FAQ

This page includes the following ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ about OER raised during team meetings.

Where can I find examples of OER at Lincoln? 

Chemistry FM  educational resources used in Year 1 ‘Introductory Chemistry for Forensic Science’ (30 credits) including video and radio programmes broadcast on Siren FM. The Chemistry FM Project blog is here http://chemistryfm.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ and content can be accessed here https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/2366/
Pencils and Pixels a sets of learning resource videos aimed at improving communication skills through drawing. The project blog is here http://pencilsandpixels.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ and content can be accessed here http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/1975/

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What is the difference between Open Source Software  (OSS) and Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Open Educational Resources (OER) describe learning content which can be reused and Open Source Software (OSS) describes software source code which is made available to developers to adapt and customise. Examples of Open Source programs are Mahara and WordPress.

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How are OER identified?

OER will have a Creative Commons licence logo attached which will look something like this.

Creative Commons Licence  Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

See Creative Commons below for more information about different types of  creative commons licences which can be attached to OER.

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What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a collection of digital  content which can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of copyright law. Creators maintain ownership of their content but licence it for use by the wider community. Creative Commons copyright licences challenge the traditional restrictions of copyright, which existed before the Internet, and runs contrary to the intended free and open nature of content on the World Wide Web. There are multiple instance of Creative Commons licences; the most common is Attribution Share which lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon work, even commercially, as long as the author is credited for the original creation.

Creative Commons logo

Further details of the different Creative Commons licences are available at the Creative Commons website here http://creativecommons.org/licenses

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How do I find OER?

OER reside in collections or repositories and examples of useful starting points are listed below.

The Jorum repository contains OER from teaching staff from UK Further and Higher Education Institutions JorumOPENrepository

Jorum repository logo

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HumBox at  http://humbox.ac.uk/ is a repository for storing, managing and publishing Humanities teaching resources on the web.
SWAPbox at http://www.swapbox.ac.uk/ is a repository for storing, managing and publishing social policy and social work teaching resources on the web.

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The OER wiki hosts a list of repositories http://oerwiki.iiep.unesco.org/index.php/OER_useful_resources/Repositories

OER wiki logo

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JISC Digital Media http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk contains guidance on finding video, audio and images online, including those licensed as Creative Commons

JISC digital media logo

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Open Learn at  http://openlearn.open.ac.uk offers over 600 free online courses from The Open University all made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

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The JISC OER Infokit includes a list of seach engines for repositories on  https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/27045418/Finding%20OERs

JISC OER Infokit logo

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What are OER?

OER are digital materials designed to support the acquisition of knowledge, which the author has released the material into the public domain with a Creative Commons  licence attached that grants permission for free reuse and repurposing.

A number of definitions of OER are commonly used:

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