Open Educational Research

1. Open Educational Resource

              1.1 Backgrounds /Meaning/Importance

                           The development of open educational resource was inspired by several movements. In fact, the idea of accessible education exists since the Declaration of Human Rights saying everyone has the right to education, and that "technical and professional education shall be made generally available (United Nations, 1948)." Since then, many attempts have been developed to make this declaration comes true.

                          The development of open educational resource has two components: first, open content license that allows the public to manage one’s content freely and legally and second, the content itself. The first open content license was stated by David Wiley in 1998. It says the educational content should be freely developed and shared "in a spirit similar to that of free and open software" (Wiley, 2003). After that, the idea of free and open content spread widely. In 2000, GNU Free Document License which engages the use of free software and programs was announced (Richard Stallman, 2014). In 2002, Creative Commons launched the first version of copyright license to the public freely (Creative Commons, 2007).

                          One of the first movements to create an open and free content is OpenCourseWares from MIT which are now “one of the longest-running and highest-profile OER initiatives” (Bartlett, 2010). The materials in OCW can be lecture notes, video, reading materials, or any other materials used at universities. The universities such as MIT, John Hopkins, and Kyoto University use OCW in their courses (T. Caswell, S. Henson, M. Jensen, D. Wiley, 2008).

                       The term “open educational resource” was employed for the first time at 2002 UNESCO Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education (UNESCO, 2014).

                         In 2007, the international statement entitled “The Cape Town Open Education Declaration” has been launched from the conference on open educational hosted by the Shuttle worth Foundation and the Open Society Institute. It’s the statement about open access, open education and open educational resources (Wikipedia, 2014).The purpose of this conference is to create a collaboration between individuals and organizations to support , for example, open resource, technology and teaching approach in education (OLCOS, 2014). This declaration motivated people, governments and organizations to create educational materials available through Internet with no-cost access. In 2014, there are more than 2,400 individuals and 250 organizations have signed the declaration (Wikipedia, 2014).

                          The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2014) define the open educational resources’ definition as educational materials dwelling in public domain or have been released with no-cost access and permission to reuse. These types of resources include both document and media resources; that is to say textbook, software, video streaming are also considered as open educational resources, or any other material used to access to learning. This definition is in favour of the definition from UNESCO (2014) who explains more about nature of open educational resources that it means anyone can copy, use, adapt, re-share them legally and also without cost.

                           Though several websites share the same definition of the open educational resources, some of them state a few differences. While Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD (2007) explains that open educational resources are “digitized materials” which are free and open for any types of learners, the Cape Town Open Education Declaration (2007) states that open educational resources should be in any formats that are available for accessing to everyone including people who does not yet have Internet access.

                            OER Commons (2007) gives more details that though the OERs are freely and openly resources, they generally have Creative Commons or GNU license that will specifies precisely how the resources will be used, shared, adapted and re-used.

                              Several websites share the common importance of OER as a free educational resource that can benefits users (both learners and teachers) in gaining and sharing knowledge. It’s a way to guarantee that every student can access to knowledge whether they can afford textbooks or not (Canvas 2012). Thus, OER will be especially useful in poor economics region. Amee Godwin (2008) agrees on this idea and explains more that OER is a new effort to provide opportunity of teaching and learning. She states that since the cost of education is raising, especially in some countries like South Africa, OER is the only resources in place of textbooks that can encourage students in seeking and sharing knowledge beyond the classroom; that is to say, students can acquire more knowledge in addition from classroom and also be able to modify and share that knowledge to other people around the world freely. This statement is comply with one from The OER report (2007) saying the OER provides educational stakeholders the opportunity to change the attitude from knowledge-possessor to knowledge-contributor (Atkins, Brown and Hammond, 2007).      

                            Guntram Deser and Sandra Schaffert (2014) second the idea that OER’s importance is a free and open educational resource. They explain that since OER require no-cost access to knowledge, it will nourish the lifelong learning for everyone, reduce social inequalities, and support the learning in developing countries. These remarks correspond to Alain Senteni’s (2007) which informed that by using OER, people can overcome the educational limitation such as poverty, limited economic opportunity, inadequate health care and insufficient access to knowledge.   

                             Canvas (2012) emphasizes the importance of OER as a tool to enhance the course’s materials because it provides the affordable resources that is not limited to use only print materials or local knowledge. Besides, it can provide the teacher or faculty an idea in creating new content for class. Moreover, since OER gather various types of knowledge, teacher can simply apply and modify them into classroom.

