LinkedUp: Linking Web Data for Education Project – Open Challenge in
Web-scale Data Integration
http://linkedup-project.eu/
Coordination and Support Action (CSA)
Grant Agreement No: 317620
D4.6.1 Handbook on Open Data in Education (first version)
Deliverable Coordinator:
Marieke Guy
Deliverable Coordinating Institution:
OKFN
Other Authors:
Listed in acknowledgements
Document Identifier:
LinkedUp/2013/4.6.1/v1.2
Date due:
31.10.2013
Class Deliverable:
LinkedUp 317620
Submission date:
31.10.2013
Project start date:
November 1, 2012
Version:
v1.2
Project duration:
2 years
State:
Final
Distribution:
Public
29.04.2013 © Copyright lies with the respective authors and their institutions.
LinkedUp Support Action – 317620
Page 2 of 41
LinkedUp Consortium
This document is part of the LinkedUp Support Action funded by the ICT Programme of the Commission of
the European Communities by the grant number 317620. The following partners are involved in the project:
Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH)
Forschungszentrum L3S
Appelstrasse 9a
30169 Hannover
Germany
Contact person: Stefan Dietze
E-mail address: dietze@L3S.de
The Open University
Walton Hall, MK7 6AA
Milton Keynes
United Kingdom
Contact person: Mathieu d'Aquin
E-mail address: m.daquin@open.ac.uk
Open Knowledge Foundation LBG
Panton Street 37,
CB2 1HL Cambridge
United Kingdom
Contact person: Marieke Guy
E-mail address: marieke.guy@okfn.org
ELSEVIER BV
Radarweg 29,
1043NX AMSTERDAM
The Netherlands
Contact person: Michael Lauruhn
E-mail address: M.Lauruhn@elsevier.com
Open Universiteit Nederland
Valkenburgerweg 177,
6419 AT Heerlen
The Netherlands
Contact person: Hendrik Drachsler
E-mail address: Hendrik.Drachsler@ou.nl
Lattanzio Learning S.p.A.
Via Domenico Cimarosa, 4
20144 Milano
Italy
Contact person: Elisabetta Parodi
E-mail address: parodi@lattanziogroup.eu
Work package participants
The following partners have taken an active part in the work leading to the elaboration of this document, even
if they might not have directly contributed to the writing of this document or its parts:
-
OKF, LUH, OU, OUNL
D4.6.1 Handbook on Open Data in Education (first version)
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Executive Summary
The LinkedUp project description of work (DOW) describes the “LinkedUp Handbook on Open Data in
Education, a resource for both educators and Web data providers as well as adopters…. the LinkedUp
Handbook (D4.4) will be created as a living document to reflect project learnings and findings which will
help others, both during the project and beyond it”.
The handbook is envisaged as a “collaboratively written living web document targeting educational
practitioners and the education community at large”. The original intention was only to cover open data use
in education, but it was felt that a broader scope would be a more useful output for the primary audience.
It would enable readers to have a better understanding of how different aspects or facets of open education,
such as resources, data and culture, fit together. It would also allow exploration of how open education can
benefit from open and linked data approaches. The handbook will from now on be referred to as the ‘Open
Education Handbook’.
The LinkedUp DOW states that “the handbook will continue to grow and evolve and is meant as a living and
involving community document.” In response to this, and with the long term sustainability of the project in
mind, the Open Knowledge Foundation have decided that the writing of the Open Education Handbook will
also be one of the first community activities of the recently launched Open Education Working Group1, which
binds together people interested in any aspect of open education and is a crucial element in the longer term
sustainability of the LinkedUp project.
1
Open Education Working Group, http://education.okfn.org
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LinkedUp Support Action – 317620
Table of Contents
1. Target Audience ................................................................................................ 6
2. Writing Process ................................................................................................. 7
3. Introduction .................................................................................................... 11
3.1.
What is Open?..................................................................................................................................... 11
3.2.
What is Education? ............................................................................................................................. 11
3.3.
What is Open Education?.................................................................................................................... 11
3.4.
What this Handbook is (and what it isn't) ........................................................................................... 12
3.5.
History of Open Education ................................................................................................................. 12
3.6.
Structure of the Open Education Handbook ....................................................................................... 12
4. Open Educational Resources ........................................................................... 13
4.1.
What are Open Educational Resources? ............................................................................................. 13
4.2.
Useful OER Resources/handbooks ..................................................................................................... 13
4.3.
Why Should You Get Involved with (using) OERs (as an Educator)? ............................................... 13
4.4.
Why Should You Get Involved with OERs (as an Institution)? ......................................................... 14
4.5.
Finding OERs ..................................................................................................................................... 15
4.6.
Creating OERs .................................................................................................................................... 15
4.7.
Benefits of Releasing your Own OER (as an educator and/or institution) ......................................... 15
4.8.
Misperceptions about Copyright ......................................................................................................... 15
4.9.
Deciding to Create OERs .................................................................................................................... 16
4.10.
Developing OERs ............................................................................................................................. 16
4.11.
Where can you put OERs? ................................................................................................................ 17
4.12.
Software for making OERs ............................................................................................................... 17
4.13.
Challenges when Developing OERs ................................................................................................. 18
4.14.
Developing OERs: Use cases............................................................................................................ 19
4.15.
Finding Out More ............................................................................................................................. 19
4.16.
Beyond OERs ................................................................................................................................... 20
4.17.
What isn’t an OER ............................................................................................................................ 20
4.18.
OERs for the Developing World....................................................................................................... 20
4.19.
References ......................................................................................................................................... 21
5. Open Licences ................................................................................................. 22
5.1.
What are Licences? ............................................................................................................................. 22
5.2.
What are Open Licences? ................................................................................................................... 22
6. Open Badges ................................................................................................... 23
6.1.
What is a Digital Badge? .................................................................................................................... 23
D4.6.1 Handbook on Open Data in Education (first version)
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6.2.
What is an Open Badge? ......................................................................................................................23
6.3.
History of Open Badges .......................................................................................................................23
6.4.
Mozilla open badges ............................................................................................................................23
6.5.
Why Should You use Open Badges? ...................................................................................................24
6.6.
Open Badges: Use Cases .....................................................................................................................24
7. Open Learning and Practice ............................................................................. 25
7.1.
What is Open Learning and Practice? ..................................................................................................25
7.2.
Open Practice .......................................................................................................................................25
7.3.
Open Learning .....................................................................................................................................25
8. Open Data ....................................................................................................... 27
8.1.
What is Open Data? .............................................................................................................................27
8.2.
What is Open Education Data? ............................................................................................................27
8.3.
Why Should You ‘Do’ Open Data (as an Institution)? ........................................................................27
8.4.
Types and Categories of Data ..............................................................................................................28
8.5.
How can You use Open Data to Meet Educational Needs? .................................................................29
8.6.
Creating Open Data .............................................................................................................................30
8.7.
The Technology for Data in Education ................................................................................................30
8.8.
Open Data: Use Cases..........................................................................................................................31
8.9.
Open Discovery Space Case Study ......................................................................................................31
8.10.
LinkedUp Project Case Study ............................................................................................................32
8.11.
Finding Out More ..............................................................................................................................33
9. Open Policy...................................................................................................... 36
10. Synergies ......................................................................................................... 37
11. Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 38
12. Glossary........................................................................................................... 39
13. Acknowledgements ......................................................................................... 40
14. Licence ............................................................................................................ 41
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LinkedUp Support Action – 317620
1. Target Audience
This handbook is aimed at a wide variety of users, from beginners to experts, from practitioners to students,
across all disciplines and all sectors.
We see the main audiences as being:
 Students
 Independent learners
 Higher Education and Further Education professionals including tutors, lecturers, educators,
researchers, e-learning staff
 Primary and secondary school professionals
 Technologists
 Software developers and people interested in using open data
Open Education is something that will be of interest to many and it is acknowledged that different sections of
this handbook will appeal to different people. Topics have been ‘chunked up’ whenever possible so users can
go directly to an appropriate section.
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2. Writing Process
The Open Education Handbook is a collaborative project, initiated by the LinkedUp Project and contributed to
by the Open Knowledge Foundation's2 Open Education Working Group and others.
The content of the Handbook is being crowdsourced and drafted over a series of online and offline events.
An initial outline for the Handbook was created at a booksprint in September 2013. It has been fleshed out
online after the booksprint.
Open Education Handbook Booksprint
The first stage in the creation of the Open Education Handbook was a booksprint. The Book Sprint
methodology was started by Adam Hyde at booksprints.net3 and involves bringing together a group to produce
a book in 3-5 days. There is no pre-production and the group is guided by a facilitator from zero to the
published book. The five main parts of a book sprint (as described by Dr D. Berry and M. Dieter) are concept
mapping, structuring, writing, composition and publication.
Image 1: The Open Education Handbook booksprint
It was decided to take a less-pressurised and more collaborative approach to writing the Open Education
Handbook handbook. The process was to be kick started with a mini-booksprint, which aimed at giving the
2
3
Open Knowledge Foundation, http://okfn.org/
Booksprints.net, http://www.booksprints.net
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LinkedUp Support Action – 317620
initial outline of the book. As outlined in the DoW, the final edited version will be written over a longer time
period of time (with a final version delivered October next year). The booksprint was held at C4CC in London
on Tuesday 3rd September and open education experts from many different sectors (commercial, academic,
government, not-for profit) attended. A full write up of the booksprint is available from the LinkedUp blog4.
In contrast to some booksprints participants were assigned to topic groups from the onset. These topic groups
implied high-level headings for the handbook, though they could be changed. This decision was made to
ensure that something concrete came out of the day. Participants were sat at tables in their groups and began
brainstorming about their topic area in the context of open education. They were asked to write one-point
post-it notes for ideas on:







