The contents of the guide
The purpose of the guide is to highlight the openness of education from the perspective of open educational resources.
You will find answers to the following questions in the guide:
What are open educational resources? Where to find open educational resources? How to use open educational resources? What should be considered when publishing educational materials openly? What are CC licenses and how are they used in the context of open educational resources?
Avoin oppiminen
What is open education?
Opening up education or Open education means extending access to and participation in education to larger audiences and target groups by lowering barriers to education and increasing accessibility, unrestrictedness, offering and learner-centeredness. It diversifies the possibilities of teaching, learning and building, joint development and sharing of knowledge, and combines the pathways of formal and non-formal learning.
Although open education is often carried out with the help of digital technologies, the concept is not the same as digital education or digitalisation of educational resources.
Key concepts in open education include open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP).
Sources:
- European Comission: Opening up Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions
- The Helsinki Term Bank for the Arts and Sciences (HTB) (2020). Avoin tiede: avoin oppiminen.
- Open Science Coordination in Finland, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) (2020). Open education and educational resources. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021-2025. Policy component 1 – Open access to educational resources. CC BY 4.0.
What are open educational resources?
Open educational resources (OERs) mean materials or information in any form and used on any medium that are designed for teaching and learning purposes.
Open educational resources are materials or information which have been:
- released for public use (public domain)
, or - shared by an open license, usually Creative Commons
, that permits no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others than the author, with or without restrictions.
Source: Open Science Coordination in Finland, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) (2020). Open education and educational resources. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021-2025. Policy component 1 – Open access to educational resources. CC BY 4.0.
Video: EU Science Hub – Joint Research Centre (2018). Open Licenses in Open Education: why do they matter? Dr Cable Green (Part I).
What are open educational practices?
Open educational practices are practices that make teaching and learning transparent, shareable, and adaptable. Examples of such practices include:
- Peer learning and teaching development among students, researchers, teaching staff, and the wider community
- Engaging students in the design of their learning paths, including the recognition and acknowledgment of skills acquired outside the institution
- Opening up teaching to a broader audience (e.g., MOOC courses)
- Sharing and reusing materials related to teaching design and delivery (e.g., syllabi, assessment methods, experiences of teaching implementation and learning)
- Utilizing, further developing, and co-developing open educational resources (e.g., videos, podcasts, written materials)
Policy for the Open Education and Educational Resources:
Recommendations for open science:
International guidelines and recommendations for open education:
- Opening up Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education InstitutionsEU:n avoimen oppimisen viitekehys
OER World Map:
Kuva: Jonathasmello CC BY 3.0
The 5Rs of Openness by David Wiley
The 5Rs of Openness:
Open educational resources are characterized by everyone's rights to access, re-use, adapt, and distribute the educational resources. In order to be open, an educational resource ought to be openly licensed or released freely available for public use.
The 5Rs of openness, an idea launched by David Wiley, illustrates well the openness of educational resources. In order to be open, the user should have the following access rights to the educational resources:
Retain: The right to make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your own copy).
Reuse: The right to use the original, revised or remixed copy of the material publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class).
Revise: The right to edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate it into another language).
Remix: The right to combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing materials to create something new (e.g., create a mash-up).
Redistribute: The right to share copies of your original, revised or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one copy to a friend).
Source: David Wiley (2009). Defining "open"
A visual explanation of the basics of open educational resources (OERs), based on David Wiley's 5Rs. The video contains both an overview of different types of OERs and how OERs are connected to the Creative Commons licenses, and an introduction to the most important steps to find and use OERs. Video: SMU Libraries (2019), Understanding OER.
License your educational resources for open use.
It is recommended to use the following two Creative Commons (CC) licenses:
CC BY 4.0 Attribution
With this license, you as the author authorises others to copy, use, modify, distribute, and build upon your work, display and perform their work and the modified version thereof, even in commercial contexts, provided that the author and the license of the work are referred to in a linkage and any changes are clearly stated. The modified versions must not infringe on the specific nature of the original author’s work. CC BY is the most common license for open content.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Attribution – ShareAlike:
With this license, you as the author authorises others to copy, use, modify, distribute, and build upon your work, display and perform their work and the modified version thereof, even in commercial contexts, provided that the author and the license of the work are referred to in a linkage and any changes are clearly stated. The modified versions must not infringe on the specific nature of the original author’s work. If the editor publishes the modified version, it must be published under the same license.
All new works created on the basis of a work that has this license must have the same license as the original work. This is recommended for educational resources.
See:
- OER: Open Licensing of educational content by UNESCO-UNEVOC
- Open Education by Creative Commons (CC)
Information about this guide
The authors of the original guide (in Finnish):
Aino Helariutta, Specialist, Laurea, aino.helariutta@laurea.fi.
Terhi Kaipainen, Information specialist, Xamk, terhi.kaipainen@xamk.fi
Licensing of the guide:
The guide is licensed: CC BY-SA 4.0
You can copy the guide or its parts to your organization's LibGuides platform. Remember to mention the original guide and its authors. License the derivative work under the same license.
The English version of the guide has been made utilizing Hanken's translation, made by Qingbo Xu, Information specialist, Hanken.