Open Educational Resources (OER)

Information, support, and advice on various aspects of Open Publication (not only) for teaching.

OER, Open Publication, and Open Science

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Open Science opens up the scientific process from the initial idea to the final publication, aiming to make it as transparent and accessible as possible for everyone. The concept of science is understood in a broad sense, encompassing all disciplines, research, teaching, as well as projects and the social sphere. The goal is to make participation in knowledge and knowledge creation accessible to as many people as possible.

On this page, we focus on Open Science in relation to OER and other forms of open publication.

Openness

Comprehensive protection and inflexible exceptions

When you wish to use and distribute third-party works (texts, text excerpts, photos, videos, or question pools) in your educational materials, you need the explicit permission of the creators (i.e., a license) as the original authors. German copyright law ⇒ explicitly applies to individuals and extends up to 70 years after their death.

However, legislators have exempted certain important areas such as education, science, and teaching from this licensing requirement ("boudaries and limitations") ⇒ (differ from US fair use!!). These provisions are strictly defined and specify to whom you may provide the teaching material created under this exemption. You may be familiar with these rules from the legal limitations for science and teaching (§60 a-f UrhG). Similarly, copyright is restricted by the right to quote works  (§51 UrhG "Quotations").

Flexibility Through Pre-Granted Permissions ("Open Licenses")

Materials under open or free licenses already include the necessary permissions: These materials display a notation linked to a contract that comes into effect once the work is used by third parties (i.e., you). This means you are permitted—under the few restrictions defined in these licenses ⇒ —to adapt, integrate, share, and publish the works as you wish, including:

  • in a public (teaching) portfolio,
  • on your teaching domain’s homepage,
  • in a forum for educators,
  • in a repository, where other educators can easily find them,
  • or in public presentations, such as lectures or videos.

Conversely, others are allowed to use your work once you publish it under an open license.

Whether or not you are required to publish your work under an open license depends on the licenses of the materials you use as well as the nature of their use in your work. More on this can be found here.

A further personal benefit is enhancing your skills and participating in a culture of sharing. Your works can be shared, translated, and processed. Not only your work but also you as an individual gain opportunities for networking, communication, and interaction that allow you to explore and claim your digital space, helping you develop your unique “digital” voice.

The legal and technical knowledge you acquire over time is applicable well beyond your professional or educational field. This is particularly true in the broader area of “openness” (OER as part of Open Science).

Choosing a publicly accessible and freely discoverable storage location allows works to be easily accessible to the public:

  • Repositories: For courses, slide sets, and their components and supporting materials. Higher education materials are hosted on regional repositories. For Baden-Württemberg, the ZOERR repository ⇒ fulfills this role.
  • Commons or image/video portals: For searching for and storing images, graphics, and videos. Portals like Flickr ⇒, Vimeo ⇒, and YouTube ⇒ allow the assignment of Creative Commons licenses.
  • Link lists can be found here.
  • The OER Search Index (OERSI) ⇒ enables the discovery of materials beyond the German-speaking region.
  • Open course materials are made available through course portals such as iMOOX ⇒ or OnCampus ⇒.

Technology-related aspects include optimizing discoverability beyond a Google search ideally by using standardized, field-specific metadata.

Free and barrier-free editing and reuse are enabled by using appropriate software (preferably open source). Beyond the finished product (PDF, completed video, course), it may be helpful to allow access to open production data (linking GitHub, etc., provides access to open production data).

Nearly all media products—unless explicitly labeled otherwise—are protected by copyright or related rights and cannot be used, modified, or distributed without permission.

This also applies to teaching/learning materials and arrangements once they are used beyond the limitations for science and teaching (§ 60a-f UrhG), as they often fall outside the norms of scientific publication practices (citation rights, peer review, originality).

Open licenses (Creative Commons) allow sharing/participation beyond §60a UrhG: The legal framework for the provided materials is visibly attached to the work as a license, granting specific rights to subsequent users.

