Open licensing of instructional materials such as textbooks, videos, and other related resources makes possible free sharing and remixing which reduces cost barriers for students. Creative Commons provides the legal infrastructure for easily sharing creative works including instructional materials but how do the different licenses indicate a resource can be re-used. Join us for an interactive session of playbook license scenarios where you test your knowledge of the OER re-use based on license type.

This guide provides a primer on copyright and use permissions. It is intended to support teachers, librarians, curriculum experts and others in identifying the terms of use for digital resources, so that the resources may be appropriately (and legally) used as part of lessons and instruction. The guide also helps educators and curriculum experts in approaching the task of securing permission to use copyrighted materials in their classrooms, collections, libraries or elsewhere in new ways and with fewer restrictions than fair use potentially offers. The guide was created as part of ISKME's Primary Source Project, and is the result of collaboration with copyright holders, intellectual property experts, and educators.* "Copyright license choice" by opensource.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Academic libraries are undergoing evolutionary change as emerging technologies and new philosophies about how information is created, distributed, and shared have disrupted traditional operations and services. Additionally, the population that the academic library serves is increasingly distributed due to distance learning opportunities and new models of teaching and learning. This article, the first in this special issue, suggests that in today’s increasingly networked and distributed information environment, the strategic integration of open curation and collection development practices can serve as a useful means for organizing and providing structure to the diverse mass of available digital information, so that individual users of the library have access to coherent contexts for meaningful engagement with that information. Building on insights from extant research and practice, this article proposes that colleges and universities recognize a more inclusive open access environment, including the integration of resources outside of those owned or created by the institution, and a shift toward policies that consider open access research and open educational resources as part of the library’s formal curatorial workflow and collection building. At the conclusion on this article, authors Lisa Petrides and Cynthia Jimes offer a commentary on the six remaining articles that comprise this special issue on Models of Open Education in Higher Education, discussing the significant role that “open” policy and practice play in shaping teaching, learning, and scholarship in the global context of higher education.

This document is an evidence-based guide that outlines the practical and policy supports needed to enable K-12 school librarians to take on leadership roles around OER, and to support OER curation efforts by librarians and all educators.

This guide is based on a study led by ISKME (iskme.org) in collaboration with Florida State University's School of Information. The study is titled “Exploring OER Curation and the Role of School Librarians". ISKME designs guides and toolkits that help educators navigate and implement new teaching and learning practices. Grounded in research, our evidence-based guides and toolkits help articulate what actually works in real education settings—and are tailored to the unique professional learning needs of our clients and their stakeholders.

The study was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (www.imls.gov), under grant number LG-86-17-0035-17. The findings and recommendations expressed in this document do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

This book is a practical guide to adapting or creating open textbooks using the Pressbooks platform. It is continually evolving as new information, practices and processes are developed. The primary audience for this book is community members at Ryerson University, Ontario who are interested in creating Open Educational Resources; however, there may be content within this book that is useful to others working on similar Open Educational Resource initiatives.

A template for developing openly licensed educational resources from Grossmont Union High School District.

This book is a practical guide to adapting or creating open textbooks using the PressBooks platform. It is continually evolving as new information, practices and processes are developed. The primary audience for this book are faculty and post-secondary instructors in Saskatchewan, Canada who are developing, adapting or adopting open textbooks at the University of Saskatchewan. However, there may be content within this book that is useful to others working on similar Open Educational Resource initiatives.

This editable resource is a 1-page handout explaining the six different Creative Commons licenses, their symbols, full names, and what users may, must, and must not do according to the terms of the licenses. This resource does not replace Creative Commons legal or human-readable license versions.

Finding and selecting OER to adopt at your college can raise questions about both the quality and accessibility of the content for your students. Join us for this webinar to hear about best practices and rubrics developed to ensure that OER content meets instructional material standards, accessibility guidelines, and open licensing policies established at your institution. These rubrics assist faculty, librarians, instructional designers and other staff to select and adapt open educational resources that meet student needs regardless of disability but are also culturally relevant and engaging for students at your institution and can be freely re-used, re-mixed, and re-distributed.

Throughout this OER Community Course space, we have talked about the benefits that OER bring to students, faculty, and institutions as a whole. Research shows us that the most direct positive impacts are reduced costs of a college education, improved student success rates, and increased student retention.

As you work to integrate OER into your practice, keep in mind the ways you can share the OER you create, as well as your own personal stories which can help promote the adoption, adaption, customization, creation, and sharing of OER by others.