This resource will walk OER Commons users through the creation of an Open Author resource based on a Google Doc, which is imported using the integration tool.
“This starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). The text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Although some chapters contain more advanced content, the starter kit is primarily intended for users who are entirely new to Open Education.”
While some of the content included in the handbook is Iowa State University-specific, these examples are few and I have tried to make the text as generalizable as possible. I welcome any comments for potential edits and additions to the text and will add an errata/tracking changes page to the front matter in the future. I especially welcome comments on my Diversity and Inclusion chapter, since I am not the most well-versed on that topic.
If you would like to adapt the text for use at your institution, please let me know so I can add links to your adaptations in the future. If you are interested in working with me on a second edition in the future, feel free to reach out! I’d love to make a more advanced version with additional sections for OER program managers and librarians.
The OER Starter Kit was originally adapted from the ABOER Starter Kit, but blossomed into a much larger project over the past few months. It includes content from Billy Meinke’s excellent UH OER Training manual, SUNY’s wonderful OER Community Courses, and others, all of which can be found on the kit’s Attribution page and on the footnotes of their corresponding chapters.
It has never been easier to publish online or consume digital content. This comes with many advantages and can make teaching and learning so much more targeted and impactful. Living in a digital world also brings up many questions — one issue that is very important to understand is copyright.
Whether you’re an educator, student, or blogger, copyright is a topic that is often overlooked as it can be confusing or just not considered important.
Unfortunately, there are also a lot of myths about copyright circulating amongst the education community. Maybe you’ve heard that you can use any images or texts you find online if you’re using them for education? Or perhaps you’ve heard that you can use any songs in your videos as long as you use less than 30 seconds? Yep, both not true.
Copyright is important for all teachers, students, and bloggers to know about. And it doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think. We’re here to break down the basics of copyright and other related topics like fair use, public domain, and Creative Commons.