Open Educational Resources provide rights to edit, modify, and publish without spatial or temporal restrictions. The gold standard for OER includes: CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA.

Creative Commons licenses are licenses under copyright law. They do not address third-party rights (personality rights, GDPR).

Open Publishing and Open Science

What is Open Science?

“Open science is the idea that scientific knowledge of all kinds should be openly shared as early as is practical in the discovery process.” Michael Nielsen

Open Science opens up the scientific process from the initial idea to the final publication to make it as transparent and accessible as possible for everyone. Science is conceived here in the broadest sense, encompassing all disciplines, research and teaching, as well as projects and the social sphere. The participation in knowledge and knowledge creation should be made accessible to as many people as possible.

Open Science opens the scientific process from the first idea through final publication, making it as transparent and accessible as possible. Science is understood here in a broad sense, encompassing all disciplines, research, teaching, projects, and social domains. Participation in and access to knowledge creation should be available to as many people as possible.

Open Science is a collaborative effort involving researchers, journals, funders, and the public alike. The goal is to enhance the reproducibility and comparability of scientific work while also breaking down the “ivory tower” of academia to make it more transparent.

Open Science should simplify participating in public debates on scientific issues, encouraging people to engage and discuss. Effective methods for this include interactive visualizations, fostering discourse through transparent and clear documentation of results, and using direct and easy-to-understand language. Infrastructure that enables community participation further lowers the barriers to involvement.

The 6 Principles

Open Science is based on six principles to open up intermediate steps and results in the scientific process. The first four principles are drawn from the paper "The Case for an Open Science in Technology Enhanced Learning" (Kraker 2011). Open Peer Review and Open Educational Resources are two additional core components. The “Open Definition” further clarifies what “open” means in this context:

  1. Open Methodology: Documenting the methods used and the entire underlying process as far as practicable and relevant.
  2. Open Source: Using open-source technology (software and hardware) and making one’s own technology open.
  3. Open Data: Making generated data freely available.
  4. Open Access: Publishing in an open manner so that it is usable and accessible to everyone (see Budapest Initiative).
  5. Open Peer Review: Ensuring transparent and traceable quality control through open peer review.
  6. Open Educational Resources: Using free and open resources for education and academic teaching.

What Does “Open” Mean in Science?

First and foremost, Open Science means that results are made available under open licenses that grant predefined usage rights (“some rights reserved”). This legally permits the use, modification, and distribution of knowledge—here, scientifically validated knowledge. The Open Knowledge Foundation’s Open Definition serves as a guiding framework, defining the three core rights: “free to use, re-use, and re-distribute for all.” Many specific licenses support this definition for different types of works (images, text, audio, video, data, databases, source code, etc.), ensuring openness.

A second cornerstone is using open technologies, facilitating the technical exchange of open knowledge, thereby safeguarding practical and technical openness.

Lastly, Open Science requires cultural openness, or a willingness to share one’s ideas and communicate them in a way that others can easily understand.

Sources:

Text sourced from: https://openscienceasap.org/open-science/ under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Modified: Text slightly adapted.

Graphic: UNESCO, CC-BY 4.0. 

Open Publication at University of Stuttgart

Open Access  -  scientific publication:

Research data management:

Open Educational Resources

References

Die Inhalte der OER-Seiten der Universitätsbibliothek Stuttgart stehen, soweit nicht anders vermerkt, unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 international (CC BY 4.0)-Lizenz. Ausgenommen sind Logos und Wort-/Bildmarken.  

Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag

 

 

Support and Contact

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Contact

Wiebke Hengst
OER-Coordination and Support | Creative Commons

Project digit@L | sdg-campus
University Library City Center 
Holzgartenstraße 16 | 70174 Stuttgart
✎ wiebke.hengst@ub.uni-stuttgart.de

Project KuMuS_ProNeD (lernen:digital)
Institute for Sport- and Movement Science
Allmandring 28 | 70569 Stuttgart

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