Open educational resources: guidelines

Create Open educational resources:

Quick Guide: Tips to Get You Started

Secure the right to share material:
- Ensure everything you share is your own material
  - Do not include material that is under the copying licence, for example
- If the material is created by others, such as other speakers in the video, make sure you have the rights to use it
  - Some materials might be open access, like those licensed under a Creative Commons license. If unsure, always check
  - Seek permission from other authors if needed. Legal services can provide template contracts if required
Ensure accessibility:
- E.g. for videos, accessibility often means providing subtitles. This can be automatically done by platforms like JYU's Moniviestin
Add Metadata to the Educational Resource:
- Include details of the authors and publisher (e.g., JYU)
- Choose an appropriate license
- Provide a description of the content, and add keywords to enhance findability.
Open the Information in the Library of Open Educational Resources:
- By doing this, you ensure the Educational Resource is findable
- The Library works with JYU's Haka credentials and guides users through the information input process
- The educational resource can be added to the Library either as a link or as a file.

For more details on these topics, refer to the sections below.

Digital Services of JYU have produced pedagogical models of the e-learning and guidelines for digital tools (not yet translated into English)
It is possible to use open platforms for production. Just remember:
- ensure the questions of data protection issues
- cooperation and participation of students.

Compact check list of the authorship:

As a principle, the author always has the authorship, so he/she decides for opening of the education resource and the licence of it
Agreeing of the cooperation, licences etc.in advance: ask examples from Legal Services
- Cooperation is possible with students, too. In fact learner's participation is the central matter of open learning
- Copyrights can be transferred by making the special contract.

Opening the education resources from different viewpoints:

The author decides: how, where and which terms and conditions (licences) are applied
The organization supports: cooperation and agreement
Students can be both the authors and users of the educational resources, i.e. students have to be able to utilize for example Creative Commons licences
If photos etc. have been used in the leaning material, please notice the permission of copyrights. Options for this:
- Use your own material only
- Use materials with open licencing
- Get permission for the opening
- Materials included in Kopiosto's copying licence can not be opened
- (The Operight-website offers for information about copyright in teaching, but yet in Finnish or Swedish only.)

Open educational resources can both be opened for the general use, or they can be opened with the licence which defines terms and condition for the further use.

The Creative Commons licences are of often used for opening the educational resource. The author can decide the licence suitable for each material. The Library of Open Educational Resources recommends licences such as CC BY 4.0. and CC BY SA. Both of the licences order to cite the original author. CC BY SA means materials can be shared when the licence used on that new work is the same as the original.

Note that the permission of editing the material enables the updating of it and continues the life and usability of the material. It is also good to think, is it really necessary to reject the commercial use, because the the material can not be utilized courses which are subject to a charge. (Source; Library of Open Educational Resources, FAQ. URL: Frequently Asked Questions — The Open Educational Library (aoe.fi) The link checked 17.8.2023.)

If the educational resource has several authors, it is helpful to agree licences etc. in advance.

For more information about the licences and rights of the educational resources:

The selection tool for Creative Commons licences
- The CC icon, text and the link are created by this tool, too
Guide for open educational resources: Creative Commons licences (not yet translated into English)
Library of Open Educational Resources: Open licences & open educational resources (not yet translated into English)
- Library of Open Educational Resources: What are Creative Commons licences?
Kopiosto: Teacher's copyright (not yet translated into English)
Teacher's copyrights: Model contracts for open content production (not yet translated into English)
Tarmo Toikkanen (2020): Copyrights in Education. The Library of Open Educational Resources. Open learning material, 28.1.2020.
Please always check copyrights if you use materials included in Kopiosto's copying licence: they cannot be included automatically to open educational resources.

Creative Commons licence selection tool
Materials used in educational resources: is opening allowed?
When collaborating, e.g. involving students in the making of educational resources, or in research projects, copyright may belong to many parties. In this case, it is worth to remember the agreement in advance, in which case copyright and used licences are decided on in good time and together.

Accessibility means that materials and teaching are suitable using as many people as possible.
When producing open educational resources the accessibility is noticed by making the material clear, understandable and easy to use, for example. Accessibility is regulated matter i.e. open educational resources must be accessible and in their background information it is good to provide additional information related to accessibility. When opening the educational resources, it is possible to bring up such background information in the Library of open educational resources (aoe).

For more information

Data privacy in JYU
The national open educational resources accessibility guide (in preparation).

