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While turning a pre-existing resource into an OER is very worthwhile, it's vital that you follow these steps if you are creating OER from scratch:
- Support services
If you are staff based at UCL and would like to learn more about creating open teaching or training materials, browse the help documents on this website or email us at: oer@ucl.ac.uk. The following services/resources can provide additional support:
- Digital Curation Centre (DCC): IPR and licensing
- OER Commons Open Author
- Open Learn Create
- STEM OER starter pack
- UCL Arena Centre
- UCL Copyright Advice
- UCL Digital Education
- UCL Digital Media
- UCL Learning Designer
- UCL Lecturecast
- UCL MediaCentral
- UCL Press: Publish with UCL Press
- UCL Teaching and Learning: Teaching resources
- Xerte Online Toolkits is free software developed by Nottingham University which enables anyone with a web browser to create interactive learning materials easily.
- Content preparation
OER is about portability and re-usability. Make sure the file type, size, and formatting are fully accessible and adaptable; open document formats (ODF) are open, accessible, and adaptable file formats and can be used for this purpose.
- See under the 'Convert to open format, where possible' header for more information on ODF
Further information can be found on the UCL Research Data Management 'Choosing file formats' webpage.
Text files ODT, RTF, PDF, PDF/A Tabular information CSV Databases XML, CSV Images TIFF, PNG, JPEG Audio MP3, FLAC, WAV Video MPEG4, WebM - Rights clearance process
This involves identifying who owns the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) behind or within a resource. You need to know this to determine whether or not you can legally use the resource as an OER. You must obtain the author/rights owner's permission to release anything to which you do not own the rights. For example, if you use a photograph you have found on the Internet which does not belong to you (third-party content), you must seek permission for reuse or remove it.
- Open licensing
Decide how open you wish your resource to be and then select the corresponding licence to give access while preserving the author's rights. Creative Commons (CC) licences are a specific type of open licence, used commonly with OER, which allow you to share resources for free. More information, and the opportunity to generate and download CC licences, can be found on the Creative Commons website. The licence should be embedded within the resource so that users can see the terms on which they can make use of the resource. Note that indigenous and culturally sensitive resources may require a Traditional Knowledge (TK) Label or Licence.
- Metadata
In order for potential users to find resources online, and to understand the scope of a resource, it is vital to include relevant metadata. This is information about the resource, such as the author's name, the date the resource was created, keywords, and the educational context in which the resource has previously been used. Read more about OER description and metadata guidelines.
- Sharing OER
Sharing can be done in three ways:
1. Repositories
UCL hosts its OER content on the OpenEd@UCL repository. Please contact the UCL OER team for more information on this.
2. Social media
Once your content is uploaded to the OpenEd@UCL repository, you can share it via social media sites which can potentially draw a much larger audience to your resources than standard repositories.
3. Other websites
Many Web 2.0 sites (e.g. Flickr, YouTube, iTunes U) share material on a particular theme or of a particular type (e.g. video, photographs). Resources can also be shared by simply uploading them to your own or any public website that will accept them.