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Creating Teaching Materials for

Fall 2020 and Beyond

Authoring and Adapting Open Educational Resources

for Colleges and Universities

Meredith Jacob

Will Cross

Apurva Ashok

Karen Bjork

Anita Walz

Peter Jaszi

Amanda Coolidge

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Agenda

Intro - Meredith
Opening - Meredith (OER, attribution, and copyright)
From Adopting OER to creating OER

Anita

Supporting learning processes, outcomes, content, function and format

Karen

Publishing support (OTN), building capacity and support

Pressbooks and Rebus - Apurva (coordination and tools - doing this quickly)
Coordinating OER creation - Amanda

Teams
Policies and funding

Where does OER expertise and source material come from? (Meredith, Will)

What copyright does and does not cover ( I/E, copyright vs. plagiarism) Will
Fair Use Meredith
Fair Use in Context - examples and references to Codes -- Peter (5 min)
Existing different purpose OER (CC 101)
Libraries can help - Will

What those projects might look like Will - (moderator)

Localization/Customization
Assessments - rethinking assessment strategy at BC Campus
Full Course replacement
Keep things simple - Apurva

What’s coming for fair use best practices
Questions and Discussion

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Open Educational Resources and Creative Commons Licenses

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Meredith

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From Adopting to

Creating OER

Meredith

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From adopting to creating

DECISIONS

Anita

How to support student learning . . .

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From adopting to creating

DECISIONS

Anita

How to support student learning . . .

Environment: online, blended,

face to face

Learning outcomes

My teaching philosophy and

role as an instructor

Activities

Tools for communication and sharing

Content: texts, videos, case studies,

lab simulations

Timing / scheduling

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From adopting to creating

Content in support of student learning:

What do you like about your current course materials? What do you dislike?
What came with your commercial text?
What do you absolutely need to be able to teach?
What can you reasonable build - with help?
What could you ask students to “build together” as part of their learning?

Anita

Adapted from: Alyson Indrunas https://spokeandhub.wordpress.com/2017/03/25/adapt-adopt-build-hospitality-oer

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From adopting to creating

ADOPT:

Anita

Videos

Podcasts

Articles

Books

Open textbooks

Simulations

Activities

Case studies

Lab exercises

Syllabi

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From adopting to creating

Curate

Adapt

Create original content

Anita

Image 3: by

Tobias van Schneider

https://unsplash.com/photos/VFvgrELFZhc

Public Domain

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From adopting to creating

Curate

Anita

Graphic: “Open Textbooks”

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From adopting to creating

Curate

Anita

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/96912

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From adopting to creating

2. Adapt

Anita

17 chapters

372 pages (2018)

440+ pages (2018)

Free online

(2016) http://hdl.handle.net/10919/70961

(2018) http://hdl.handle.net/10919/84848

Editable (CC BY NC SA)

Print options

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From adopting to creating

3. Create

Anita

http://doi.org/10.7294/W4M61HDZ

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From adopting to creating

Anita

Virtual Reality Dog

https://guides.lib.vt.edu/vetmed/vranatomy

3. Create

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From adopting to creating

3. Create

Anita

Cover design: Robert Browder

Cover image: (c) Michelle Yost. Total Internal Reflection (cropped by Robert Browder) is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

https://www.faculty.ece.vt.edu/swe/oem

Includes:

Screen-reader friendly PDF

Slide decks of figures

Problems & solutions

LaTeX sourcefiles

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Building Successful Open Textbooks Projects

Karen

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Building a program / Building community

Start small
Assess your program capacity
Identify partners
Identify partnerships

OTN Co-Op

Define expectations
Define roles
Community of Practice

Karen

Don’t do this alone. Building a team to support authors but also build a team to support the program. Starting small is important.

Support only as many projects as you have capacity for and grow over time.

Define expectations - will you be providing funding; what does that look like - while the material maybe “Free and open” to use it is not “free” to create. OER creation takes labor - how are you compensating for that labor?

Define roles - what will your program offer versus what work do you expect the author to do ....

I also think that it is very important to start a Community of Practice: introduce your authors to each other; have them share their projects; invite them to discuss what is working and what they’re struggling with; and enable them to not feel alone in the process of creating OER. Again, it takes a village ...