The author of the educational resource should also take into account the quality aspect, e.g.

content
open learning and teaching methods
usability and accessibility
findability
- material is described, i.e. it has the necessary metadata in the Library of Open Educational Resources
- further use, e.g. clear licensing.

Peer review opportunity

colleagues as support, mentors, in the educational resource making phase
The Library of Open Educational Resources allows you to write open comments on opened educational resources, e.g. on further development ideas.

When opening your own educational material, it is worth noting that it may also contain the personal data of others, for example when making a video recording of a teaching situation.

If open educational resources are created as part of a course, it is a good idea to inform the participants in advance of the opening of the educational material in the course description.

If open educational resources are made, for example in an event open to the general public, it is a good idea to inform the opening in advance in the event announcement, on the spot for example at the beginning of the video recording out loud, and in the case of participants arriving late, with a notice printed on the door.

More information about teacher's data protection at JYU.

The author opens his/her teaching material with descriptive data in the national Library of open teaching materials (aoe), maintained by the Centre for Science and Technology (CSC). This means that users can add metadata to their learning materials in aoe to make them as discoverable and usable as possible.

You can add to aoe

a file or
a link to the material you have opened elsewhere.

Publishing the material ensures the teacher's merit, so author and licensing information, including JYU affiliation, should also be added to the descriptive metadata. The aoe platform guides the filling of description information, so it is worth remembering to add these details in the descripition:

authors
factor affinities
YSO keywords to help findability
JYU as publisher (to make JYU materials discoverable)
a concise description of the material as a guide for users
the chosen licence.

Educational resources can also be opened in JYU's own environments such as Moniviestin and Moodle. For these, a linki and descriptive information will be stored in aoe.

How to open the educational resource in aoe.

The National Guide to Open Educational Materials: an overview

The National Guide (not yet translated into English) goes through the basics of opening educational resources.
Definition of concepts: open learning, open education resource, open learning and teaching practices
Copyright issues
CC licences from the perspective of open educational resources
The guide has been produced in the national coordination of open science as part of the work of the group of experts on open learning. Authors: Aino Helariutta (Laurea) and Terhi Kaipainen (Xamk). CC BY-SA 4.0
The National Library of Open Educational Materials also compiles tips on how to produce materials (not yet translated into English).

National policy on openness in learning

The Openness of Learning Policy (not yet translated into English): Open educational resources, open learning and teaching practices
Includes principles, targets and measures.

A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER)

This Unesco Guide comprises three sections. The first – a summary of the key issues – is presented in the form of a set of Frequently Asked Questions. Its purpose is to provide readers with a quick and user-friendly introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER) and some of the key issues to think about when exploring how to use OER most effectively.

The second section is a more comprehensive analysis of these issues, presented in the form of a traditional research paper. For those who have a deeper interest in OER, this section will assist with making the case for OER more substantively.

The third section is a set of appendices, containing more detailed information about specific areas of relevance to OER. These are aimed at people who are looking for substantive information regarding a specific area of interest.

Open Education Handbook

Open Education Handbook states that "Open Education" is a topic which has become increasingly popular in a variety of contexts. This handbook has been written to provide a useful point of reference for readers with a range of different roles and interests who are interested in learning more about the concept of Open Education and to help them deal with a variety of practical situations.

Quality Assurance Guidelines for Open Educational Resources: TIPS Framework

Quality Assurance Guidelines open the backgroud od Open Educational Resources and shows methods how to define their quality.

Unesco: Draft Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (2019)

Unesco's Recommendation on Open Educational Resources is the foundation policies are built on Finland.

You should remember to add the merits, skills and work of open education to your resume and e.g. to your research profiles.

You can merit from open education, e.g.

as a researcher who produces open educational resources from their research results
as a teacher who uses open educational practices
as an expert who promotes and supports the open education
as an influencer who communicates about open education
as a decision maker who significantly promotes open education
as a student who makes open educational resources for their course work.

At JYU, the merits of open education can be highlighted in the Converis research information system. It is possible to add information to Converis' research activities from open education; the other teaching merit form has fields designed for marking open educational resourses. In this case, you should remember to pay particular attention to the Converis sections

Type of teaching merit: Preparing and opening educational resources
Is educational resource: Yes
Is openly available: Yes
License: Creative Commons license chosen by the authors
Level of education for material users: Primary audience/target group of the educational resource
In addition, the basic information of the educational resource, such as the name and authors, as well as information that supports findability, such as the description and YSO keywords.

More information on open education merits from the national recommendation.