This session was held December 7, 2010 as part of the Professional Learning Series, organized by BCcampus, eCampusAlberta, and Alberta North. Web Conference Description: Join Paul Stacey on the Starship BCcampus in this journey through the universe of Open Educational Resources (OER). Learn how OER are opening up a new education frontier. Visit OER colonies throughout education space and see for yourself what an OER is and how they are being used to create credentials. Find out how you can use OER in your own teaching and learning practice. Discover how the future of OER is being shaped by Foundations, public government Ministries, and everyday educators who simply choose to become OER space cadets. Buckle up as Paul takes you into OERbit!

1. Blastoff - Taking Education into OERbit
BCcampus, Alberta North & eCampus Alberta
SCoPE Professional Learning Series
Paul Stacey
December 2010

2. BCcampus
• Ministry of Ministry of Regional and Economic Skills
Development initiative
• Started in 2003
• Approx. 24 people
• Two offices – Vancouver & Victoria
• Not an institution
• System wide services, technology, & funding
http://www.bccampus.ca

3. BCcampus Role
Connect
Collaborate
Innovate

4. BCcampus 3 Key Activities
1. Federated, secure, and trusted data network for data
exchange between institutions
2. Collaborative programs and educational technology
shared services involving multi-institutional partnerships
that leverage knowledge, reduce costs and generate
benefits for students
3. System wide educator support through online
communities of practice, professional development
strategies, technology training, funding for online
program development, and shared re-usable tools and
resources

5. Open Source Software
Open-source software (OSS):
Computer software that is
available in source code form
for which the source code
and certain other rights
normally reserved for
copyright holders are
provided under a software
license that permits users to
study, change, and improve
the software.

6. Open Access Research Publication
Open Access (OA):
Free, immediate, permanent
online access to the full text
of research articles for
anyone, webwide.
There are two roads to OA:
1. the "golden road" of OA journal-publishing , where
journals provide OA to their articles (either by charging
the author-institution for refereeing/publishing
outgoing articles instead of charging the user-
institution for accessing incoming articles, or by
simply making their online edition free for all)
2. the "green road" of OA self-archiving, where authors
provide OA to their own published articles, by making
their own eprints free for all.

7. Open Government & Data
Open Government:
A policy and legal framework
to open up access to publicly
held information, promoting
transparency and enabling
wider economic and social
gain.
• promote creative and innovative activities, which will
deliver social and economic benefits
• make government more transparent and open in its
activities, ensuring that the public are better informed
about the work of the government and the public sector
• enable more civic and democratic engagement through
social enterprise and voluntary and community activities

8. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open Educational Resources (OER):
Learning materials that are freely
available under a license that allows
them to be:
• reused - you have the right to reuse the content in
its unaltered / verbatim form
• revised - you have the right to adapt, adjust, modify,
or alter the content itself
• remixed - you have the right to combine the original
or revised content with other content to create
something new
• redistributed - you have the right to make and share
copies of the original content, your revisions, or
your remixes with others
Implementation involves licenses, tools (store, search distribute, …), processes (design, development, …) and
resulting content (full courses, modules, learning objects, media elements, …)

9. Foundation Funded OER
http://cnx.org
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

10. Publicly Funded OER
http://solr.bccampus.ca
http://wikiwijsinhetonderwijs.nl/over-wikiwijs/english/
http://www.jorum.ac.uk/

11. Aggregators
http://freelearning.ca/
http://www.oercommons.org/

12. Open Textbooks
• An emerging development in OER is open textbooks
• An open textbook is an openly-licensed textbook
offered online by its author(s).
• The open license sets open textbooks apart from
traditional textbooks by allowing users to read online,
download, or print the book at no additional cost.
• Open textbooks help solve the problems of the high
cost of textbooks, book shortages, and access to
textbooks as well as providing the capacity to better
meet local teaching and learning needs.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger Launches First-in-Nation Initiative to
Develop Free Digital Textbooks for High School Students”
“Texas seeks open textbooks.”
“Washington's 2-year colleges out to beat high cost of
textbooks.”

13. Online Program Development
• Starting in 2003 BCcampus issued an annual Online
Program Development Fund (OPDF) Request for
Proposals (RFP) to all of BC's public post secondary
institutions.
• The OPDF call for proposals emphasizes inter-
institutional collaboration and partnerships for
development of online learning resources.
• Development is focused on for-credit online learning
resources that give students access to more programs
leading to complete degrees, diplomas and certificates.
http://opdf.pbworks.com

14. Online Program Development
• 8.25 million (2003-2009); 2010 $750K
• 131 grants awarded (2003-2009)
• 100% participation across the post-secondary system
• 83% partnerships - mostly inter-institutional but also
with K-12, health authorities, not-for-profits,
professional associations, e-learning companies, First
Nations, foundations, amongst others.
• 41 credentials developed in whole or part via OPDF
• 317 courses, 10 workshops, 18 web sites/tools and
338 course components (learning objects, labs,
textbooks, manuals, videos) developed across almost
all academic fields of study
• 100% licensed for open free sharing & reuse by all
post-secondary

15. Making OER Open
• Intellectual Property
– creations of the mind for which property rights are recognized
– common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks,
patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets
• Copyright
– a set of exclusive rights granted by law to the author or creator of an
original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work
– uses require permission and copyright owners can license or
permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others
– exceptions and limitations balance the public interest and include fair
dealing (Canada) and fair use (US)
• Licenses that enable reuse, revision, remix and
redistribution

16. Creative Commons
http://www.creativecommons.org

17. BC Commons
http://www.bccommons.ca

18. Open Licenses

19. Repository
http://solr.bccampus.ca

20. Repository

21. Repository Front Ends

22. Q&A – Followup
• Paul Stacey
Director
BCcampus
555 Seymour Street, Suite 200
Vancouver, BC
V6B 3H6
web site: http://www.bccampus.ca
phone: 604-412-7736
blog: http://edtechfrontier.com