Open Educational Resources Mythbusting About

“Open Educational Resources Policy in Eu- This publication is available under Creative rope” is a project of Creative Commons that Commons Attribution 4.0 International brings together a coalition of international license. [https://creativecommons.org/li- experts associated with CC to strengthen censes/by/4.0/] the implementation of open education poli- cies across Europe. We aim to take advantage of the current high profile of open education in Europe, demonstrated by the prominent place of OER in the new educational initiative “Open- Authors: Karolina Grodecka, Kamil Śliwowski ing up Education”. October 2014, version 1.0

We would like to thank members of OER community, especially Creative Commons and OpenCourseWare communities for input from workshops about mythbusting and help with research.

If you have any comments or You would like to engage and support us in further devel- opment of this project, feel free to write: [email protected]

1 ers of all ages, parents of schoolchildren. The Open Educational Resources movement Introduction. This situation is not improved by the largely was conceived as a way to transform and adverse reaction of the publishing sector to democratize access to education. The move- the increasing popularity of OER, a reaction ment is less then ten years old, but it has Open Educational Resources: that hardens as electronic textbooks and already matured to a point at which govern- digital educational resources gain purchase ments, companies – and, most importantly, myths need to be busted in public schools. It is typical all over the teachers and learners around the world – world for misconceptions to flourish when a are creating OERs and using them in count- government considers introducing publicly less ways. The number of resources and funded OER. projects available to copy, remix and share without restriction is growing week by week. We started by conducting a survey among However, this in itself does not guarantee a open education experts, coupled with a systemic change in the forms of public ed- In 2011, Polish government launched the possible, actual data and evidence about broad desk research. We were searching ucation that currently prevail. Myths about “Digital school” program, the largest ICT the functioning of OERs in a variety of coun- for cases of the various myths about OER. OERs can stop people from using them and program in primary and secondary schools tries is the best way to counter these nega- Interestingly, a closer look at relevant ma- causing real educational change. The goal of to date, with a significant open e-textbooks tive views. terial in the press reveals a polarization of this publication is to dispel those myths. component. The program generated, for opinions: some articles describe OER as an the first time, considerable interest of main- OER projects around the world have faced established, successful trend in education stream media in the subject of open edu- many different obstacles, from poor un- while others caution against OER, their po- cation. As the program continues (the text- derstanding on the part of decision makers tential to damage the publishing market, or books will be ready in September 2015), in and educators about what Open Educa- their low quality. Our own survey conducted many cases media coverage is distorted by tional Resources actually are to concerted among teachers and experts concluded with misconceptions and inaccurate information negative PR¹ campaigns against openness more insightful results. about Open Educational Resources (OER). of educational or public resources. The Public debate has, to some degree, been latter are most typically arranged by the based on these misunderstandings. OER traditional publishing sector, which consid- activists and institutions involved in discus- ers the OER model as competing with, and sions with reluctant publishers and educa- even dangerous for their business models. tion specialists have gradually tackled all the While conducting numerous workshops and misconceptions. Similar problems emerged training sessions with teachers, authors of earlier in other countries, such as Australia, school textbooks and educators, we found Germany, USA and Spain. that most arguments levelled against Open Educational Resources are based on myths. In recent years we began analysing criticism Open Educational Resources are frequently of Open Educational Resources and ques- confused with things that they are not, and tions raised in the public debate. These are unnecessarily regarded as enemies to edu- not specific to Poland – similar problems cational resources produced by traditional emerged earlier in other countries, such as publishers. Australia, Germany, USA and Spain. Our goal in OER mythbusting is to demonstrate how The press and other media are often also certain negative attitudes are often based not conveying objective information to on false assumptions. Presenting, whenever directly interested parties – teachers, learn- Chart . What are most typical arguments You hear against Open Educational Resources?

