Information about Open Educational Resources

What is OER?


Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials

that are freely available online for anyone to use. Open educational

resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks,

streaming videos, tests, software, and many other tools, materials or

techniques used to support access to knowledge. Flexibility is a key

concept in OER.materials can be adapted for your specific needs. Because

these materials can be searched by a wide variety of criteria, you can

quickly find what you specifically need.





Why OER?



It is believed that OER will not only reduce the cost of education for

schools, districts, and students by providing free access to textbooks

and other commonly used resources, but also help to improve the quality

and relevance of these materials by encouraging contributions from all

community members.Some educators are using OER as a way to get students

more involved, using the OER process as a way to collaborate with them

on content creation. This process brings students and other professors

into a larger context of learning and sharing knowledge beyond the four

walls of their classroom.



Why adopt an open textbook?



Open textbooks are more affordable then commercial textbooks. This

enables the already strained student budget to stretch even further.

Open textbooks give students and faculty flexibility to adapt and create

very customized course work to better meet their educational needs. The

digital format allows a portability that traditional textbooks have not

conventionally had, and can be carried on a key chain and used in any

computer and most hand held devices anywhere.



Steps to going digital:



1) We will meet with you to define what sort of Open Educational

Resources you need for each specific class.

2) We will search for and review texts that meet the needs of your

class.

3) We will download and prepare the text, providing you with an easy to

use copy for your review.

4) We will add custom material to your drive such as open source

programs, class notes, slides, syllabus, etc.

5) We create an easy to use interface that organizes the data and tools

for quick and easy student use.

6) We will obtain and duplicate the flash drives for your students and

will coordinate the sales of material to your students. Either via the

bookstore and/or our online shopping cart.





Copyright



Copyright law varies from country to country, but it generally provides

a limited period of legal exclusivity for original works. Copyright

reserves certain rights for the copyright holder. All others need to

obtain permission from them to do any of the following:

* Create derivative works from the original work, for example by

translating it.

* Distribute originals or copies of a work, for example by

printing a document for all students in a class.

* Publicly display or perform a work, for example by showing a

video to a class. These limitations cease once the copyright

period is over. The work then enters the public domain. Once

a work is in the public domain anyone may perform any of the

acts outlined above, without the need for permission. It also

means that no-one can appropriate or lay claim to the work.



Typically education institutions are allowed some flexibility in

reproducing copyright materials for the purpose of education (fair use).

However, the law is often unclear on the exact amount of flexibility

permitted; it is not easy to find out what exactly an educator is

allowed to do.



OER projects make use of open licenses. These are based on the legal

protection that copyright affords, but grant more rights to users.

Copyright law vests copyright in the author automatically. By using an

open license, the author retains copyright but can specify clearly which

rights he or she is prepared to share with users of the work. The most

common OER licenses are the Creative Commons license and the GFDL

license.



All current Creative Commons (CC) licenses require that a user give

credit to the original author ("attribute" them) and allow use and

distribution of the resource. Some Creative Commons licenses are more

restrictive and, for example, do not allow modification of a work to

create a derivative work, or commercial use.



The Creative Commmons license conditions are as follows:

* Attribution - You let others copy, distribute, display, and

perform your copyrighted work - and derivative works based

upon it - only if they give credit the way you request.

* Noncommercial - You let others copy, distribute, display, and

perform your work - and derivative works based upon it - but

only for noncommercial purposes.

* No Derivative Works - You let others copy, distribute,

display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work (not

derivative works based upon it).

* Share Alike - You allow others to distribute derivative works

based on your work - but only under a license identical to the

license that governs your work.



The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) was created by the Free

Software Foundation and was originally used by Wikipedia. The GFDL was

incompatible with many CC licenses, which prevented users from combining

content to create derivative works.



One of the most burdensome aspects of publishing OER is to ensure that

none of the intended material falls under someone else's copyright. In

other words, you may not publish content as an OER unless you are the

copyright holder, or have obtained explicit permission from the

copyright holder.



For more information please contact us at:

Flash Publishing

380 Wyandotte Avenue

Columbus, Ohio 43202

(614) 263-0835

progressive-eai.com

usbflashpublishing.com