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What do I mean by open textbooks?

Structured publications with consistent pedagogical elements

Openers: Overviews, key terms, case studies...
Closers: Reflective questions, quizzes, summaries…

Not monographs
Complete portable files
Openly licensed to allow for editing

Karen

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What do I mean by publishing?

Faculty focus on the writing and pedagogy, not the formatting or tool
Structured documents that can be easily updated
Contributions from professional copy editors, proofreaders, illustrators, designers and other publishing experts
High-finish printed product, plus additional file types
Potentially create an imprint or brand for publishing services

Karen

Publishing takes time. The benefit of OER is that author has the opportunity to teach with the material as they are creating it. My program at Portland State, we require that the faculty authors teach and gather feedback from their students before they publish. I have book that is currently in creation for 100 level Spanish. The author is writing and teaching with the book. She’s writing the chapter and then a week later using it in her course. The students provide real-time feedback and are participating in the creation. During the summer she’ll integrate the student’s feedback into the manuscript.

While this can be very intensive it ensures that she is meeting the pedagogical needs for her students. It aligns with our programs missions to support material that’s designed specifically for PSU students – it also provides students the unique opportunity to participate in the creation of their course material.

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Open Textbook Network Publishing Co-Op

Co-op is grounded in professional development and community. It’s a flexible publishing model that features...

Community practice: Google Group, Tea Time, orientation which leverages everyone’s experience
Training in publishing workflows: Pub 101
Press services: Editing, design and production

Customized project support and consultation
Guidelines and templates: https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/106630

Karen

In the beginning of the talk I mentioned identifying partnerships - One of those partners that I have worked with is the Open Textbook Network - The Open Textbook Network is a diverse community of higher education institutions that promote access, affordability, and student success through the use of open textbooks. The Open textbook Network manages the open textbook Library and runs the publishing co-op. The goal of the co-op is to grow open textbook publishing expertise and capacity in higher education; The Co-op is designed to offer flexible, one-stop support for editing, design and production services. We help control costs by teaching members how to do key work, namely structuring the open textbook manuscript.

OTN Publishing Co-op is a community of people who support one another as they figure out what OER publishing support looks like for them (don't go it alone!)

- We facilitate connections through Pub101 orientations, monthly Tea Time get togethers and other learning opportunities

- We share templates and best practices that are available for everyone, for the common good, not just members -- please point to the Canvas curriculum: https://canvas.umn.edu/courses/106630

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Chapter 11: Before

Chapter 11: After

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Planning OER Creation

Apurva

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Apurva

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Narrow your focus

Range of possibilities for OER: replace a course, write/remix a textbook, create assignments, curate reading lists, etc.
Varying timeframes
Planning goes a long way
Quick project scoping template

Who is your audience?
What are your needs?

Apurva

curiosity by Iconathon, US. In the Redefining Women Collection. In the Public Domain.

As Anita and Karen have described, there are a lot of ways in which you can step into the world of OER and Open Education. OER projects often involve creating new open textbooks, but aren’t necessarily limited to just these. Rather, the range of possibilities with OER is much broader. You can certainly create OER to replace your existing commercial textbook, but you can also work on putting together ancillary learning materials like slide decks, question banks, assignments, reading lists, and more. Your project can also involve working with existing content. Later in the webinar, we’ll share a few examples of projects that can hopefully inspire you or help you plan your own.

Whatever your focus, the projects can expand to fill the time that you assign to them – be it six months, three months, or a few weeks. The beauty of open texts is that improvements can always be made during the continuous lifetime of a published resource. This being said, it’s definitely possible to put together a well-designed and high-quality resource in a very short time-frame. We’ve seen it happen, and OER lends itself to this quick work.

The best way to start a project like this one is with a bit of planning. Laying out the groundwork make it easier to focus on and complete the tasks at hand once the project is running. It also prompts you to think through some of the big decisions surrounding your resource earlier on, and helps ensure that the final resource you create is more rounded and valuable to readers. We’ve put together a list of prompts to get you started with this process, and to help you define what you’d like to work on. You can find this in the “quick project scoping template.”