¹ Black PR around Polish e­Textbooks, Michał “rysiek” Woźniak, http://rys.io/en/94 2 3 Users side cause] that is what they are used to.” When of OER use (at least in Higher Education; if they are to overcome initial resistance to asked to describe the main difficulty with research for K12 in this area is still limited). an idea they usually do not fully understand OER materials for students, another teacher According to EduCase, 71% of respondents or appreciate. Many are unfamiliar with the In a survey by TJ Bliss, T. Jared Robinson, simply wrote “It’s online.”³ have used freely available open education- concepts of an open license and open ed- John Hilton and David A. Wiley entitled “An al resources – OER – in the past year, while ucational resources, and even if they have OER COUP: College Teacher and Student Fig. 2. Common OER misconceptions: are all 10% have been using OER “all the time.” heard about them, they voice additional Perceptions of Open Educational Resourc- digital, freely available resources open? Both reports were limited to university stu- worries. To quote Saylor.org, “chief concerns es”², 11% of participating teachers and 6% dents in the United States. In such countries included the loss of control of materials, of students thought that the quality of OER This survey articulates what we frequently as Belgium, Norway or the Netherlands, commercial reproduction, and loss of traffic/ textbooks was lower than that of the tradi- observed while conducting OER training where government-supported open digital ad revenue”⁶. tional textbooks they had used in the past. with teachers: a problem with perception, resource programs are well established, All of these respondents then pointed to exacerbated by so-called “open washing”: even higher usage rates have been noted. Explaining open licenses is a battle with technical problems or poor text formatting the identifying of Open Educational Re- The Belgian OER platform KlasCement is particular perceptions and fears. Authors as reasons for the low rating. The teachers, sources with any free (unpaid) online re- used by 70% of teachers nationwide, and and publishers are often convinced that however, have provided a detailed descrip- sources. Most myths about OER are rooted a third of Belgian teachers have created publishing in an open model is inferior to tion of common problems with OER mate- in this misunderstanding. This may relate an individual user account. The number of traditional publishing: they fear that quality rials, and it appears that a perceived inferi- not just to free educational content, but remixes of educational resources placed on might suffer, that open publishing means a ority of OER as teaching resources was tied more broadly to all types of information the Dutch WikiWijs platform has been grow- financial loss, a decrease in website traffic, to difficulties with accessing content online available via the Internet that can be made ing by over 100% a year; the platform is now or damage to the author’s or publisher’s and student practices – and not the content open. being expanded to include resources for reputation. In negotiations with academic itself. One teacher in the survey stated that higher education. Varied evidence and lack and scientific authors it is important to un- “The students have limited access to re- The 2013 reports from Boundless⁴ and of research that measures use in a system- derstand their workflows and funding sys- sources. They choose print materials [be- EduCase⁵ have shown a significant growth ic manner make it difficult to analyse OER tems. Teachers often create many resources usage. Nonetheless, a growth trend is visi- as part of their work duties; but authors ble. Open Educational Resources continue of textbooks are often paid on the basis of to be supported by public institutions, and a contract, not through royalties on book they attract ever-growing numbers of users sales. It is also important to remember here seeking educational materials that are both that OER can be produced and distributed cheaper and more sustainable. We should on various terms and within diverse mod- therefore be prepared to answer an increas- els – from voluntary work (e.g., Wikipedia) to ing number of practical questions about contracted, paid and peer-reviewed work (as what Open Educational Resources are and in Poland and the United States, where gov- what they are not. ernment-supported open e-textbooks had been commissioned). Authors rarely believe they might actually benefit from taking con- The authors’ perspective trol over their work instead of depending on intermediaries – and at the same time are not aware that the OER model can also In the course of projects aimed at creating offers institutional intermediation. new open resources, content creators can be convinced to agree to open licensing of their content. The process is often difficult – ⁵ ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Tech- content creators need extensive information Example of OER misconception that all digital freely available resources are open. nology 2013, http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/ecar­study­ undergraduate­students­and­information­technology­2013

² Bliss, TJ, Robinson, J., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D, An OER COUP: College Issue, availabe online ajime.open.ac.uk/article/2013­04/html ⁴ Boundless Report: Ushering in a Post­Textbook World, ⁶ A Case Study in Obstacles to and Strategies for Negotiating the Teacher and Student Perceptions of Open Educational Resourc- http://blog.boundless.com/2014/02/boundless­report­ushering­ Relicensing of Third­Party Content, 4 es, Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME), 2013 Spring ³ ibidem. post­textbook­world/#more­1026 http://www.saylor.org/2013/04/a­case­study­in­obstacles­to­and­ 5 strategies­for­negotiating­the­relicensing­of­t hird­party­content/ About this guide sources of reliable information. If you would like to contribute, feel free to write to [email protected] Criticism of Open Educational Resources is diverse, motivated by varying uncertainties and anxieties, but also vested interests. Some of this criticism is justified and points to areas which need further work on the part of the OER community, or refer to specific OER projects. One of the areas that, in our opinion, does need more work, is research that would provide objective in- formation and evidence to decision makers. However, much of the criticism is rooted in fallacies that simply need to be explained.

We have designed this guide to OER myth- busting to help others navigate through common misconceptions about OER. It is mainly written with other OER activists in mind, who might have to deal with similar myths. The guide will also be helpful for ed- ucators, who have learned about OER and are looking for practical answers to their questions.

We hope this guide is simple and easy to use. It consists of two parts – a basic ex- planation of what are Open Education Re- sources, followed by the mythbusting part, written in a question-and-answer format. Further references enable the reader to get more information or to clarify any additional doubts. The guide is based on our own ex- periences with OER activism in Poland, and on mythbusting workshops conducted at a range of open education events.

We will continue mapping myths and fal- lacies about OER as they appear, with the aim of constructing a practical toolset that addresses the most common questions, and Basic guide to OER that provides references leading to further

6 1. What an OER is and Differences between what it is not OER and other digi- oer? tal resources – on- line courses, MOOC courses and others

The term ‘Open Educational Resources’ Want to know more? General rights for copying and repurpos- Want to know more? (OER) describes any educational resources ing are what make OER different from any (including curriculum maps, course mate- More information about the definitions of other educational resources available online http://oerresearchhub.org/2014/05/14/visit­ rials, textbooks, videos, multimedia appli- Open Educational Resources can be found free of charge. Free materials and courses oer­impact­map­for­evidence­of­oer­impact/ cations, podcasts, or any other materials on the Creative Commons Wiki: http://wiki. such as most MOOCs (Massive Open Online designed for teaching and learning) which creativecommons.org/What is OER and in Courses) allow users only fair use rights, have been made available for use under David Wiley's post on freedoms in OER: or rights stated in specific licenses issued open licenses – which means that anyone http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/355 by the publisher. Most of them cannot be can use, adapt and redistribute them. Those legally copied, and users cannot create their materials may be available online, in print, own courses based on them or update them on DVD or any other carrier. if a mistake has been found – not, that is, without explicit agreement from copyright OER are not the only educational materi- owners. In the case of Open Educational Re- als to be found on the Web. Unfortunately, sources, all users are given the above rights most resources on the Internet are closed without needing to request permission from resources, even if they are available for free. copyright holders (as long as they adhere to Materials that are under full copyright, or license conditions, such as attribution); the which are not accompanied by a specific users' rights are clearly specified and easily license allowing anyone to copy, adapt and understandable (thanks to Creative Com- share them, are not Open Educational Re- mons licenses and their clear system). Most sources. You can use these materials only OER materials are published under free within the fair use provisions or copyright Creative Commons licenses https://creative- exceptions in your country. commons.org/licenses/ or as Public Domain.

