We Answer Your Questions About Open Educational Resources

“Open Educational Resources (OER) are the best examples of the push for social equity, the democratization of knowledge, and accessibility to free online resources.” – Antonio Canchola.

According to UNESCO, Open Educational Resources (OER) are didactic learning or research materials published with intellectual property licenses that facilitate their use and adaptation free of charge. The Observatory of Educational Innovation of Tecnologico de Monterrey transmitted a webinar where we spoke with a professor specialized in this subject. The speaker, Antonio Canchola, answered questions from the audience wanting to learn more about OER.

Open educational resources vaulted to relevance in a UNESCO debate in 2002, where a committee met to promote their use in educational institutions worldwide. The advantages of OER are innumerable, starting with the visibility it gives to teachers who share their teaching work; they do not need a diploma or specialization to publish them. They can be informal contributions related to home cooking, carpentry, or even scientific studies. Professor Canchola describes OER as “the spirit of sharing” because they are created with a genuine intention to help other people. Some of the most famous OER that anyone can find on the internet are Frida Kahlo’s voice and Stephen Hawking’s thesis. The modern era of digitalization helps make these historical treasures accessible.

OER can be found in both institutional or non-institutional repositories. For example, in Tec’s repository of open educational resources, RITEC can find work by students and other community members. The YouTube platform is one of the most famous repositories. Thanks to these resources, anyone can become a global partner. Professor Canchola emphasizes the need to license our contribution with a Creative Commons license to protect us as authors and establish what can be done with the resources we create: using, adapting, or marketing them or using them for other works and applications.

OER are the best examples of the push for social equity, the democratization of knowledge, and accessibility to free online resources. Our responsibility as teachers is to educate about this subject because there is an infinite library at our students’ disposal that many do not know exists.

Q&A session transcript (questions and answers)

1. Manuel Lozano (Peru) — Do open educational materials replace printed material, or are they a new way to integrate text, images, and interactivity in the digital format?

   A = They are not mutually exclusive; instead, they complement each other. OER are accessible. One does not eliminate the other; at the end of the day, the material is done by hand, sometimes on a computer, but this does not necessarily eliminate the written subject. Imagine that you have a text like Stephen Hawking’s thesis; since it is in Cambridge, we would have needed to travel there to read it, but not all of us have that luxury or privilege. It has to be digitalized and uploaded to a repository so that everyone has access to it. The thesis is still physical and remains a Cambridge treasure; Hawking’s written thesis (and your material, or your questionnaire) is accessible to other people.

2. Quilva García del Ávila (Peru) — Is there any reference or text that explains how to use OER and massify them?

   A = The material and procedure I shared is in itself a general guide of how to carry out an OER and massify it. There are other texts that I will share with you later. I believe that the work I present to you can function as a first approximation to creating and massifying them. Massification has to do with the repository; remember, there are institutional and thematic ones. The idea is that, when you have your material, you follow this kind of guide that I show in the webinar.

3. Beatriz Castro (Argentina) — I would be interested in knowing OER production protocols for male and female farmers and family farmers, addressing particularities of digital modernization and cultural skills.

   A = That is an excellent question because I must say that my line of research is digital literacy. My email is antonio.canchola@gmail.com; if we get in touch, I have material on digital literacy, although my specialization is in education. Let me find you a repository that gathers materials on agriculture. I don’t know it because my focus is on education, but certainly, such repositories exist. There is a map that says “OR Map” in the presentations; you can enter there and search for the word “agriculture” and have the probability of finding a repository. I invite you to visit that website.

4. Victor Hugo Ferrera (Bolivia) — What primary technological resources are currently used for face-to-face and virtual education?

   A = There are many resources, like the one we are using right now, the Zoom platform through Facebook. Social networks are also used for education; this Zoom system is excellent for video conferencing. There are platforms like Pixabay where you can find photographs under the Creative Commons license, and they allow you to use, change, and transform them. There is a trick on Google, where you can find images with this type of license to find out what you can do with that figure.

5. Zuaila Martha Romero (Mexico) — Are the anthologies and guides used to study Polynesian dance and Arab dance also OER? Could they be?

   A = Remember that we must meet three basic requirements; these compendia you mention are resources or materials that you created to teach others, so far we are okay. To upload it to the Open Educational Resource category, you would have to choose one of the six Creative Commons licenses. You select a license, place it in the document, digitalize the document, and find a repository to become an open resource. When it is already posted in the repository, it would be an OER; that is, it should not only be typical of classrooms. You are a Polynesian dance teacher. Great! You are a music teacher, and you created a melody you would like to share. You choose one of the six licenses for that melody, place it visibly in that document, and upload it to a repository. With these three conditions, this material can already be considered an OER. It applies to not only the classroom but also the function of teaching or learning.

6. Luis Fernando Ávila Tobías (Mexico) — Is a platform like Slideshare capable of managing a Creative Commons license when publishing presentations?

