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Planning to Create OER

Welcome learners!

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If you want to learn how can you create an OER from your existing resources, you have come to the right place. The serialized guide that follows in this unit will equip you with the knowledge of "Planning" in the process of OER creation.

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Once you plan, the next couple of units will discuss the details of tools to create OER and how to evaluate your OER.

Introduction

If you had read the "All about OER" section of our website, you would already be aware of the benefits of utilizing Open Educational Resources (OER) in your classroom as well as how to locate, utilize, and modify the resources for your course. You may also be familiar with the fundamentals of the Creative Commons license (CC). Before we continue, I urge you to at the very least complete the Introduction to OER module.

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After reading this, you may be asking yourself, "That's all wonderful, but how do I create one of these resources myself or convert one of my current resources into an OER so the entire student community may benefit and possibly develop it further?" Although that is undoubtedly ambitious, you are fortunately in the right spot!​

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In this module, you will find a simple step-by-step guide that you can download and use for a quick reference in the future. Stay Tuned!

Intro

Learning Objectives

 After completing this unit, you will be able to:

1. Create an OER using your existing resources.

2. Publish your resources on Pressbooks.

3. License your resources using a CC(Creative Commons) license.

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Here is a list of tasks that you will perform during the process of Planning:

  1. Identify resources for your OER

  2. Create metadata for your resources

  3. Clarify the type of license for your resources

  4. Identify the authoring tool to publish your resources

  5. Sharing your OER for maximum visibility

  6. Make your OER accessible to a variety of learners

Objectives

Prerequisites

Ask Yourself: Creating an OER can be a mammoth task and needs a lot of considerations. Before you create one, why don’t you take some time to think Why do you need to create an OER?

 

Here are a few possible reasons:

  • A similar OER does not exist(I have checked the resources such as ‘open textbook library’, etc(and include links to resources to locate OER)).

  • No such resources are available which can be adapted to your course needs.

  • I want to learn how to create an OER using my own resources.

  • My students want me to do it together with them.

  • What can I say, I like spreading knowledge.

  • I’m a believer in free and open-source movements.

  • I can not work on updating my work, someone else can pick it up from where I left off.

  • Making it as an OER can give someone a chance to build upon my work and create something more meaningful to their context.

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Steps to Create an OER

Pre-req
1.CourseObj

2. Identifying resources for your OER

Making the following decisions is part of identifying the resources:

  1. What kind of resources are you looking to add? Pressbooks makes it possible for you to a variety of resources in your product/leaning program.(More information in the next unit!)

    1. Text

    2. Audio

    3. Video

    4. Interactive

  2. Validate your sources using the following four factors while selecting the content:

    1. Effectiveness, 

    2. Efficiency 

    3. Appeal, 

    4. Extension

Watch this video For more details of these four factors!

"Creating Open Educational Resources" by Abbey Elder is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

1. Identify Course Objectives

Few questions to clarify with yourself and the team working on the project: 

  1. How do you define your student and faculty audiences?

  2. For which course(s) could your OER be used?

  3. What expertise is required to create your OER?

  4. What Objectives are being met with these resources?

  5. What Objectives are NOT being met with these resources?

Tip #1: While you evaluate your OER after you have finished creating it, it is a good idea to go through the evaluation checklist before you even start the creation process it. Please find the detailed checklist here.

2.Resources

3. Identifying the authoring tool

There are a variety of authoring tools available to create an OER. For simplicity, we will focus on Pressbooks as it is the tool already being used by Concordia Library to create OER. So, congratulations, you do not need to invest time in figuring out the tool for you. You will find the details of how to use Pressbooks in our next unit on Tools to develop OER.

3. Tools

4. Create Metadata for your OER

Metadata is “data about data” to provide information about data, in other words, to “facilitate in the discovery of relevant information”.  Traditionally libraries catalog books in subject categories, using card indexes, now computer catalogs.  The information about each book (title, author, subject area, index number, location, etc) is the metadata.  

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Any Open Educational Resource uploaded to an online repository needs metadata to make it more visible for those who might be searching for a useful OER in their subject area.  OER repositories or OER hosting sites will have places to record a short description of a resource and a set of keywords.

Watch this video to know details of Adding OER Metadata with Pressbooks

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“Adding OER Metadata with Pressbooks” by Presbooks is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

5. Applying a CC License for your OER

While you can go on Creative Common's website to choose your license, Pressbooks makes it fairly easy.

Pressbooks enables you to automatically display a Creative Commons license in your outputs.  You can go to the Book Info page and select the appropriate license from the “Copyright License” dropdown menu. This will add the CC logo and brief explanation of the license conditions to the copyright page in your PDF and ebooks, and to the landing page of your webbook.

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Image is from "Creative Commons Licensing" by Pressbooks, and is licensed under CC BY 4.0 license.

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copyright1.png

Tip #2: While Pressbooks is doing the task for you, it is always good to know how it actually works. Please go to the "Share your work" page on the creative commons website that explains the types of licenses you can choose from. Here, you can create your license while deciding the openness of your resources.

Test Your Knowledge

4.Metadata
5.ApplyLic
quiz

References

Guides: Open Educational Resources: Create. (n.d.).

           https://libguides.wpi.edu/oer/create 

Pressbooks. (2021, April 12). Adding OER Metadata with Pressbooks. YouTube.

           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLVYjqnl8fw 

OLCreate: Resources for OEP: Metadata - optimising your OER for search engines.

           (n.d.). https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/page/view.php?id=129419 

Pressbooks. (2013, January 1). Creative Commons Licensing – Pressbooks User                                                                                               Guide https://fhsu.pressbooks.pub/guide/chapter/cclicenses/

Dhakulkar, A. (2022, May 10). Creating the Commons: Tools to Make and Create.

           Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://twu-ir.tdl.org/handle/11274/13657

Chapter 11: 2004 OER – 25 Years of Ed Tech: The Serialized Audio Version. (2021, January 18).

           Retrieved October 9, 2022, from https://25years.opened.ca/2021/01/18/chapter-11-2004-oer/

8.7 Creating OER – Program for Open Scholarship and Education. (n.d.). Pressbooks. Retrieved

           October 4, 2022, from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/pose2/chapter/creating-an-oer/

About CC Licenses. (2020, May 22). Creative Commons.

           https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/

OERIPRSupport. (2012). Turning a Resource into an Open Educational Resource (Oer). Retrieved December 8, 2022, from                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUVW5fhQP2k

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References
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