The main questions to answer at this point are: Who is your audience? Try to think beyond just the class or course that you want to use the resource in. What level is the course? What is the make-up of the class? What are students’ reading levels? Also use this time to more carefully consider your own needs. Do you need to supplement your materials with another resource? Start from scratch? Think about the audience you’ve identified above, and whether the project you describe fits with their needs. This is a good moment to pencil in a target completion date, which in turn might prompt you to revisit your answers to those first two questions.

Resource: Quick project scoping template.

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Identify support and resources

People:

We are not in this alone
Creation can be collaborative
Support and help at different levels

Locally: in department, on campus, in state/province
Globally: via the Rebus Community, Open Education groups, Creative Commons chapters

Content:

No need to reinvent the wheel
Search for existing content to repurpose

Apurva

With the basic idea for your project in development, you can broaden your web. As Karen has alluded to thus far, there’s a big community and network that you can tap into for support. You are not in this alone, or rather, “we” are not in this alone. There are instructors all around the world grappling with similar issues and questions — whether it’s figuring out how to deliver their physics assignments remotely, how to engage students with their readings, or something else. You can collaborate with one another to create a resource that meets and fits your collective needs. Working with others means that they bring new perspectives, diverse experiences, and in so doing, they help strengthen your resource immeasurably.

The best place to start is to look for support in your immediate network. Is there a colleague in your department that you can coordinate with? An instructional designer, librarian, or publishing program administrator on your campus you can work with? Someone from your state board of education who can provide assistance? You can also cast your net out wider, to see if there are people you can coordinate with around the world.

You can use the Rebus platform to connect with others in your discipline, share calls for participation, and publicly communicate on your project. You can also look at different open education groups — CCCOER, for support from others working at community colleges, SPARC, (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), the OTN. The Creative Commons teams also has chapters all around the world, from Canada to Asia and New Zealand. So tap into these groups if you require additional help – whether it’s for an intensive part of the process like writing or for something smaller like proofreading.

Support can also come in the form of existing, ready-made OER content. Sometimes, the best path forward is to use what is already out there, without reinventing the wheel. Part of your project scoping work can involve a quick search in your library database or OER repository for materials that may align with the goals you’ve identified. Working on curating this content versus starting it from scratch can save you a lot of time that you can devote elsewhere. At this point, you can also put together a short outline or table of contents for your resource, just to get a sense of what the resource will cover. This may also develop naturally as the project progresses.

Resources: Rebus Community, CCCOER, SPARC, Creative Commons chapters.

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Select your tools

No crash course necessary for publishing tools
Formats matter: web, offline, editable
Pressbooks lets you quickly piece together content in easily shareable ways

Text and more!
Test it out via Open & Online

Rebus Community offers publishing guides and a web-software to coordinate, communicate, and be public about your work

Apurva

So you have a sense of what you’ll be working on, and who will be supporting you. The other component to planning your OER project is deciding on what tools you would like to use and how you will actually share what you create with students. Right off the bat, I want to assure you that you don’t need an advanced degree in computer science or graphic design to use open publishing tools. These tools are designed to be simple and easy to use, so that anyone anywhere in the world can pick it up quickly and publish the content that they need.

It’s good to consider at this point what formats you may want to make your OER available in. We recommend sharing your work in a web format (like a website), an offline format (like a downloadable PDF, ebook, or print copy, which can be accessed without internet access), and an editable format (that is compatible with a word processor or can be easily transferred into another publishing tool and be edited). Providing these options to students will give them the flexibility of choice when deciding how to access and read your materials. For many students who might not have stable or reliable internet access, or who may have other members of their household vying for the computer, these options will alleviate some stresses.

These 3 types will also strengthen the open license that you’ve assigned to your resource — so other instructors who are coming across your resource can also easily incorporate it into their own materials if they choose to do so.

We’ve found Pressbooks to be the easiest tool with which to format and share OER. It’s an open source book formatting software that creates books in the 3 formats. With Pressbooks, you can also add things like formulae, images, multimedia, interactive quizzes, videos, assessments, and include social annotation tools to help students collaboratively read content. Pressbooks is giving educators access to create 1 free book via the Open & Online initiative, so if you wanted to trial this tool out, I would recommend you take a look at those details.

Once you’ve selected your tool, you’re all set to begin the work of writing or curating!

