Open Science Online Course

Creating open educational resources

Before creating educational resources, the author should know the key practices related to openness. These include things like open licences, copyright and related agreements, privacy protection in open resources, and lifecycle management of educational resources. 

 

Plan the opening of the resources

Plan the opening of the educational resources in advance:

• where,
• how and
• on what terms of use

the educational resource or part of it will be opened.

Please note:

• You can only open material for which you are an author, or material which you have received for your use with a licence that allows use to the same extent as the licence you select for your material to be opened. For example, if you plan to open your material with a CC BY license and use other material as an illustration, the images in your material must also be licensed with a CC BY license.
• The author decides on the opening of the educational resource with a licence. The author is also entitled to transfer the copyright to his/her employer organization, unless a separate agreement has been made on the rights before the educational resource was created.
• If the educational resource has more than one author, consent from all authors is required to open the educational resource.
• Submit author and source information that are a prerequisite for the permit of use. For example, it is a good idea to indicate in each CC BY licensed image how the author and source information of the image should be disclosed.

 

Select a licence for your OER

Choose a licence for your OER. You can use the Creative Commons licence chooser to help you with the selection. 

Creative Commons licenses are highly recommended for OERs because:

• they are applicable worldwide
• they help those creating materials to receive credit for their work and retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make use of their work while also deciding whether they would like to make additional permissions available (Creative Commons, CC BY).

Licencing is a key aspect of OERs, because it enables the reuse of the OER according to the given terms. Therefore, material shared publicly on a website is "open" in the manner that it is freely accessible, but such material is not an OER unless it includes an open license, as potentially copyrighted material should only be used with permission.

 

Add attribution and licensing details

To help others know how to cite and use the OER, add these details in a clear manner to your OER. You can add this information

• as a text at the beginning or end of a written document (e.g., report, PowerPoint slides, webpage)
• in the description of an image or video
• or in some other place that is easily noticed by those accessing your OER.

You can also add the image of the Creative Commons licence you have selected, alongside the name of the individual or institution who will receive attribution.

Place the attribution

• in the caption of an image
• a footer of a web page
• at the beginning or end of a document
• at the beginning or end of a video and/or in the associated metadata

 

Share Your OER

Below, you can find suggested sites where you can share your OERs. You may be encouraged to share your OER via your university’s OER collections or your national OER repository, or you can choose to share via a global OER site such as the following:

You can share your OERs in AOE Finnish Library of Open Educational Resources or use an international repository like Zenodo.

Sources:

Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (2022) Open education and educational resources. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021-2025. Policy components 1 (Open access to educational resources) and 2 (Open educational practices). Available at https://doi.org/10.23847/tsv.421 (Accessed: 26 Sept 2024)

Una Europa (2022) Creating OERs: How-To Guide. Available at https://www.una-europa.eu/knowledge-hub/toolkits/oer/creating-oers-how-to-guide (Accessed: 26 Sept 2024)

Creating OERs with students: remember these!

If the OER is created together with students, please note:

• You must ask students for a permission to use the materials they have created, such as texts or images.
• Ask if the student wants to be mentioned as the author of their text or images. If a student does not want to be mentioned as an author, but you are authorized to use the material anonymously, remove the name and any other personal data of the student.
• If photos have been taken of a student, note that the student’s photo, video or sound recording is the student’s personal data, and you need to have a basis, such as the student's consent, for processing it.
• Minimize the processing of personal data. Avoid using personal data if it is possible to implement the educational resource without personal data. If you are processing personal data, ensure that the data subject is informed and that you have a legal basis for processing it. If the processing is based on consent, you can provide the information required by Article 12 of the GDPR on the consent form, including:
  • purpose of processing the personal data;
  • period for which the data are stored;
  • potential subsequent use of the data;
  • where the data may be disclosed;
  • who is the data controller.