   A = I don’t know if they saw it, but my presentation itself is an OER, although first I need to upload it to a repository. I will shortly tell you the address of Tec’s institutional repository. It is called RITEC. My presentation will be posted there, and you can download it. So, you would have to downlo
   ad your presentation, put the license on each slide, or at the end, upload it again, and at that moment, you would explain what people could do with your material. You can copy it too, you can earn money with your material, share or transform it, and as long as you do not have an explicit license in the document, it is free, and anyone can appropriate it. There would be legal issues to consider, so to protect yourself, select a license. First, repeat the process, download that document, delete it from the platform, then put the license on the document you have, upload it again, and from there, you can be explicit in what they can do with that material.

7. Dany Vargas (Bolivia) — Are OER only licensed? If one creates an OER with proprietary software, is it considered open?

   A = When you buy software, you are already the user of that software. I would have to see what you call proprietary, but there would be no problem for you to generate your resources on that software or platform. Zoom, for example, is a tool that was not downloaded illegally, and this is a means by which we communicate, so the fact that you use software or a platform is not restrictive. What you could do is put a reference at the end: “This document, this material was created with such and such software.” And about the first question, remember that to make an open educational resource, it has to meet these three characteristics: it must be an educational resource, the license must be explicit, and the resource is put in a repository from where it can be downloaded.

8. Brenda Chavelas — To which institution is the speaker affiliated?

   A = I am currently pursuing my Doctorate in Educational Innovation at Tec de Monterrey. My line of research in adult education, especially digital literacy and digital skills. I work at the Monterrey Campus of Tec de Monterrey. I am in my second year of the four-year doctoral program. For any other information you might need regarding OER, we are gladly continuing to develop this topic.

9. Omar Rueda Zúñiga (Colombia) — Is blogging from a website ideal material as OER?

   A = Yes, let’s assume that you are a professor who likes to speak about political issues because you teach political science classes and blog on WordPress. Suddenly you say, “Well, my text, my opinion that I expressed in this blog, is my creation.” Blogs can also be licensed because you created the content that comes on that blog. If you put a photograph that is not yours, I recommend that you put the reference. For those who want to access these ideas to share, we must give recognition to people. We must seek that everything is equitable. Your blog or website can be open access through a license, but you must put it in writing in your privacy notice. You mention your exclusive creation in the specific texts, and in everything else, you must indicate where you got that information.

10. Is it necessary for the author or creator to have a degree in education to create an OER?

    A = The short answer is no. You do not need an academic degree; the only thing necessary is to comply with the three characteristics mentioned above. That this resource, document, video, text, etc., is your original, that you choose one of the six Creative Commons licenses, and, finally, that it be available digitally in a repository.

11. Can OER also be created by students or the general public?

    A = Yes. For example, suppose I were an engineering student, and I have to explain how to make robotics circuits through a video. In that case, you, as a student, can choose one of the six licenses, place it in your video edition and upload it to a repository. In this case, there is no educational level, and you do not have to be exclusively an educator in the strict sense of the school, classes, and students. No, we can all do it.

12. Does OER also include research texts?

    A = Not necessarily, because a research text cannot be modified and has another evaluation process. For example, I cannot give a presentation and have someone else transform it because then it would be different; these are different things.

13. What are the advantages of an OER in a Mexican educational system?

    A = That is a good question. The short version is that it has many benefits. Having the same educational system allows the Mexican Revolution topic to be taught by someone in Jalisco, Guadalajara, Monterrey, or whatever city in Mexico. That can help you as a teacher because you can use the teaching strategies or the text of someone who has already covered the topic, and you are going to incorporate it into your activity. So, you would not have to design it from scratch. It facilitates time, costs, and sometimes even creativity because not all of us know how to draw; maybe there is a teacher who did, and so, there are many benefits.

14. What OER repository do you recommend?

    A = We have one at Tecnológico de Monterrey called TEMOA. I invite you to visit it; you will find a lot of specific information about OER. In Colombia, there is another called Colombia Aprende, the Knowledge Network, a fascinating repository. Another is Ceibal, an organization in Uruguay.

15. Germán (Mexico) — What is the best way to catalog? Score Dublin? Core? Which do you suggest?

    A = Those bring up technical issues of interoperability. I recommend that you consult RITEC. A colleague did her doctorate at the University of Salamanca on interoperability among repositories; her name is Laura González. In RITEC, you can find her thesis (Dr. Laura González from the University of Salamanca). She talks explicitly about this interoperability issue, considering that there are different repository and cataloging systems. She takes stock of which ones could be better and evaluates them.

16. Emma Rodríguez (Mexico) — How are Creative Commons licenses handled for something created on YouTube?

    A = On YouTube, to find Creative Commons videos, you click on Tools. The option to search for videos with a Creative Commons license appears. For you to upload them, the procedure is how I taught. You upload your video, and when you edit it, in the end, you put the license of your choice, you close your video, and when you upload it there, you mark the license that you are giving. As long as you have it inside the video, when you edit it, add the license at the end, and when you upload it to YouTube, you can see what the Creative Commons licenses are. To search for them is also an interesting trick. In Google, you can
    search for videos with a Creative Commons license, and there it will tell you what you can do with that video.

Credits:

Webinar conducted by Rubí Román – Observatorio de Innovación Educativa

Guest Professor: Antonio Canchola

Transcription by Fernanda Ibáñez

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Fernanda Ibañez

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