8 9 2. Why do open licenses 3. OER and copyright. make a difference? How it works?

3.1 Licensing models 3.2 Why CC BY and CC BY SA?

Most of what has been created in the 20th (such as the Creative Commons Attribution These two licences are called free or fully tation well-known and accepted by the OER and 21st centuries – content to be found license and the Creative Commons Attribu- opened license. Free licences are a kind of community. You can find the Definition of in libraries, archives, museums and on the tion-Share Alike license) is not unlike placing agreement between an author/copyright Free Culture Works here: http://freedomde- Web – is still under copyright. Even if the signs on a public road. Routes can be cho- holder and the rest of the universe. In this fined.org/Definition authors' intention was different, unless they sen as long as signs – like those pertaining arrangement the intellectual property rights explicitly stated otherwise, their work falls to attribution – are obeyed. This makes stay attached to the creator, but in the same Creative Commons Attribution under full copyright protection (its extent or reuse and cooperation easy and quick, elim- time the author is able to (under some sim- remit sometimes differing from country to inating the need to negotiate and reducing ple to define conditions) agree on: (CC BY) country). If we create and publish something legal uncertainty. This license allows maximized free re-use new on the Internet today, without charges • making unlimited copies of the work, of the work (changes, adaptations, making or restrictions such as DRM (Digital Rights Using licenses compatible with the Open • unlimited distribution of the work, also for copies, redistribution), also for commercial Management), our work is available to read, Definition ensures that users have clear commercial purposes, purposes with a possibility for changing the watch, hear or use only for personal purpos- rights, that the barrier to reuse is lowered, • adaptation of the work utworu (derivative license for derivative works. It requires only es. Our work is not available for others to and that educational resources proliferate. works).⁷ attribution of the author, that means put- copy, republish, update, remix, re-arrange, Just like Wikipedia or digitised paintings in ting the proper name of the person/institu- correct, create an alternative version of or the Public Domain, it opens up new, pro- CC BY and CC BY-SA licenses are recom- tion that created the work. The Attribution add to Wikipedia. In order to do any of these gressive ideas that would have been unim- mended by UNESCO for Open Educational license requires the least conditions to be things, one needs to obtain written permis- aginable a few years ago. Resources. fulfilled by a user. This license is also a best sion, e.g., a specific licence, from the author The definition of such a freedom is not legal- choice when the author allows for the wid- or copyright holder; and to do that one first Want to know more? ly described, but it is mirrored in documen- est commercial re-use of the work and the needs to contact them. This might be viable for a commercial business or government http://opendefinition.org/ body, but for the average user – teacher, student, blogger – the task can be next to impossible.

Open licenses reverse that model and en- courage authors and institutions to clearly ⁷ Anatomia Wolnych Licencji, opracowanie Tomasz Ganicz, Wiki- Plik:Broszura_o_licencjach.pdf, last access: 6.07.2014 state rights and permissions when pub- media Polska, available online at: http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/ lishing content. Choosing open licenses

10 11 easiest re-distribution and promotion of it. ers strongly prefer to publish under more Unfortunately CC BY license blocks harness- restrictive rules and they in fact do not de- 4. OER adoption ing OER available under CC BY-SA like open cide to harness CC BY-SA licensed resources. e-textbook published under CC BY eg. Wiki- When we combine several works and create pedia resources cannot be used in such an derivative works, several solution are possi- open textbook. ble: In the perspective of a textbook market, resources under CC BY license can be used 1. when usage of the work under CC BY- in commercial products. Private market en- SA leads to developing a new work, the tities are able to build new business models license will work as a virus (combined upon open textbooks i.e. through further works are not independent) for it. In prac- development of these materials, creation of tice this means that if in an e-textbook additional content for learners, guidelines a publisher uses parts of Wikipedia arti- for teachers, multimedia and so on. cles, not only those fragments but whole More than ten years after the first UNESCO and publishing policies. e-textbooks must be published under CC congress about open education on which BY-SA. term Open Educational Resources was Want to know more? Creative Commons Attribution ­ 2. when the work is a collection of works coined, open resources can be found in and one of them is available under CC almost every language, open policies pop http://oermap.org/ Share alike (CC BY–SA) BY-SA. In such a situation the license does up in tens of countries and companies start oerresearchhub.org Authors should choose this license if they not influence the work. If a photo is used to recognize OER’s as great new opportuni- http://ci.olnet.org/ would like to be guaranteed that all deriva- as an illustration of a text, only the image ty and not only a mythical danger for their tive works that were built upon the original must by published under original condi- hitherto models. Open education projects ones will be available and open for all users tions but the text can be available under like MIT OpencourseWare Consortium, as well as for the creators. different licenses eg. CC BY. Saylor.org or Khan Academy reached global It is a “virus” license as it requires the users dividing the textbook/the work on sepa- popularity and inspired tens of other pro- to publish derivative works under the same rate modules - only this scenario allows for jects. We cannot even imagine a day without license. Wikipedia resources are published usage of text under various licenses. These using Wikipedia, not only in education but in under this license and each project that modules can be available under different everyday life. makes use of Wikipedia has to be available licenses depending on the license of the OER Impact Map spots at least 94 policies under CC BY-SA. The copyleft character of original works used in the module. on implementing openness into public fund- this license guarantees the same level of the ing of educational resources around world. access to the original and derivative works. 48 of them were passed and are working Such a solution leads to a situation in which like huge Department of Labor Trade Adjust- no matter who and when uses the content, ment Assistance Community College and he or she must obey the same rules: CC BY- Career Training grant program or national SA. The “Share alike” condition makes the open e-textbooks program “Digital School” openness stronger every time somebody in Poland. re-uses resources under CC BY-SA, he or she Global and multinational organisations like is obliged to publish on the same conditions. UNESCO, the World Bank and the European This license can be also a good protection Commission not only declared support for from commercial adaptation of the work. OER but implemented their own policies, Even though CC BY-SA allows for usage the opening resources they create or fund. Even work for profits, most commercial publish- more private institutions adapted OER as part of their workflow in grant programs,

12 13 5.1 OER are not really free

Open Educational resources are free be- viewed by professional authors they can by cause they are available under free licenses funded in many ways. From national fund- and they allow anyone to use and modify ing (like in Poland Digital School program), them for free. They can be free in terms private funding (like Saylor.org Foundation) of cost for the end user though it doesn't or even commercially funded by selling ser- mean they are always totally gratis. But we vices around open content (like Boundless. have to distinguish costs of investments, com). Many traditional publishers are shift- production, distribution and costs for end ing from selling content to selling services users. For individual users like students and build upon freely available resources. Of teachers OERs should have no monetary course it is hard to say that OER are free of costs (if available online) or as little as just production costs and that there are already print. ideal new business models for its sustaina- There are no educational resources that bility. But it’s part of a much bigger picture cost nothing. There is always the cost or of change in whole education and use of production, distribution or adoption, they educational resources caused by new tech- need financial or human resources to be nologies and internet. created. The difference is in where and how do we distribute OERs more efficiently and Want to know more? lower the costs for each group of users. Open Educational Resources do that by David Wiley, On the Sustainability of Open lowering costs of copyrights (if needed, Educational Resource Initiatives in Higher they are paid only once), cost of updates Education, OECD, https://www1.oecd.org/ (they can be made by anyone, anytime and edu/ceri/38645447.pdf without copyrights barriers), costs of distri- bution (encouraging online publications and Gerd Kortemeyer, Ten Years Later: Why supporting competitive and cheap print and Open Educational Resources Have Not No- production). ticeably Affected Higher Education, and Why There are also many different models of We Should Care, Educase Review, http:// 5. Myths production of educational resources. For www.educause.edu/ero/article/ten-years- textbooks that should be created and re- later-why-open-educational-resources-have- not-noticeably-affected-higher-education- and-why-we-should-ca ⁹ We explore those models in [tu podać link do mitu o modelach produkcji/biznesowych] 15 5.2 OER cannot be 5.3 OER’s will damage produced publishing market professionally

Open Educational Resources can be pro- more scrutiny, the fact that they are more What What damages the publishing market only wanted, build new business models on duced in various ways like traditional mate- scattered doesn't mean that they cannot be is not openness, it is the low adaptability to them. For example, they could offer high rials and can be subject to review process- professional and high quality. changes brought by new technologies. Open quality printing services, or adapt open es the same way. Most of textbooks are It is important to understand that those Educational Resources bring more compet- textbooks to particular needs of particular authored by professionals and the small resources introduced highly effective ways itiveness and disruption into educational profiled schools. It is additionally claimed atomic resources we find on the web are of peer review and social scrutiny which is publishing market but they are not damag- that the destruction of this market will made by teachers and students as a part of also possible partly because of openness of ing it. Instead OER bring more flexible and harm the whole economy. This is a broken assignments. It is the same with Open Edu- those resources. An open production model connected approach focused on learners’ window fallacy — the fact that parents will cational Resources. is also an important part of change in edu- and teachers’ needs. Upon that new busi- now spend less money on school textbooks For example open textbooks produced in cational paradigm by bringing more equal ness models for publishers and new servic- doesn't mean that this money will not get Poland and California, US, are publicly fund- opportunities to engage and co-author and es are build. spent at all. ed and their production is outsourced to not only consume content. Educational markets differ in many coun- professional publishers or universities and tries or even states (as we can observe in Want to know more? reviewed and certified before being ad- USA and Germany). What effect OER’s can mitted to schools. This model is typical for have on each market depends on many Strategies for Sustainable Business Mod- publicly funded open textbooks. Another Want to know more? factors. Those effects are very often used as els for Open Educational Resources, http:// professional model worth noticing is prepar- critical argument but without evidence and www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/ ing competitions or grants for teachers and Open Educational Resources Infokit, Quality research. view/1533/2485 authors to write textbooks. Saylor Foun- considerations The fact that a given product or service Open Educational Resources Infokit, Ap- dation uses this model for some of saylor. https://openeducationalresources.pbworks. puts a different business model in jeopardy proaches and models org textbooks. Some authors even organize com/w/page/24838164/Quality%20consid- is not an argument against this product or https://openeducationalresources.pbworks. themselves to write textbooks like a group erations service. Such reasoning leads to ceasing any com/w/page/24838043/Approaches%20 from Australia and New Zealand which cre- progress in any area. New solutions that are and%20models ated Media Studies Textbook⁸. more effective are clear signs of need for There are also OER projects implementing new business models, but also can upgrade open, collaborative process deeper into the role of old ones. For example theaters content creation. Those are often based on survived even as cinema was expected to voluntary work like Wikipedia and lot of dif- kill them. ferent portals for self-education. Although And open textbooks allow for new business those models should be approached with models — textbook publishers could, if they

