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Open Educational Resources: Creating OERs

Why create OERs?

There are many case studies online describing the benefits of creating OERs.

Adapting OERs

One of the key aspects of OERs is the capacity to not only reuse but to modify or 'remix' some resources. This could be adapting resources to meet specific needs e.g. contextual pedagogic requirements or using resources from different sources together.

The capacity to modify resources is dependent upon them being licensed for modification using open licences such Creative Commons licences that do not feature the No Derivative Works (ND) element.

The OER Toolkit provides information on finding and remixing openly licensed resources.

Getting started

When developing an Open Educational Resource, ensure the content is material you are permitted to make available under an open licence.

Content you have created yourself is the property of Curtin University as per the University's Intellectual Property Policy and Procedures.

  • If the content is of commercial value, follow the Procedures of Commercialisation of Intellectual Property in the IP Policy and Procedures document.
  • If the content was produced as part of as funding agreement, you will need to check the terms of the agreement regarding dissemination of research output.
  • If the content contains third party material, not owned by the university, you will need to consider the advice in the next section. 

It is ok to use third party content in your OER when using:

  • URLs that link to content, as long as the content is authorised and not infringing copright.
  • Public domain material.
  • Openly licensed materials, including Creative Commons. Licensing OERs gives further information on the different types of open licences. You will need to check the terms of the licence as some have specific requirements regarding attributions and re-use.
  • Content copied with written permission of the copyright holder. Note: the permission would need to let you 'sub-licence' the content under a Creative Commons licence.

All other third party content is not OK to use. This includes content from Library databases, content copied under Curtin's copyright licences (Part VA, Part VB  and the Music Licence), and online web content (unless available under an open licence).

The Open Educational Licensing Toolkit is a good resource to guide you in finding, using, adapting or sharing an OER.  

Resources need to be given a licence that allows for them to be shared, reused and adapted, most likely a Creative Commons licence to specify how it can be used by others. Tools such as the OER: Open Attribution Builder are available to help select the most appropriate licence.

Resources can be shared by making them available from Open Educational Resources repositories.

Another useful resource is the Open Educational Resources Toolkit created for Australian schools and TAFEs which guides you through the process of finding, creating and licensing OERs.   

Copyright @ Curtin

The Copyright at Curtin page has general information regarding obligations and entitlements in regards to copyright including information on licensing your copyright. 

OER visualisation

OER Visualisation by JISC