribution (by) You may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these. Non-commercial (NC) You may copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only for noncommercial purposes. No Derivative Works (ND) You may copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work, not derivative works based on it. Share Alike (SA) You may distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs the original work. Below the badges is a notice that reads: A licence cannot feature both the Share Alike and No Derivative Works options. The Share Alike requirement applies only to derivative works.
Back to Session 1 Figure 2
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Description
The slide is in three columns. The first column has ‘least free’ at the bottom with an arrow pointing upwards to ‘most free’ at the top of the column. The middle column shows the creative commons licences available: the most free at the top of the column is Public domain; next is By, then BY SA; BY NC; BY NC SA; BY ND and finally, the least free is BY NC ND. The third column has an arrow against the first five licences with the word OER. The last two licences (BY ND and BY NC ND) have an arrow against them and the words Not OER.
Back to Session 1 Figure 3
Page 1 of 425th August 2016