Audience for this topic
Content (sub headings) for this topic
Definitions needed
Points that need to be made
Questions that need to be answered
Challenges - what needs to change?
Opportunities - what can be achieved?
Later on in the morning the groups were asked to start clustering these ideas on the wall and to also try to
come up with a couple of sentences to define that area. Prior to the lunch break each group was asked to report
back on how they felt the morning had gone and offer their sentences up for others to comment on.
During the brief lunch break participants were asked to walk round the room and look at the other groups
clustering. They could add their own post-it notes to the clusters or readjust them if they felt necessary. The
afternoon involved group writing. Participants began by using the clusters they had created on the wall for
their topic to create a structure in a Google doc. The structure was then fleshed out with ideas around other
resources and projects, web links, and groups of people or individuals working in this area. Participants were
also encouraged to think about who could take on sections in the future. If there was time they assigned
headings and individually began writing copy for those areas.
Post booksprint
After the initial booksprint all the documents from the day were pulled in to a central document using Google
docs and shared with those who had expressed an interest in attending but were unable to. Edited content from
the online document comprises the main body of this deliverable.
Post deliverable
Deliverable D4.6.1 is the first version of the Open Education Handbook. It is indicative of what the handbook
could become, yet is only the skeleton of a fully-fledged handbook. Over the forthcoming year there will be
further events to build on the handbook content. The first of these is being planned to coincide with the
LinkedUp consortium meeting to be held in mid-November in Berlin. The event will be a stage 2 booksprint
and will bring new members of the community together to consider what has been written so far and where
the gaps lie. There is likely to be another booksprint event in early 2014.
The Open Education Handbook will be moved into BookType, an open source platform developed by
SourceFabric that facilitates book writing5. The platform will be openly available though users will need to
login to make edits. The collaborative writing of the handbook will take place continuously through the final
year of the LinkedUp Project.
4
5
Open Education Booksprint, http://linkedup-project.eu/2013/09/04/open-education-handbook-booksprint/
Booktype, http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/booktype/
D4.6.1 Handbook on Open Data in Education (first version)
Month
12
13
14
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15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Possible Booksprint
Collaborative work
in Booktype
Delivery version 1
Final edits
Delivery version 2
Figure 1: Timeline for writing of the Open Education Handbook
Current Format
It should be made clear that the Open Education Handbook is currently a draft and so much emphasis has been
put on what should be covered in the future. Ideas for future content are clearly highlighted in a box at the
start of each section.
Some sections, such as Open Educational Resources (section 4) already have considerable content, while
others, such as Open Policy have relatively little content and will need to be developed further over the
forthcoming months. The reasons for this are two-fold: Firstly attendees of the booksprint were asked to
concentrate on three areas: Open Educational Resources, Open Data and Open Pedagogy (note that Open
Pedagogy has now been renamed Open Learning and Practice). Secondly, for some areas of open education,
such as Open Educational Resources, there already exists a large body of work to build upon, groups are more
established and more activity has taken place. Other areas such as Open Data use in education are relatively
new and more exploration and discussion needs to be had to identify case studies and agree definitions. The
LinkedUp project will provide considerable input to this section in particular. It is anticipated that discussions
facilitated through the Open Education Working Group will focus on the ‘difficult questions’ that the
handbook is currently failing to answer. It will also focus on the synergies between different area of work, an
area that has not been explored so far by the open education community. Work will also be done over the
immediate months to identify authors for the sections that are lacking content.
The challenges ahead include:






Ensuring that there is a universal style to the handbook whilst still ensuring that different voices are
heard. The handbook should be an objective document that highlights challenges and issues without
dictating approaches.
Adding a glossary to the handbook.
Further agreement on definitions and glossary items.
Following up on current content that may need backing up with references and links. Scrutinising of
facts and avoidance of hearsay.
Offering a flow through the handbook while still allowing separate sections to be read in isolation.
Identifying the synergies between different areas of work. This will require more high-level reflection.
To give some examples: changes in learning and teaching practice could make a difference to data
release and reuse; MOOCs and OER use could lead to useful data sets becoming available; use of
developing world data sets could result in changes to education policy in those countries.
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We will ensure to keep the aim of the LinkedUp Project in mind so that ultimately the handbook results in
effective use of public, open data available on the Web by educational institutions and organizations and for
educational benefit.
Image 2: Open Education Working Group logo – likely to be used for the Open Education handbook cover
The content that now follows is the current version of The Open Education Handbook.
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3. Introduction
If one takes a linguistic or reductionist approach to defining open education then they might begin by
reflecting on the extent and range of meanings of open and the range of activities that may be involved in
education.
3.1. What is Open?
A piece of data or content is open, as defined by the Open Definition6, “if anyone is free to use, reuse, and
redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike.”
However open means different things to different people. In the context of open education the focus till
recently has been more on open access to and use of resources, but there are other ways of being open, seen in
terms such as “open development” “open practice” and “open university” which all have something to do with
who you allow to participate in what. These terms have had more historical use. Within software, there is a
clear separation between free/libre software and open source software. However by users of resources the
terms open, free and libre are often used interchangeably.
3.2. What is Education?
Education involves a wide range of activities. For example there are the core processes of formal education:

Policy at a national through to institutional level on how institutions are run, for example who gets to
learn what and how, and who pays for it

Administration, dealing with recruitment, admissions, retention, progression, graduation, timetabling,
reporting, and so on;

Teaching, to use an old-fashioned term to include mentoring and all non-instructivist activities around
the deliberate nurturing of knowledge;

Learning, which may be the only necessary activity here;

Assessment, not just summative, but also formative and diagnostic;

Accreditation, saying who learnt what.
Around these you have academic and business topics that inform or influence these processes: politics,
management studies, pedagogy, psychology, philosophy, library functions, and Human Resource functions
such as recruitment and staff development.
3.3. What is Open Education?
Open education is first and foremost about removing barriers to education. This may be through removing
entry requirements, as Open Universities have done, or by making content and data available for reuse.
However it also reflects other cultural changes, such as the move to open learning and practice, which sees the
blurring or removal of traditional roles such as teacher, student and educator and moves towards mentor and
learner.
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:
6

MOOCs

Pedagogy in open learning
Open definition, http://opendefinition.org
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
Operating in an open world

Existing tools

Example Projects

Challenges and lack of take-up due to challenges

Scalability & performance

Legal/licensing implications

Quality & consistency (LOD = knowledge graph) Lack of reliable dataset metadata about

Resource types

Topics & disciplines Quality & availability Provenance
3.4. What this Handbook is (and what it isn't)
This handbook aims to be a useful resource for anyone interested in open education. It will never be able to
cover all aspects of open education in detail, but can point people on to the excellent resources out there that
are already available. It will never be able to capture all the exciting projects that are going on in the open
education space, but can offer case-studies that give a flavour of the type of activities that are taking place. It
will never be able ensure that education becomes accessible to all, but may be a step in offering a community
resources that can be used by people to make change happen.
3.5. History of Open Education
Open education covers a broad range of activities and has a long history. From the public library movement of
the 19th century which promoted open universities and state-provided education, when education suddenly
became accessible to all. To the setting up of institutions like the Open University in the UK which lowered
the boundaries to access. More recently it has taken on new impetus in a new direction, not disconnected with
that history, but not entirely the same.
3.6. Structure of the Open Education Handbook
In its current form, we address the following topics in this handbook:
 Open Educational Resources
 Open Licences
 Open Badges
 Open Learning and Practice
 Open Data
 Open Policy
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4. Open Educational Resources
4.1. What are Open Educational Resources?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are “liberally licensed content for use in education”. Wikipedia describes
them as freely accessible, usually openly licensed documents and media that are useful for teaching, learning,
educational, assessment and research purposes. Although some people consider the use of an open format to
be an essential characteristic of OER, this is not a universally acknowledged requirement.
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:












What is a resource?
What is open content?
What is open courseware?
Do open educational resources have to be online?
Are Open Badges/MOOCs OERs? (No) Why? Explain the difference.
Is fair dealing/use equivalent to OER?
Does OER mean giving up ownership?
Is e-learning and OERs the same
History of OERs
Opening up Scholarly Communication
OERs for the developing world
Open textbooks
4.2. Useful OER Resources/handbooks
A vast amount of introductory material has already been created relating to OERs. These provide both
introduction and practical examples of OER programmes and of OER creation and use.
 Into The Wild7 (cc-by)
 InfoKit on OER8 (cc-by-sa)
 OER IPR Support/Web2Rights9 licensing unknown)
 UKOER synthesis and evaluation report10 (cc-by-nc)
 OER handbook for educators11 (cc-by)
4.3. Why Should You Get Involved with (using) OERs (as an Educator)?
Creation of OERs has big benefits to individuals, educational institutions and society as a whole. As an
educator it makes sense to create and use OERs.
It should be noted that there are differences between OER activity in schools and in tertiary education
institutions. In schools, OERs are hugely valuable for teachers, especially those in the developing world. In
tertiary education and for researchers, the focus shifts and it is not just about access to materials, but about
making it possible (usually via open access models) to share materials more easily and creating platforms for
more work to become visible (and therefore attract funding).
Why re-invent the wheel?
7
Into the Wild, http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2012/601
InfoKit on OER, https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/24836480/Home
9
OER IPR Support/Web2Rights, http://www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/
10
UKOER synthesis and evaluation report, https://oersynth.pbworks.com/
11
OER handbook for educators, http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator_version_one
8
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Teachers are responsible for creating great learning experiences, not (necessarily) for creating all the resources
needed for this themselves. Reusing existing OERs frees up time that can be spent on other aspects of the
teaching & learning process. Their use can help you expand your range of teaching materials.
Can you afford to ignore what is out there?
If you are teaching a common subject, chances are that somebody else has already created great learning
resources for the same or a similar context. Students can also access these resources on their own, so why not
point them to them or incorporate them into your teaching? You may even improve the resources and rerelease them openly for others to re-uses.
Raising your profile
Getting your materials out there as an educator can both help raise your profile and allow you to have your
resources improved by other users. You will improve your profile and impact, potentially collecting
kudos/evidence towards promotion.
Improving your teaching
Creating OERs will improve your practice by encouraging you to reflect. You will find people interested in
and teaching/learning the same areas as you. Use and creation of OERs facilitates looking outside your
immediate environment and getting broader and different views on topic areas. You will learn new things,
which will reinvigorate your teaching.
4.4. Why Should You Get Involved with OERs (as an Institution)?
Profile
Creating OERs puts content-rich material on the web that will be discoverable by people searching for the
information they contain and can be used to attract potential students to your departmental web pages. It aligns
well with your institution’s mission if part of that mission is to disseminate knowledge broadly.
Practice
Through OERs it makes it easy for staff at your own institution to find what other staff have produced will
facilitate sharing within your institution. It sends a message that reuse; building on the efforts of others; is
better than a go-it-alone approach.
Collaboration
Your OER work allows potential partners to see what you cover in your courses. This can facilitate
partnerships with, for example, local colleges or businesses.
Concerns
You may have concerns around getting involved with OERs. For example many educators want to keep
control of their resources. Staff may also worry that they will be replaced and lose their job. There may also be
a requirement for capacity building as staff may not have the licenses or feel that they have the time to learn.
There are also likely to be concerns around the quality of OER. Releasing materials exposes institutions in a
new way and individual staff may feel unsure that their materials will compare well with other staff within
their institution or their subject discipline. Quality can be applied in both a technical and pedagogical sense.
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4.5. Finding OERs
These are some of the websites and portals that enable you to find OERs:
 Xpert12
 Creative Commons Search13 or DiscoverEd14
 Jorum15
 Search engines using OER and the keyword + advanced search features
 Connexions16
 OpenCourseware Consortium17
4.6. Creating OERs
Turning a pre-existing resource into an OER or creating a new OER can be very worthwhile but there are
various factors that you will need to consider. OER resources need to be portable and reusable, so considering
file type, size and formatting is a must. They will need to be correctly licensed and have appropriate metadata
to ensure they can be found. If you are reusing an existing resource you will need to have rights clearance
from the author. Once created you will need to give some thought to how they are shared and where they are
deposited.
4.7. Benefits of Releasing your Own OER (as an educator and/or institution)
Reputational and economic benefits
Releasing OERs can have significant reputational gain and others may do so if you do not. It is an opportunity
to be a leader in a fast moving and highly significant area. Letting students preview high quality resources
prior to applying at your institution may boost recruitment and is good practice.
Good sharing practice
Apart from these (economic) reasons, publishing resources openly is reclaiming traditional academic practice
of sharing knowledge. Releasing material can help bridge gaps between groups. Seeing the content
Universities use for teaching can help people realise that University may not be too big a step for them.
Concerns
Concerns may focus on issues related to the intellectual property rights of your resources. For example, you
may be sure about IPR but know you cut some corners. Institutions and staff may also worry about criticism
of their materials.
4.8. Misperceptions about Copyright
These are only the most common misperceptions of “copyright” among educational practitioners. Copyright is
actually only one of several intellectual property rights (IPR). You do not need to study the legal intricacies
but you should be aware of the basic outlines of IPR in education. Being ignorant or taking a gentlemanly
approach to intellectual property rights can backfire, certainly when protected material is re-released into the
Open as OER. In case of doubt, ask your legal department for advice.
12
Xpert, http://xpert.nottingham.ac.uk/
Creative Commons Search, http://search.creativecommons.org/
14
DiscoverEd, http://wiki.creativecommons.org/DiscoverEd
15
Jorum, http://www.jorum.ac.uk/
16
Connexions, http://cnx.org/
17
OpenCourseware Consortium, http://www.ocwconsortium.org/
13
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“Certainly I can used copyrighted material because it is for educational purposes”
There is no blanket license for educational purposes. This is a misconception that conflates US with British
law (fair use / fair dealing). Other countries may have other stipulations in national legislation. Normally your
institution will have a license with the copyright agency setting out what you are allowed to do (in the UK:
typically making as many photocopies of 5% or one chapter (whichever is greater) of any book your
institution holds. This does not automatically include scans / digitisations for your VLE.
“Certainly I can use copyrighted material because it is behind closed doors (our VLE is only accessible
to staff or students of my institution with a password)
You may be less likely to be caught but you may still be violating IPR. Many institutions archive VLE
contents and things may come back to haunt you later. There are even reports of cases where students have
tried to blackmail teachers about their copyright violations.
“It was not copyrighted because it had no © sign on it”
The © sign originates from American law. Any artefact whether or not marked with a © is protected in the
certain countries by intellectual property rights, depending on (mostly) national legislation.
“It was available freely on the web, so I can use it.”
Publication on the web does not allow any type of use of the resource.
“My institution has a license with the copyright agency, so we can use everything”
In the UK, there are differences between photocopy licenses and online / digitisation licenses. Best to check
with your institution. A typical license would be: staff are allowed to make as many photocopies as necessary
for teaching, of up to a chapter or 5% (whichever is greater) from any book held by the institution. This does
not automatically mean that these photocopies can be scanned in and made available on the institutional VLE.
Your institution will have (or not) have a separate license for digitised content, e.g. restricting digitisation to
books published in a certain jurisdiction (e.g. the UK and/or US only). Annoying as this is, this means you can
only legally use some teaching material offline not online.
Last but not least this is also an issue of academic credibility. If you compare the ‘gentlemanly approaches’
that some educators take to intellectual property rights with their or their institutions’ approaches to student
plagiarism, the discrepancy becomes obvious. Both are serious violations of intellectual property and one
takes place in the open.
4.9. Deciding to Create OERs
Both educators and institutions need to understand the landscape of open education. As an educator you need
to familarise yourself with your institution’s licenses and policies. You can start to find alternative resources
in one of the OER repositories and talk to OER practitioners (join OER-Discuss). Look at what is out there
and see if there is anything that you could use or re-purpose. Talk to colleagues.
4.10. Developing OERs
Once you have made the decision to develop OERs you need to think about a strategy for moving forward.
Successful approaches have used the following ideas:


Develop incrementally, making generic versions available too
Each part of an OER, such as a picture, or text, can also be an OER and can be shared as well
D4.6.1 Handbook on Open Data in Education (first version)
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
Page 17 of 41
You probably already have OER, because any resource you use which doesn’t use other people’s
copyright could be an OER
You don’t need to be an elearning genius to make an OER: a Powerpoint file can be an OER
Once developed - all you need to do is choose a licence (see section on open licences).
Construct the resource with the intention of releasing it as OER from the start to avoid 3rd party
copyrighted material rather than fix it retrospectively.
When creating OERs you will need to:





Check the license
Attribute the author, and include a disclaimer and takedown
If stuck, people working openly tend to like helping
Share what you’ve made
Share what you’ve learned
4.11. Where can you put OERs?





Pictures - Flickr 18is widely used, free and has Creative Commons support
Video - Vimeo and Youtube have support for Creative Commons licenses
Sound - Soundcloud has support for Creative Commons licenses
Powerpoint - Slideshare has support for Creative Commons licenses
Your own blog - you can use the Creative Commons Licence Picker19 to get the HTML to attribute
your resources
4.12. Software for making OERs
There is a considerable amount of software that can support you in developing OERs.






Audacity20 - a free and open source audio editing tool
Open Office21 - a free and open source alternative to Microsoft Office, handy for changing the formats
of files
Jing22 or Camstudio - handy for making screen captures
Xerte23 - an open source tool developed by the University of Nottingham
BlueGriffon24 an open source WYSIWYG HTML editor
USEEK25 is a public tool providing search over a wide range of software tools available for
educational purposes (such as OER authoring)
You might also want to avoid some software. For example Adobe Acrobat26 (PDF while handy is not an open
format). Good practice is to provide open versions of closed documents like PDF as well (e.g. on OpenOffice,
LibreOffice .ODT, .ODS, .ODP … formats). Note that while Acrobat may be prorietary, PDF has been an
open format since 2008. You could e.g. bundle both versions using a free compression software like 7-Zip27.
18
Flickr, http://www.flickr.com
Creative Commons licence picker, http://creativecommons.org/choose/
20
Audacity, http://audacity.sourceforge.net
21
OpenOffice, http://www.openoffice.org/
22
Jing, http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
23
Xerte, http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte
24
Blue Griffon, http://www.bluegriffon.org/
25
Useek, http://linkededucation.org/applications/#useek & http://www.gsic.uva.es/seek/useek/
26
Adobe Acrobat, http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/
27
7Zip, http://www.7-zip.org/
19
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Popular formats like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint 28 etc. while ubiquitous are not open. Open
alternatives would e.g. be RTF or the OpenOffice formats, ODT for texts, ODP for presentations etc. Be
careful with anything having an Apple sign on it. While nicely done most Apple formats are proprietary (e.g.
iTunesU29). You can release stuff on iTunesU but good OER practice would be to release them in Open
formats in parallel (which is little extra effort). Also try and avoid anything that needs a plugin and Flash.
These sites are also very useful:





Xpert Picture attribution30 allows you to search Creative Commons Licensed content and embed the
license
Flickr31 allows you to search for pictures and videos with a Creative Commons License
Wikimedia Commons32 allows you to search for media files, some of which will have Creative
Commons Licenses
Creative Commons33 lots of useful links and resources on licensing content
Web 2 Rights34 lots of resources on intellectual property on the internet
There are certain sites where you may need to tread carefully:





Youtube, it might be on the web, but that doesn’t mean you should use it, and it might be taken down.
Check the licence of the video to see if you can re-use it; the Standard YouTube Licence is not open
MOOC sites, the second “O” of MOOC is open - but this doesn’t mean you can use it
Resources in the Public Domain - some resources are “Public Domain”, which means that it is “Free
of Copyright”- It is however possible that a resource is in the public domain in one country, but not in
all countries. One reason for this is that the rules for expiration of copyright vary from country to
country.
University Sites - just because it is on a University site, doesn’t mean you have the right to use it
Your own Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) - other lecturers may have different licence
agreements.
4.13. Challenges when Developing OERs











28
The person who disseminated the resource with a creative commons licence didn’t own the rights to
do so
When releasing OERs, spending too much time on metadata for no known reason
Explicit consent has not been obtained from the people appearing in openly licensed resources.
Ignoring rights other than copyright such as performance rights and data protection.
Not including a disclaimer and takedown policy, or failing to act on the ones you include.
What about quality?
How do you give credit for use?
Practise what we preach - use materials that are already available
Encourage re-purposing and re-use (not much yet)
CC and software licences
Using OERs in the developing world
Microsoft, http://www.microsoft.com/
iTunesU, http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/itunes-u/
30
Xpert Picture attribution, http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/attribution
31
Flickr, http://www.flickr.com
32
Wikipedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org
33
Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org
34
Web2Rights, http://www.web2rights.org.uk/
29
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4.14. Developing OERs: Use cases
Europe





Open Education Europa35
The University of Southampton36, UK - has a large OER repository
The University of Nottingham37, UK - has a large OER repository
The University of Oxford, UK- has several OER sites including podcasts38
The Open University, UK has OpenLearn39
Worldwide






The African Virtual University40
OERu 41
MIT OpenCourseWare42
Various initiatives in Utah43
Temoa in Latin America44
CORE45
Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU)46 is a grassroots open education project that organizes learning outside of
institutional walls and gives learners recognition for their achievements. P2PU creates a model for lifelong
learning alongside traditional formal higher education. Leveraging the Internet and educational materials
openly available online, P2PU enables high-quality low-cost education opportunities. P2PU has run several
"copyright for Educators" courses aimed at primary school teachers and librarians in the US and Australia.
While there is a jurisdiction-specific focus, they provide a great grounding for anyone in the teaching space
through the School of Open materials47.
4.15. Finding Out More
Conferences about open education




OpenEd conference48
OER14 conference49
OCWC Conference50
International Conference of the African Virtual University51
35
Open Education Europa, http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu
The University of Southampton, http://edshare.soton.ac.uk
37
The University of Nottingham, http://unow.nottingham.ac.uk
38
The University of Oxford, http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk
39
OpenLearn at the Open University, http://openlearn.open.ac.uk
40
The African Virtual University, http://www.avu.org/
41
OERu, http://wikieducator.org/OER_university/Home
42
MIT OpenCourseWare, http://ocw.mit.edu
43
Various initiatives in Utah, http://opencontent.org/blog/
44
Temoa in Latin America, http://www.temoa.info/
45
CORE, http://www.core.org.cn/
46
P2PU, https://p2pu.org/en/
47
School of Open, https://p2pu.org/en/groups/schools/school-of-open/
48
Opened Conference, http://openedconference.org/
49
OER14, http://oer14.org/
50
OCWC Conference, http://conference.ocwconsortium.org/2014/
51
International Conference of the African Virtual University, http://www.avu.org/1st-international-conference-of-theavu.html
36
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LinkedUp Support Action – 317620
Mozilla Festival52
Groups of people or individuals interested in OERs
53
 OER-Discuss mailing list (UK focused)
54
 Open Knowledge Foundation Open Education Working Group
55
 OER research hub
56
 SCORE fellows
57
 OER Asia
58
 LinkedEducation
4.16. Beyond OERs



OpenHardware, e.g. Arduino,
Crowd sourced content for which licensing isn’t waived
Print on demand textbooks (not online)
4.17. What isn’t an OER





Resources that are available under more restrictive conditions, for example BBC content, content
copied under a CLA licence agreement or content available only if you recommend a textbook where
use is restricted to your own institution.
Stuff you find lying around on the web that doesn’t have an explicit licence, for example in the UK
copyright always exists
OpenBadges, MOOCs, and other open approaches to parts of education
Resources that are available only if you register
Your student’s assignments
4.18. OERs for the Developing World
The current system creates a developed world bias, leaving researchers in the developing world without a
voice and without access to publication spaces. The developing world is an area where OERs can have real
impact. Initiatives include