                   However, some states the massive amount of no-cost knowledge is not the only benefit of OER but the real benefit and importance of OER is the idea of openness; that is to say, teacher can adapt the open resources in their own way and apply them into class since what works at some schools may not be work at other schools (Larry Kramer 2014). So using the online course and resources with open license can help the worldwide instructor customizing these resources to their own context in any time they want.

                             In conclusion, the open educational resources or OERs are the learning, teaching materials or any other tools in both document and media formats that are legally and freely allowed to use, reused, adapted and shared for everyone and everywhere, with or without internet access. They are created for the purpose of supporting the opportunity for learning for everyone. The development of open educational resource is the process developed both parts; the content and the copyright license. It’s the process that requires the collaboration from individuals, organizations, and governments. Several movements such as OpenWareCourses (OCW), GNU Free Document License, Creative Commons, and the Cape Town Open Education Declaration are credited for the initiative process to make the idea of open educational materials available for everyone come true. It plays an important role in teaching and learning process since it allows teachers and learners accessing to various types of knowledge freely, creating the new content for class, using affordable knowledge for learning, customizing knowledge to their own context any time they want and sharing their own knowledge to other people through online. Therefore, using OER provides the opportunity to overcome inequality in education and support the lifelong learning in everyone and everywhere.

1.2 Creative Commons

                         Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that has created the different kinds of licenses that enable the individuals to dictate how other may use their works. CCs license define the exist-possibilities between traditional “all right reserved” copyright and public domain “no right reserved” to “some rights reserved.” It allows owners to keep their copyright while allow other to use and distribute their work under their specific condition (Webopedia, 2014).

                           According to Creativecommons (2014), it states that the goal of CCs is “to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in the 'commons'—the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.” It enables the individuals to “license their own work” and provide them the opportunity to communicate clearly with others about what and which ways their work will and won’t be used.

                           Creative Commons works alongside with copyright. CCs license allow the holders to authorize more usage of their work and choose the protection that suits best to their needs. That means the holders still own their works and do not give up their copyright while using CCs license. To be more specific, we can say CCs license is not the replacement registration of copyright, it applies in the addition of copyright (Fabio, 2009).

                             As Michelle Fabio (2009) mentioned the six difference licenses, which Creative Commons offer the individuals to choose and apply in their work, that they can be classified as follows:

                             1. Attribution: The most permissive of CCs license allowing others to use, distribute, remix, and build upon your work, even for profit, so long as you are given credit for the original in the way you request.

                             2. Attribution Share Alike: It’s very similar to the Attribution license. You permit others to use, distribute, remix, and build upon your work, even commercially, provided you are given credit in the way you request for the original, but this license also requires the user to license all new creations under identical terms (meaning any new creations may also be used for profit); this is often compared to open source software licenses.

                             3. Attribution No Derivatives: Permits others to redistribute, including commercially, your work so long as you are credited in the way you request and the work remains whole and unchanged.

                             4. Attribution Non-Commercial: Allows others to use, distribute, remix, or build upon your work non-commercially so long as you are given credit in the way you request. Derivative works do not have to carry the same license (meaning future derivative works can be commercial).

                             5. Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike: Permits others to use, distribute, remix, and build upon your work non-commercially so long as you are given credit in the way you request and the new works are licensed under the same terms.

                             6. Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives: This one is the closest to traditional copyright, this is the most restrictive Creative Commons license and allows others only to redistribute your work non-commercially so long as it remains unchanged and you are given credit in the way you request; often called "free advertising" because people can download and share your work freely.

                             According to Lawrence Lessing (2006), Stanford Law professor and founder of Creative Commons, the point of Creative Commons license is not for charity.

                           "…We're not trying to ask creators to become philanthropists; we're simply identifying ways in which the system just isn't serving anyone s interests. It's not as if most designers expect to make any profit in the developing world anyway, and the ability to share those designs could help some people without hurting the designer at all.” he said.

                              In other words, if you are a holder and have created resources that may useful to others who unable to pay you for your work but the use of that people won’t cost you any money either, so why not let them use it? This critical aspect is the real goal of CCs license (Steffen, 2006).

                               In conclusion, CCs license allows individuals to share their works to others under the specified conditions. As tools such as wikis and blog are gradually used for teaching and learning, copyright protection may prohibits the opportunities these tools provide. That’s why CCs can enhance the power in the hands of holders and users, creating the creative and learning environment for each individual and support the lifelong learning.