Research Impact Summer Series

This week we're talking about two very important topics, Open Educational Resources (OER) and Copyright. We've very fortunate to have access to a number of wonderful resources within the Dartmouth community and freely available online to assist in these areas.

Rising textbook prices is just one reason Open Education Resources are growing in popularity. Scholarly Publishing Librarian Stephen Krueger is available to help with specific questions for upcoming courses. Please see some additional details below and on the OER Research Guide.

Copyright is another important topic to keep in mind both when publishing your own scholarly work and when preparing materials to use for your courses. Shawn Martin, Head of Scholarly Communication, Copyright, and Publishing, can be very helpful here. Check out the Scholarly Communication, Copyright, and Publishing home page for contact information and additional details. 

Open Educational Resources (OER) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OER range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation (UNESCO, 2017).

The terms "open content" and "open educational resources" describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like "open source") that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

1. Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
2. Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
3. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
4. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
5. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

This material is based on original writing by David Wiley, which was published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, "Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances". It is important to note that fair use is a legal doctrine, not a law, and it involves some judgment and interpretation.

Whether or not the use of copyrighted material is considered fair use depends on four factors:

Purpose and character of the use: Are you using the copyrighted material for educational purposes, commercial gain, or other nonprofit use? Is your use of the work transformative, i.e. have you added something new or employed it for a new purpose?

Nature of the copyrighted work: Is the work published or unpublished? Is it a creative work or a factual work?

Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole: How much of the copyrighted work are you using, in terms of both quality and quantity? You could be using just one chapter of a book, but if that one chapter constitutes the "heart" of the work then it will be less likely to fall under fair use.

Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work: Will your use of this copyrighted work infringe upon the copyright holder's ability to make money from the work in either the existing or a future market?

U.S. Copyright Office. (2019). More information on fair use. U.S. Copyright Fair Use Index. https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html.