This session will provide participants the opportunity to learn about some of the latest developments in the open-licensing landscape, and to discuss key and emerging issues in the relationship between OER and copyright. There may be room for discussion about other intellectual property issues as well, depending on time and interests.
Background
As most participants will already know, one of the fundamental characteristics of open educational resources (OER) is that they are ''openly licensed'', meaning that the copyright holders have granted users ''a priori'' permissions to share and possibly adapt and remix their works freely. It is this open license that makes OER fundamentally different from works that are merely placed on the Internet, whether or not those works are accessible free-of-charge. Openly licensed educational materials are often described as the component parts of a global learning commons, which is growing rapidly as more and more OER are produced and shared.
However, there are a variety of complications to this story. First, there are many different “open” licenses available, including both standardized licenses (e.g., Creative Commons) and custom licenses which tend to be site-specific. These licenses do not grant the same permissions to users; furthermore, some licenses are more interoperable with other open licenses than others, which affects the ease with which users can recombine (or remix) different resources with each other. Second, some of the licensing terms are themselves subject to multiple interpretations; for example, the non-commercial (NC) term in Creative Commons licenses has been the subject of much debate as to its meaning, especially in the educational context. Third, there is some debate about whether “true” OER ought have any license at all, with some advocating that all OER should be effectively in the public domain.
ccLearn, the education division of Creative Commons, is one of several organizations that is studying these issues and considering best practices for building a truly global learning commons. Ahrash will discuss recent research and recommendations coming from ccLearn, but hopefully participants will bring their own expertise and questions to this session so that multiple voices can be heard. Some hard copies of current publications relevant to these issues will also be available.
Contribute to the discussion
Please log in to post a comment. Register here if you haven't signed up yet.
Ahrash Bissell
5:07am 26 February 2009
This session will provide participants the opportunity to learn about some of the latest developments in the open-licensing landscape, and to discuss key and emerging issues in the relationship between OER and copyright. There may be room for discussion about other intellectual property issues as well, depending on time and interests.
Background
As most participants will already know, one of the fundamental characteristics of open educational resources (OER) is that they are ''openly licensed'', meaning that the copyright holders have granted users ''a priori'' permissions to share and possibly adapt and remix their works freely. It is this open license that makes OER fundamentally different from works that are merely placed on the Internet, whether or not those works are accessible free-of-charge. Openly licensed educational materials are often described as the component parts of a global learning commons, which is growing rapidly as more and more OER are produced and shared.
However, there are a variety of complications to this story. First, there are many different “open” licenses available, including both standardized licenses (e.g., Creative Commons) and custom licenses which tend to be site-specific. These licenses do not grant the same permissions to users; furthermore, some licenses are more interoperable with other open licenses than others, which affects the ease with which users can recombine (or remix) different resources with each other. Second, some of the licensing terms are themselves subject to multiple interpretations; for example, the non-commercial (NC) term in Creative Commons licenses has been the subject of much debate as to its meaning, especially in the educational context. Third, there is some debate about whether “true” OER ought have any license at all, with some advocating that all OER should be effectively in the public domain.
ccLearn, the education division of Creative Commons, is one of several organizations that is studying these issues and considering best practices for building a truly global learning commons. Ahrash will discuss recent research and recommendations coming from ccLearn, but hopefully participants will bring their own expertise and questions to this session so that multiple voices can be heard. Some hard copies of current publications relevant to these issues will also be available.