As I mentioned at the start, there’s a lot more to this process, so if you are curious, you can refer to our comprehensive guide to publishing. You can also use Rebus tools as a pathway to connect with other members as you go about creating your project. You can use the Rebus site to share news and updates about your resource - as it is being worked on or once it has been formatted in Pressbooks. What’s important is to be vocal about the work you’re doing, even if at the very end to announce what is ready. Amanda will go into some more detail about this particular piece of it — how you can work with teams on OER projects.

Resources: Pressbooks, Open & Online Initiative, Rebus Community

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Example Template: Introduction to Philosophy

Who is the resource’s intended audience?�Students who have not taken any philosophy courses before, and are entirely new to the discipline. Some students in introductory-level philosophy courses may of course have done previous work in philosophy, but the book should not assume any prior knowledge and are written in an accessible way for those unfamiliar with philosophical terms and traditions.
Describe the project briefly.�This open textbook looks to provide students with an introduction to the canon of Philosophy, giving them the basic framework needed to pursue higher-level courses. It will begin with 1 book on Ethics. The project can branch into other philosophical sub-disciplines in future.
What is a realistic timeline by which the resource should be ready? �I need this book ready by Fall 2020.
What tools and resources do I have? �I have a project homepage on Rebus Community, an editorial team, my local librarian’s support, book cover�and a Pressbooks book set up. I’ve identified 2 other existing Philosophy OER to draw on.
What tools and resources do I need?�I need more authors and a copyeditor for my content.
How will the resource be licensed?�The resource will be licensed CC BY to permit the widest range of uses.

Apurva

Book cover from Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics, licensed CC BY. Designed by Jonathan Lashley. Cover art by Heather Salazar.

To end, I want to share an example of what a completed template can look like. Here’s one I’ve put together for a Philosophy project. I’ve identified my audience, not just as students of introductory philosophy courses, but also possibly those who may be unfamiliar with terms and traditions of philosophy.

Next, I’ve described the project -- in this case, creating a book for Ethics specifically. I’ve also identified my timeline: Fall 2020 is when I need this book ready, so I have about 4 months to work on this resource.

Then, I’ve listed out what I’ve already put together: a public communications page on Rebus community, a set of editors to help with my project, confirmation from my local librarian about their help, and a book in Pressbooks to format and share content. I’ve also found and listed 2 existing OER from which I can remix content. What I need is a few more authors to help me complete this work and a copyeditor to review the content.

Finally, I’ve decided to license the book CC BY to permit the widest range of uses.

So with all this identified, I can get working on the project. Now this is just an example, and your own project might develop in different ways, and that’s okay! You can always look back at this initial information you put together to confirm that you’re on the right track with your project, regardless of whether you’re working on it solo or in a large team.

Resources: Introduction to Philosophy project.

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Coordinating OER Creation

Amanda

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Step 1. Identify what exists

Amanda

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Step 2. Review

Can you adopt as is?

Yes? Great, add the link to your course and use.

No? Time to start reviewing. B.C. Open Textbooks Review Rubric [Word file] (CC BY)�

Identify what needs to be changed, removed or added

Amanda

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Step 3. Find a team

https://opentextbc.ca/geography/

https://opentextbc.ca/introtourism/

https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/ancientandmedieval/

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Amanda

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Where Does OER Expertise and Source Material

Come From

Meredith

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Very quick copyright basics (more at: auw.cl/oer)

Broad subject matter: “original works of authorship”
Automatic protection and long duration
Closed list of reserved rights
Even then, limited protection -- idea/expression
More limits - specific exceptions (108/110)
Supplemented by general, flexible fair use doctrine

Will

C is a great source for OER. Foundation + how it supports

If you were able to attend our Copyright Basics webinar you heard us say this, but I want to say it here as well: C = Balance - lots can be protected but rightsholders can only limit use in certain ways

Broad

If something is original, creative, and fixed it is subject to C. Commonly to literary, artistic, and musical works,
C is also broad in that it happens automatically
Example of backchannel snark
C lasts a long time. Life +70/95 for institutional author. Long but not forever. As discussed above, one of the main purposes is to stock a robust PD. Like Lana Del Rey, copyright is born to die.

Limits

Exclusive right to control: reproduce, make derivatives of, sell, distribute, to the public, perform or display publicly, the copyrighted work
BUT singing in the shower
Outside the scope: Functional concepts, names, facts, ideas
Example: HP idea for a worksheet isn’t protected, concepts being presented are not protected. Even the written instructions may not be under merger.

Exceptions

Whole swath of uses and areas that the statute has identified. Most common for us are 108 and 110
Exceptional exception of fair use

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OER creation is not a closed book test

Idea/expression - structure, theories, methods
Duration - most of recorded history
Open licensed - OTL, CC Search, Wikimedia, auw.cl/oer
Closed resources - classroom and transformative uses

Will

Paysage avec Orion aveugle cherchant le soleil (1658)

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Copyright, Fair Use & Creative Commons Licenses

Meredith

yes

no

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Are you doing something new or different (something “transformative”) with the material?

AND

Is the amount you are using -- whether a part or the whole -- appropriate ?

If yes to both, it’s unlikely that you’ll be providing a “substitute” for the copyright work in its intended market - which is the only pocketbook issue relevant to fair use.

Fair use: two core questions

Meredith

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Subjecting works to critique and analysis
Using works to illustrate arguments
Copying works to promote accessibility
Providing texts for language learning
Promoting media literacy
Developing new educational materials
Employing “orphan works”
And many more…

Examples of fair use in action

Meredith

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A few examples include:

Excerpting a passage for close reading (glossing, discussion questions, language learning, etc)
Including an image for illustration of a teaching point or documentation of an historical event
Including an image or a text from source material for student activities or assesment

Relying on fair use to create OER

Meredith

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Ask:

What is my purpose?
Is it transformative? (How is it different than the purpose of the original?)
Does it substitute in the market for the original?

Document:

What’s excluded from the open license
Identify the 3rd party materials
What your reasoning was (doesn’t have to be in the resource itself)

How to implement

Meredith

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Uses designed mainly to set a mood or grab attention
Uses that aren’t proportionate
Uses of commercial educational materials
And . . .

Fair use caution flags in education

Meredith

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Fair use in context

Everyone does it -- from journalism and big software to Hollywood & publishing

That includes the textbook and testing industry!

But they don’t always acknowledge it! In fact, they

That makes things hard

Peter

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Fair use in context -- the background

Everybody’s doing it -- from journalism and big software to Hollywood & commercial publishing.

That includes the textbook and testing industries, by the way.

But they don’t always acknowledge it. In fact, information businesses often deliver mixed messages about fair use where their own stuff is concerned.

That can make things hard for the rest of us!

Peter

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Fair use in context -- the case law

The courts have been helpful here -- especially since 1994 -- in exploring the some of the domains in which fair use operates:

-- Parody and remix (the old standards)

-- “Appropriation” art

-- Scholarship

-- Programming and database development

-- And many more

Peter

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Fair use in context -- the Best Practices approach

Since 2005, we’ve been helping practice communities take charge of fair use -- see Codes of Best Practices for more. A few examples:

Documentary Filmmakers
K-12 Media Literacy Teachers
Poets
Communications Scholars
Research Libraries
Artists, Art Historians, and Museums

These are guidance documents by and for practitioners, not “guidelines” handed down to them.

Peter

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Existing different purpose OER

Lots of great material (see auw.cl/oer)
Localize/customize
Borrow portions (images, charts, etc.) for a new project

Will

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Libraries can be your best partner

Course design
Finding open materials
Copyright and open licenses
Advocacy
Accessibility
Making your work discoverable
Community of practice
Much, much more . . .

Will

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What Those Projects

Might Look Like

Will

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Localization/Customization

Anita/Amanda

https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/businessfuncdn

https://otn.pressbooks.pub/fundamentalsofbusiness/

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Assessment

Amanda

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Keep things simple

Consider smaller projects besides full textbook replacements
Think about your students’ needs and what they can handle
Also look into your own capacity and needs
Simpler can sometimes be better!
Improvements can be made to OER over time

Apurva

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What’s Coming for Fair Use Best Practices

Meredith

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Questions and Discussion

Meredith

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Join us on Fridays for the rest of the spring:

auw.cl/oer

Next Week:

“Universal Design - ensuring equitable access to education in the transition to online teaching and learning for students with disabilities and vulnerable students”