⁸ Media Studies Textbook, http://creativecommons.org. nz/2014/02/announcing-the-creative-commons-media-stud- 16 ies-textbook/ 17 5.4 OER will replace well 5.5 OER’s are damaging developed publishing authors intellectual models and their high property and their quality work profits

Open Educational Resources are produced authors and creation procedures as before. The Open Educational Resources’ idea is Want to know more? in various ways, same as traditional materi- Most of OER’s are produced that way. Oth- build upon high respect for both authors’ als and can be subject to review process the ers, like teachers materials, did not have and users’ rights. Common use of Crea- Shouldn’t I worry about ‘giving away’ my same way. Quality management of OER can any formal quality management and were tive Commons (and other free licenses) for intellectual property? in. A Basic Guide to be as robust and professional as possible reviewed during their usage. The change is licensing open materials is a guarantee of Open Educational Resources (OER), UNES- or it can be done after publication because not happening in quality, but rather in rights precise information about rights and proper CO, Commonwealth of Learning, 2011 open licenses allow to do that (which is that can help more people to access, spot attribution. Authors on their own or cus- impossible with closed resources and text- and improve resources. This part of social tomers buying resources (like government books). and peer review is also very important for agencies or publishers) can decide if they There are scenarios proving that OER are education, with the leading example of Wiki- want to publish them as OER’s. If so, they not replacing but completing educational pedia. With growing numbers of resourc- can negotiate wages for creation and rights market. In many countries like Netherlands es, quality improvement and tens of sister as in traditional, closed publishing model. and Belgium OERs⁹ created by teachers for projects Wikipedia proved that openness is The only change, which affects only a small teachers are almost as widely used as text- not only important during creation process group of authors is that they cannot be paid books. Global publishers like Pearson are but also during review and teaching critical in royalties as open licenses exclude that making services like search engines for OER literacy skills. option (it is impossible, as free and open and commercial resources combined¹⁰. licenses are always free for end users). Many OER projects are supporting devel- In fact using Creative Commons licenses oped publishing models and quality man- (which are non-exclusive) can protect au- agement in production. Some of them are Want to know more? thors rights even better the exclusive agree- even developing innovative models, better ments with publishers restricting authors suited for the creation of modern, online Horizon reports on K12 Education, 2014 rights to reuse their own materials. Also, focused resources. http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014­nmc­horizon­ as scale of OER’s grows they become free Open educational policies on national and r e p o r t ­k 1 2 ­E N . p d f resources to re-use that can replace paid institutional levels (like on universities) are a materials. key part of making openness a part of a big- ger publishing process. Those policies are changing the model of how resources are available (under open conditions) but at the same time they are often based on same

⁹ http://oerpolicy.eu/beyondwikiwijsoerandthenetherlands/ ¹⁰ http://www.pearsonbluesky.com/

18 19 likely happen that derived work doesn’t 5.6 Authors will not agree meet the expectations of the quality or esthetics. However, if an author of a derived to such terms of open work does act according to Creative Com- mons license (attributes the authorship), it publication is clear for users of the derived work which elements of it are developed by whom and if the users would like to, they may use the original instead of derived version of the work.

Want to know more? Considering this issue from the very formal open publication as giving the work for free point of view, authors by signing a contract and receiving nothing in return. These con- Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources, for creating a work (or by developing it as cerns, while understandable, rarely turn out Commonwealth of Learning, UNESCO, p. 9 part of their duties) very often agree to to be justified. There is always a risk even if http://www.col.org/PublicationDocuments/ transfer copyrights on fields of use defined the work is copyrighted, that it may be used, Basic­Guide­To­OER.pdf in the agreement. As a result, they loses without asking for permission, by someone property rights to their work (on a particular acting illegally. Such situation may happen field of use) and they are not aware of the regardless the type of legal protection of consequences. In fact, authors no longer authors’ intellectual rights. have the control over the work and they are On the other hand, publishing under open not able to make a decision of independent conditions increases the visibility and the distribution of their own works anymore. availability of their work. The clearly defined Creative Commons licenses are a completely conditions of Creative Commons licenses different type of contract. By publishing un- make the usage, with regard to the rules, der CC authors grant permission to use the much more easy. It is the author who has work but retain the rights to the work and the right to decide on ways other people still can be in charge of its distribution. An can use his/her work. By choosing the par- open publication is much more convenient ticular Creative Commons license the author for the author than the transfer of the prop- has control over the usage of the work as erty rights to others (i.e. publishers). Crea- he/she informs publicly how the work can tive Commons licences are non-exclusive so be re-used under specific conditions which they give the author a right, for instance, to paradoxically very often results in great- sign the contract with publishing house on er respect for the law, and generates less distribution of the work in traditional way unauthorized actions. What is more, the (through selling printed copies) while in the author can specify how the work should be same time the work can be available online attributed e.g. by adding reference link to for free on open conditions. the source information. However, when it comes to open sharing, Authors also concerns that open publica- authors start being afraid of losing the tion after re-use will distort the meaning control over their work. They also consider and decrease the quality of the work. It may

20 21 5.7 Teachers need more 5.8 OER can led to using time and work to unverified materials adapt OER by teachers and students

