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Open Science

What does open education mean?

Open Education (OE) 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 learner­cen­teredness.

Open educational resources (OER) mean materials or information in any form and used on any medium, partly designed for teaching and learning purposes, which have been released for public use (public domain) or shared by an open licence that permits no­cost access, re­use, re­purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others. (Public domain, CC BY, CC BY-SA).

OER can be for example courses, books, articles, pictures and videos. Resources connected to planning and developing of teaching, such as curricula and evaluation matrices, can also be opened.

Open educational practices mean practices by which education, learning and teaching are made transparent and shared and which enable their further processing.

Open education and OER in the University of Lapland and Lapland UAS

Our guidelines:

  • We encourage teachers to publish educational resources and organize open online teaching. We use strategic actions to support teaching that aims for full openness.
  • We require that educational resources and other digital content comply with accessibility requirements.
  • It is the responsibility of the openers of the teaching and educational resources to ensure that they have the necessary rights to publish the resources (e.g. copyright).
  • We recommend publishing educational resources using a Creative Commons attribution licence - CC BY. If necessary, a non-commercial use or share-alike element can be added.
    • The recommended format for a licence is: © [Author Name], [Name of the organization], [year], CC BY.
  • We require that all those who have made a significant contribution to the educational resources, including students, must be properly acknowledged.
  • We recommend using the national Library of Open Educational Resources for opening educational resources.

For more information about open science in the University of Lapland, please see our guide Open Science.

For more information about open RDI activities at Lapland UAS please see the website.

Why should I open educational resources?

Advantages of opening educational resources:

  • Resources are available to students throughout the learning process.
  • Openness enables flexible distance learning as well as learning for those outside the higher education community.
  • Others teaching a course with a similar content can use your materials and learn from them.
  • You will open up opportunities for new kinds of collaboration and joint development of materials.
  • You will gain visibility for your own expertise.
  • You will encourage others to openness and be able to enjoy open educational resources prepared by others more often in the future.

How to open educational resources?

You must pay particular attention to the quality, accessibility and copyright of OER when planning and publishing them. The Open Science Expert Panel has drawn up national recommendations and quality criteria to help you.

Pay special attention to:

  • Cite carefully the materials you use.
  • Clearly indicate who and/or what organization has made the resource.
  • Make it clear when the resource was made and when it will possibly expire.
  • Describe the process of making the resource.
  • Agree on the authorship of the resource.
  • Avoid using personal data in OER if possible.
  • Update the material if necessary.

The University of Lapland and Lapland UAS recommend opening OER in the Library of Open Educational Resources. When uploading the resource please add your organization (University of Lapland or Lapland UAS).

Quality of open educational resources

National expert panel in open education has created quality criteria for open educational resources that you can follow while making OER. The five quality criteria are:

  • Content: The content of high-quality open educational resources is reliable.
  • Learning and teaching methods: High-quality OERs enable the use of diverse ways to learn and teach.
  • Usability and accessibility: High-quality OERs are as easy to use as possible for everyone and in any situation.
  • Findability and sharing. High-quality OERs are easy to find, and the users know under which terms and conditions they can share them.
  • Lifecycle and adaptability. High-quality OERs are maintained and updated on a regular basis. In addition, other open resources and co-development practices are used in the production of the materials.

Learn more from the How to account for the quality of OER? material.

Accessibility of open educational resources

When creating open educational resources, you should pay attention to accessibility. As many people as possible should be able to use your OER as easily as possible. Therefore, pay attention to diversity when planning and executing OER. Accessibility supports the equality and inclusion of learners.

The Act on the Provision of Digital Services (306/2019) applies to higher education institutions. Accessibility is not required if the material is produced in connection with teaching and its use takes place in a limited group on a fixed-term basis. The accessibility requirements of the Act do not apply to live video broadcasts.

Learn more about the accessibility of OER by reading How to account for the accessibility of OER?

Copyrights

Define the terms of use clearly when creating open educational resources. It is recommended to use Creative Commons licences. The licence is marked on both the OER and its metadata. Clearly indicate how the author and source should be cited.

The author decides whether the OER is given a licence. If you are not the only author, make sure you have the consent of all contributors. You are responsible for having the right to use and share materials, such as images or videos, included in your OER.

Please note that you must have a permission to use any materials created by students.

  • Viimeksi päivitetty: Jun 26, 2024 2:51 PM
  • URL: https://libguides.luc.fi/openscience
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