Defining OER policy for public content - and bringing them to life

Monday 14:00-15:30 (1), Blaydon/Gibbs

Type: Workshop

Theme: Open policy, research, scholarship and access

http://oerpolicy.eu #oer14 #abs95

Authors

Dr Alek Tarkowski, Policy Advisor, Creative Commons, [email protected]

Abstract

Workshop rationale:

Open policies are one of the strongest mechanisms for promoting the creation of Open Educational Resources. Arguments about openness of publicly funded educational resources have been raised in the Cape Town Declaration of 2008 and confirmed in the UNESCO Paris Declaration on Open Educational Resources. There are elements of open educational policies being implemented in countries across Europe (for example the Netherlands, Poland, Romania) and beyond (for example United States, Brazil, Australia).

At the same time, not a single country has implemented a nation-wide open policy for all educational content. The OER movement, compared to the Open Access movement, lacks also a model for implementing policies at institutional level (as is the case with institutional Open Access mandates). There is finally the challenge of creating a unified policy for educational resources at different levels of the educational system: K-12, higher education and lifelong learning.

Workshop content

The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants interested in OER advocacy to better plan strategies for introducing open policies.

The goal of the workshop is to discuss with participants methods for introducing such open policies, taking as a starting point a general policy position that has been developed by Creative Commons (CC). Since several years, CC has been supporting a strong open licensing model for OER, arguing that it is necessary to provide full benefits of open educational resources. CC is currently running a European Open Educational Policy project, the aim of which is to support the development of such policies at both European and national level.

The workshop will start with a presentation of CC policy position with relation to publicly funded open educational resources - including research on textbook production and exceptions and limitations to copyright that allow for free usage of content. On the basis of the presentation, the participants will discuss: 1) at what level (institutional / regional / national) should such policies be implemented? 2) what are the main arguments in favour of such policies? 3) what are the main myths that need to be "busted" in order to implement them? and 4) what type of activities other than policy work can support introduction of such policies - for example by providing examples of the advantages of the OER model.

The workshop will take into consideration the new "Opening Up Education" initiative of the European Commission, which is expected to be a major policy tool in promoting OER in Europe.

Delivery method

After a short initial presentation (10 minutes), participants will brainstorm the key issues in small groups. Depending on time available, either all or part of the above mentioned issues will be discussed. The outcome of the workshop will be a collaboratively prepared draft of a policy brief that will list key advantages, key challenges, key actions to be implemented and examples of best practices for open educational policy.

Files

• presentation_tarkowski_oer14.pptx

Further details

Keywords: open policy, CC licensing, Creative Commons

Website: http://oerpolicy.eu