Contents of the Guide
The purpose of this LibGuide is to shed light on open education from the perspective of open educational resources.
You will find answers to the following questions:
What are open educational resources? Where can I find open educational resources? How can I use open educational resources? What should be taken into account when publishing open educational resources? What are CC licenses and how are they used in connection with open educational resources?
Further questions about open educational resources and the Guide can be addressed to library@arcada.fi.
Open education
What is open education?
Opening up education or Open education means extending access to and participation in education to larger audiences and target groups by lowering barriers to education and increasing accessibility, unrestrictedness, offering and learner-centeredness. It diversifies the possibilities of teaching, learning and building, joint development and sharing of knowledge, and combines the pathways of formal and non-formal learning.
Although open education is often carried out with the help of digital technologies, the concept is not the same as digital education or digitalisation of educational resources.
Important concepts in open education include open educational resources and open educational practices.
Sources:
- The Helsinki Term Bank for the Arts and Sciences (HTB) (2020). Avoin tiede: avoin oppiminen.
- Open Science Coordination in Finland, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) (2020). Open education and educational resources. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021-2025. Policy component 1 – Open access to educational resources. CC BY 4.0
What are open educational resources?
Open educational resources (OERs) mean materials or information in any form and used on any medium that are designed for teaching and learning purposes.
Open educational resources are materials or information which have been:
- released for public use (Public Domain)
, or - shared by an open license, usually Creative Commons
, that permits no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others than the other, with or without restrictions.
Source: Open Science Coordination in Finland, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) (2020). Open education and educational resources. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021-2025. Policy component 1 – Open access to educational resources. CC BY 4.0
Video: EU Science Hub - Joint Research Centre (2018). Open Licenses in Open Education: why do they matter? Dr Cable Green (Part I).
What are open educational practices?
Open educational practices mean practices by which education, learning and teaching are made transparent and shared and which enable their further processing.
Such practices include:
- peer learning and the development of education between students, researchers, teaching staff and the rest of the society;
- involving students in the planning of their learning pathways, including the identification and recognition of competences acquired outside their own educational establishment;
- opening up the education offering to the general public (e.g., MOOC courses);
- sharing and reuse of information relating to the planning and organising of teaching (e.g., curricula, evaluation methods, guidelines, experiences from the implementation of teaching and from learning);
- use, further development and joint development of open educational resources (e.g., videos, podcasts, written material).
Adapted from the source: Andreia Inamorato dos Santos. 2019. Practical Guidelines on Open Education for Academics: modernising higher education via open educational practices. Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/55923.
Source: Open Science Coordination in Finland, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) (2020). Open education and educational resources. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021-2025. Policy component 1 – Open access to educational resources. CC BY 4.0.
Finnish national policy on open access to educational resources:
- Open education and educational resources. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021-2025. Policy component 1 – Open access to educational resourcesby Open Science Coordination in Finland, Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) (2020)
Finnish national policies and recommendations for open science:
- Ohje tekijänoikeuksiin liittyvästä avoimesta lisensoinnista tutkijoille ja tieteellisille kustantajille (in Finnish)by Tarmo Toikkanen, Leena Kaakinen, and Ilmari Jauhiainen, CC BY 4.0
International guidelines and recommendations for open education:
- Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER)by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2019)
- Opening up Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions (EU)by European Commission (2016)
Recommended CC licenses for open use:
CC BY 4.0 Attribution
With this license, you as the author authorises others to copy, use, modify, distribute, and build upon your work, display and perform their work and the modified version thereof, even in commercial contexts, provided that the author and the license of the work are referred to in a linkage and any changes are clearly stated. The modified versions must not infringe on the specific nature of the original author’s work. CC BY is the most common license for open content.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Attribution – ShareAlike
With this license, you as the author authorises others to copy, use, modify, distribute, and build upon your work, display and perform their work and the modified version thereof, even in commercial contexts, provided that the author and the license of the work are referred to in a linkage and any changes are clearly stated. The modified versions must not infringe on the specific nature of the original author’s work. If the editor publishes the modified version, it must be published under the same license.
All new works created on the basis of a work that has this license must have the same license as the original work. This is recommended for educational resources.
Learn more about CC licenses in our LibGuide on copyright: