The University Executive recently approved an Open Educational Resources (OER) policy. This policy places GCU among the key players in open practice in Scotland and the UK. You can view the policy on the university website.
What are OERs? OERs are digital materials that are made available online to be used or re-purposed for teaching, learning and research. They can include images, audio, video, animations, content modules and other digital resources.
Why do we need a policy? Many staff are now creating and reusing educational resources which they would then like to share with the academic community. The policy clarifies where GCU stands and offers advice on licensing and citing resources which you have reused.
Why it is an interim policy? The policy will be added to a Copyright policy and an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy to make one overarching document. These two additional policies have not yet been approved, so the OER policy has been published as a standalone document as an interim measure.
What’s in it? The policy defines what OERs are, explains why GCU supports their development, use and sharing, and gives advice on how to cite any third party resources used. It highlights other relevant GCU guidelines and policies and explains how to identify yourself as the creator and state your affiliation. It recommends licensing resources under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence, but allows other CC licences to be used as appropriate.
Where do I store my OERs and how do I share them? The library is in the advanced stages of building an educational resources repository for the GCU community designed around the key themes of storing, sharing and preserving the University’s learning and teaching output. The repository will accept permanent resources created by GCU staff and provide a point of contact for copyright and intellectual property rights (IPR) advice. Staff will have the ability to upload their own resources and share them with students, the whole GCU community or the world. The repository will be called EdShare@GCU and is due to launch in autumn 2015. For queries please contact edshare@gcu.ac.uk
Where can I find out more? More information on OERs and their use is available on the library’s copyright pages.