Discussing teachers’ work on preparation Want to know more? The level of assurance you can get from OER any authorized edited copy of other, closed and adoption of learning materials is a materials can be the same as with tradition- materials we can find on the web right now. much more complex issue and depends on al materials: high when from institutionally For those circumstances in which absolute many factors. Changes to resource-based How to adapt/localize training material, reviewed process, lower when not reviewed assurance is required teachers and students learning which are happening recently are Open Training Platform, http://otp.infocol- or just found on the web. It depends on the can choose to use materials for which they a part of increased work time needed for lections.org/otp/page/adaptlocalize/ country, but most of teachers are allowed can get additional assurances for example: teachers to create and adapt learning ma- to use own materials and textbooks. They provided by specific specialized repositories, terials to more individualized and active are also using their reasonable judgment reviewed and certified, etc. use. Growing access to different resources before using any learning resources (even on the internet, combined with the ongoing many reviewed and edited textbooks have rollout of ICT infrastructure into educational errors). Teachers use materials found on the institutions brings a lot of new challenges web, not reviewed, peer produced by other Want to know more? for teachers. OERs are rather a solution teachers, often being not attributed (and then a cause of the problems. Though, as infringing to copyright owners) adaptations Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources, any new solution or device, they need some of textbooks and other resources. The truth Commonwealth of Learning, UNESCO, 2011, time to become easy and intuitive for peo- is that the quality of “OER depends on which p. 8 http://www.col.org/PublicationDocu- ple who want to work with them. resources they choose to use, how they ments/Basic­Guide­To­OER.pdf OER movement is developing very fast on choose to adapt them to make them con- new tools, database and learning opportu- textually relevant, and how they integrate nities for teachers and educator to imple- them into teaching and learning activities of ment them in their work. As the number of different kinds” (COL, UNESCO, 2011). open resources and tools will grow, it will be OER and open licensing model introduced easier for teachers to work with them. Also, strong approach to respect the rights of if we want to work with complete sets of authors and to support effective online resources like e-textbook (and a lot of those sharing of open materials. Modified OER are already available for many subjects in (and any openly licensed material) have to many countries) there can be no additional be attributed properly and described with work. changes and reference to original material. Of course there will be situations when this will not happen but this does not differ from

22 23 5.9 OER are too 5.10 OER deepen digital complex and divide in educational scattered for system teachers to use

In most circumstances and for more teach- OER are dedicated to eliminate the educa- Want to know more? ers, who are already ICT qualified, the level tion divide by making high-quality learning of assurance you get from OER materials is materials freely available to educators and Bridging the Bandwidth Gap ­OER and the enough. Most of the teachers and students learners around the world. A common mis- Digital Divide use resources found on the Internet, of- take made when talking about OERs is that http://www.sciencemedianetwork.org/wiki/ ten without any consideration about rights they are the same as digital resources which Bridging_the_Bandwidth_Gap_­_OER_and_ and authority of authors. For all resources, is not true. Even if OERs are digital-born, the_Digita l_Divide and among those available on the internet publishing under free license makes it pos- http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/ we should use reasonable judgment. OER sible for them to be modified and brought node/4223 are based on a clear copyright and crea- as analog resources by anyone. Apart form tion process information about what rights that, OER policies like UNESCO’s or OECD’s apply to such resource, is it original or is it a recommend that OER should support lower- transformation of other work. Such culture ing access barriers to education. This can be is safer and more reliable but it needs some done only by making resources both easy to competencies from teachers (and students print (cheaply) and use with computers or as well). That is why it is often said that OER mobile devices. Which way of distribution is are also part of media literacy and copyright cheaper and more effective depends on a education. country. In case of using open textbooks complexity What can deepen digital divide is forcing starts when we want to re-use such mate- ICT and digital resources where and when rials and if textbook was created orderly all they are not better option or supersession copyrights should be cleared and acknowl- of traditional resources without preparing edged. schools, teachers and students for such change. Wrong policies and rigid imple- Want to know more? mentations focused on technologies, not students can deepen digital divide and again, OER can be a way to bypass that. Prepping for the Geography Textbook Sprint OER should be independent tools, thus http://clintlalonde.net/2014/05/28/preping­ they could be also printed and delivered to for­the­geography­textbook­sprint/ schools badly-equipped in ICT.

24 25 5.11 OER are applicable 5.12 OER support IT only for distance industry profit by learning or highly forcing schools and digital/ICT fulled teachers to buy more education IT equipment

Although the use of OER very often sup- Want to know more? A common impression of forcing schools open content. On ICT market open source ports ICT education and most of popular and teachers to buy new hardware might software can be found as alternative solu- OER projects are digital, OER and digital Dramatically Bringing Down the Cost of have been caused on one hand by the scope tion to commercial ones. What is more, OER resources are not synonyms. Openly li- Education with, Center for American Pro- of different OER initiatives and programmes as teaching/learning materials can be down- censed content is produced in any medium: gress OER http://www.americanprogress. in which development of OER is in line with loaded, printed and supplied to schools paper-based text, video, audio or comput- org/issues/labor/news/2012/02/07/11167/ process of equipping schools in ICT (like the not well-equipped with ICT and broadband er-based multimedia. Teaching staff can dramatically-bringing-down-the-cost-of-edu- Digital School program in Poland). On the Internet connection. harness OER to enhance e-learning courses cation-with-oer/ other, OER are available in a variety of for- or build upon Massive Open Online Cours- mats that supports flexibility of resources’ es, but this does not mean that OER are usage, but may also have influence on the Want to know more? necessarily e-learning or any other kind of way people think about it - the more for- online learning/teaching. The core of the mats, the more ICT is required. Investing in digital teaching and learning OER concept assumes that OER should be Open Educational Resources are tool-in- resources: Ten recommendations for pol- multi-platform. In practice this mean that dependent. This independency is clearly icymakers, Micheal Trucano, World Bank, they are produced as such or are able to be stated in definition of free cultural works http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/digi- easily adaptable to: print version, low band- that define free works as those which can tal-learning-resources-ten-recommenda- width, different devices as well as accessible be used without any technical restrictions. tions-policymakers for users with disabilities. The work must be available in a form where According to a recent survey carried out no technical measures are used to limit the by the European Commission¹¹ on ICT in freedoms enumerated above. schools, the bandwidth and connectivity are In fact, most OER are in line with the defini- still challenges in most of countries around tion above. They are compatible with differ- the world (not only developing countries). ent operating systems and web browsers. Thus it would be expected that programmes What is more, OER usually are available in (especially publicly funded), devoted to widely used in (if not open) most common creation of open content should be aimed at formats, that can be opened and read on providing printable resources, rather than different kinds of software. The schools are supplying educational systems with ICT not forced or obliged to provide teachers understood as a must-be condition for OER and students with additionally equipment use for wide scale. and proprietary software in order to use

¹¹ ICT in schools survey – many children not getting what they European Commission IP/13/341 19/04/2013 need; teachers need more training and support. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressrelease_IP13341_en.htm 26 27 5.13 Public funded OER 5.14 There are many OER can led to politics available under different dependent licenses. It’s the same level of difficulty to textbooks/resources recognize and legally use compatible materials.

How educational resources are funded of open textbook. This is true that OER published under par- the licence chosen by its author. OER ser- depends on a country, in many of which ticular Creative Commons licence may not vices and even general search engines, like textbooks and other resources are already Want to know more? be compatible with each other but tradition- Google, offer filtering options by type of use publicly funded (or co-sponsored) and se- al copyright is not straightforward either or even exact licence. This is possible due to lection and certification process of such What happens when all textbooks are only and may lead to even more questions than “three-layer” design of CC licences that con- resources also depends on educational digital? Ask the Koreans. Micheal Trucano, compatibility of CC licences itself. tains: a traditional legal tool (understanda- system. What creates highest risk and is World Bank, The first step is to understand the condi- ble for lawyers), a “human readable” version criticized widely by teachers and parents is http://www.unescobkk.org/resources/e-li- tions and licensing rules. In fact, they are of the license (a format understandable by the public funding and choosing of only one brary/publications/article/what-happens- clearly described so a user can see how the ordinary users) and the last layer - a “ma- textbook. In such scenario it does matter if when-all-textbooks-are-only-digital-ask-the- work is available for reuse. Then it is highly chine readable” version that provides sum- chosen textbooks are imposed to be used koreans/ unlikely that the user will face immediate mary of the key freedoms and obligations or it is open and free but available as one legal action for violating the terms of an OER written into a format which is recognized of those offered on the market, all certified. license. by software systems, search engines, and The first scenario creates an opportunity to There are some ways to help acting other kinds of technology. This approach be abused as a platform for political values in line with those rules. Those who do best to CC licence design guarantees OER to be of current ruling politicians. The second may to understand the license, can use tools searched easily and filtered by the type of lead to teachers and parents choosing more providing support in differentiating their licence. The user is able to search the con- often the free textbook because of savings. compatibility such as Compatibility Chart tent published under compatible licences in Both of those scenarios can lead to political developed by Creative Commons (http:// order to remix them. dependency not only if real choice would be wiki.creativecommons.org/Wiki/cc_license_ difficult or unavailable but also when chang- compatibility). ing and using other versions of textbooks If the user is still uncertain whether found Want to know more? would be prohibited (for example by block- materials can be merged or not, one solu- ing use of non certified materials in schools). tion is to use only materials published un- Open Content Licensing (OCL) for Open Edu- For such restrictions both open and closed der the same licence. Although, it limits the cational Resources, OECD http://www.oecd. educational materials cannot do much. But range of available content, the user gains org/edu/ceri/38645489.pdf in all other cases making textbooks open assurance of acting legally. Most OER da- can be solution for limited options available tabases’ suppliers provide a possibility to on the market by allowing authors, publish- publish the content on various conditions. ers and teachers to make their own version Thus, OER are labelled properly according to

28 29 5.15 OER are forcing Want to know more? Barbara Kurshan (2008), OER Models that internationalisation Build a Culture of Collaboration: A Case Ex- emplified by Curriki, eLearning Papers, Nº 10 and common core • September 2008 http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/ article/OER­Models­that­Build­a­Culture­of­ standards to different Collaboration%3A ­A ­C a s e ­E x e m p l i fi e d ­b y ­ educational systems Curriki

One of the main values of OER is that they most cases OER require also some work on can be used worldwide independently of adaptation to various learning styles. the system of education and national curric- Access to OER developed by people with ula frameworks. Those OER which licenses different educational and professional back- guarantee freedom of re-use and distribu- ground may serve as reference materials tion can be localised and adapted to the for teachers to see how particular problem/ conditions, formal requirements and needs subject is taught in different cultural and of students and teachers stated in national educational context, it is rather unlikely that educational systems. The localization pro- OER will be re-used without any changes. An cess is at the heart of the OER - it exempli- example of global initiatives that supports fies its diversity, openness and reusability. localisation of OER is Curriki that helps to By making content relevant and transfera- advance OER by working with partners in ble, the barriers to implementation of OER the US and abroad to develop educational on the local context are eliminated (Kur- content in multiple languages and to create shan, 2008). local federated Curriki sites that support lo- When re-using OER, it’s often desirable to cal educational learning objectives (Kurshan, apply the procedure of localization, which 2008). Local sites are customised to the ex- refers to the process of taking educational tent to meet the national standards in each resources developed for one context and country and include Curriki sites in India, adapting them for the other (geographical, Korea, Argentina, Indonesia, United States. pedagogical, political, or technical). There The fact that OER are materials upon which are many reasons why educators and learn- the learning process is built, it is worthwhile ers would like to localize materials - e.g. to for it to be underlined. Even if a transition accommodate a particular teaching style or of educational system into more resourc- learning style, to take into account cultural es-based learning can be observed, OER differences, to support a specific pedagog- do not require common educational inter- ical need etc. The practice of localization national standards and do not dictate how encompasses more than the translation of teachers teach. How OER will be used de- materials into a local language or swapping pends on skills and competences of teach- a photo to reflect cultural differences. In ers.

30 31 5.15 OER are not 5.16 OER are not able to sustainable generate revenue so they can not be a business model

Discussing sustainability of OER is a rather also embedding processes and transform- OER, same as open source, can create reve- textbooks) utilize the “freemium” strategy. complex issue and depends on many fac- ing practices to support ongoing OER pro- nue in many different and successful ways. They considered which goods can be given tors. It is very strongly linked to the business duction and release (JISC OER InfoKit, 2014). From services like search engines or plat- for free and which services are available for approach and can be guaranteed by choos- forms built around resources, selling cus- a price. Textbook Media offers advertised ing (adequate) business models that gener- tom versions or providing implementations. versions of e-textbooks free of charge and ate revenue. The sustainability becomes a Want to know more? From a business perspective OER projects paid version that is not supported by ad- priority when there is a critical mass of OER are more like startups that build products vertisements. Flat World Knowledge in its initiatives. As OER are not „cost free” their around data than final publishers focused basic approach, give e-textbooks written by production may entail a large scale invest- J. Johansen and D. Wiley, 2010, A Sustainable on selling a final product. Resources like recognized authors with established reputa- ment. Currently, the majority of OER devel- Model for OpenCourseWare Development, data can flow freely but at the same time tions for free while supplemental materials opment is undertaken on a project basis, Educational Technology Research and De- they can ignite a lot of new revenue streams (like digital flash cards, teachers material, and often with donor support and when velopment, May 2010, http://hdl.lib.byu. and possibilities for many more then just PPT presentations, study guides) are availa- the funding ends, further development of edu/1877/2353 publishers. Right now OER are at the verge ble for purchase (Hilton & Wiley, 2010). Many OER is suspended. Within EU funding proce- JISC OER InfoKit ­Sustainability, 2014, of mass adoption, first few companies and other examples of commercial re-use of re- dures, institutions are expected to sustain https://openeducationalresources.pbworks. projects are successful and other test, fail sources from Wikipedia and public domain project results up to 3 or 5 years (depending com/w/page/26789871/Sustainability and start new projects. Many of new pro- are also there. Same as with open source, on the type of a programme) after projects’ jects struggle not because of money but we tend not to see the value and business funding. However, this approach is not obstacles from old business models and behind it, but we pay for hosting almost enough as it does not guarantee the ex- time is needed to find the best ways and everything on the Internet on Linux servers, ploitation of resources by users. Integration solutions for new business models build we buy Android phones and use Firefox. into policies and procedure - as well as the around OER to coexist with others and grow regular budgets - of an organisation is a key to scale. aspect in making OER sustainable. Support- Companies like Boundless, which provides Want to know more? ing actions should include modifications to ready-to-use online content, study mate- institutional policies and processes, with the rials, and assessment items (raising – as Exploring the Business Case for Open Edu- aim of making open resources release an they claim - nearly $10 million in venture cational Resources, expected part of the educational resourc- funding1) are already proving that OER are http://www.col.org/resources/publications/ es creation cycle. The aim of OER directed a great model to build upon. In the US Text- Pages/detail.aspx?PID=421 initiatives should be focused on production book Media and Flat World Knowledge (the of OER and then caring for existing OER but two largest commercial providers of free

32 33 Hilton J. L., Wiley, D. (2010), A sustainable future for open textbooks? The Flat World 5.18 OER adoption is just Knowledge story, First Monday, 15, 8, http:// firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/ too radical for my view/2800/2578 institution

Adopting an OER program does not mean Want to know more? that you have to throw away all your closed resources on day one. A lot of OER are developed as a supplement to the current Creative Commons policies grow in New teaching methods, especially in primary and Zealand schools, https://creativecommons. secondary education (up to 18 years of age). org/weblog/entry/43758 Start with one book for one class in the fall semester. Share the assignment you have Guidelines for Open Educational Resources created as a teacher openly on one of the (OER) in Higher Education, (inter)national platforms intended for it. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/imag- Include one or two open textbooks in your es/0021/002136/213605E.pdf proofreading of new textbooks for the class you teach in spring. See the advantages of Author: Lisette Kalshoven, (Kennisland) OER for yourself, gather evidence and use the evidence collected all over the world about the value of open and then discuss a broader adoption of the system in your institution. To use a cliché: Rome was not built in one day.

34 35 Open Educational Resources Policy in Eu- rope" is a project of Creative Commons that brings together a coalition of interna- tional experts associated with CC to strengthen the implementation of open education policies across Europe. http://oerpolicy.eu/