Commonwealth of Learning59
Sakshat: One Stop Education Portal60
OSCAR: Open Source Courseware Animations Repository61
Free textbook programmes
Previous programmes have suffered from a lack of commitment locally and no clear strategy for
implementation. There has also been a ‘not-made-here’
mentality and materials were considered too generic.
On reflection the Commonwealth of Learning recommends that projects not only to develop capacity and
content but to ensure a buy-in from local partners and to have a clear implementation strategy
52
Mozilla Festival, http://mozillafestival.org/
OER-Discuss mailing list, https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=OER-DISCUSS
54
Open Knowledge Foundation Open Education Working Group, http://education.okfn.org/
55
OER research hub, http://oerresearchhub.org/
56
SCORE Fellows, http://www.open.ac.uk/score/fellows
57
OER Asia, http://www.oerasia.org/
58
LinkedEducation, http://linkededucation.org
59
Commonwealth of Learning, http://www.col.org/resources/crsMaterials/Pages/OCW-OER.aspx
60
Sakshat: One Stop Education Portal, http://www.ignouonline.ac.in/sakshat/
61
OSCAR, http://oscar.iitb.ac.in/
53
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4.19. References
Useful references:



Realising the Open in Open Educational Resources: Practical Concerns and Solutions62
OER Knowledge Cloud63
OER Handbook64
62
Realising the Open in Open Educational Resources: Practical Concerns and Solutions,
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/757135/Friesen2013chap6.pdf
63
OER Knowledge Cloud, https://oerknowledgecloud.org/?q=content/world-map-open-educational-resources-initiativescan-global-oer-community-design-and-build-i
64
OER Handbook, http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator_version_one
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5. Open Licences
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:




What are open licences
What is IPR? Why is it important?
Do open educational resources have to be online?
Does OER mean giving up ownership?
5.1. What are Licences?
The verb license or grant license means to give permission while the noun licence refers to that permission as
well as to the document recording that permission. Licences are a tool that can support both Open Educational
Resources (OERs) and open data.
5.2. What are Open Licences?
The following licences are seen as open when following the open definition:






65
Creative Commons licenses65 (only Creative Commons Attribution, Attribution-Share Alike and Zero)
Open Publication License66 (the original license of the Open Content Project67, the Open Content
License68, did not permit for-profit copying of the licensed work and therefore does not qualify)
Against DRM license69
GNU Free Documentation License70
Open Game License71 (a license designed for role-playing games by Wizards of the Coast)
Free Art License72
Creative Commons Licences, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Open Publication Licence, http://opencontent.org/openpub/
67
Open Content Project, http://www.opencontent.org
68
Open Content Licence, http://opencontent.org/opl.shtml
69
Against DRM Licence, http://www.freecreations.org/Against_DRM2.html
70
GNU Free Documentation License, https://gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html
71
Open Game License, http://www.earth1066.com/D20FAQ.htm
72
Free Art Licence, http://artlibre.org/archives/news/302
66
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6. Open Badges
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:




Challenges of using them (opposition to badges, informal learning, system approach, effect on
motivation)
Case studies
Alternates to Mozilla badges
Issues around validation, standards
6.1. What is a Digital Badge?
Like a licence, digital badges are a tool that can support the use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and at
times open data. A digital badge is an online representation of a skill has been earned.
6.2. What is an Open Badge?
Open Badges take the digital badge concept one step further, and allows verification of skills, interests and
achievements through credible organizations. The system is based on an open standard so users can combine
multiple badges from different issuers to tell the complete story of their achievements — both online and off.
Users can display your badges wherever they want them on the web, and share them for employment,
education or lifelong learning.
6.3. History of Open Badges
Open Badges started as a collaborative project between MacArthur Foundation, HASTAC and Mozilla and
has continued to grow through an open, collaborative approach. It is designed, built and backed by a broad
community of contributors, such as NASA, the Smithsonian, Intel, the Girl Scouts, and more. The open source
model means that improvements made by one partner can benefit everyone, from bug fixes to new features.
6.4. Mozilla open badges





73
74
Mozilla Open Badges73 are not proprietary — they use free software and an open technical standard.
That means that any organization can create, issue and verify digital badges, and any user can earn,
manage and display these badges all across the web.
Open Badges help knit your skills together. Badges can build upon each other, joining together to tell
the full story of your skills and achievement.
With Open Badges, every badge is full of information. Each one has important data built in that links
back to the issuer, the criteria it was issued under and evidence verifying the credential — features
unique to Open Badges.
Open Badges let you take your badges everywhere. Users now have an easy and comprehensive way
to collect their badges in a single backpack, and display their skills and achievements on social
networking profiles, job sites, their websites and more.
Individuals can earn badges from multiple sources, both online and offline. Then manage and share
them using the Open Badges backpack. Right now we’re launching with the Mozilla Backpack74, and
other organizations will be able to use Open Badges to make their own backpacks later this year.
Mozilla Open Badges, http://openbadges.org
Mozilla Backpack, https://backpack.openbadges.org/
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6.5. Why Should You use Open Badges?




Get recognition for the things you learn. Open Badges include a shared standard for recognizing your
skills and achievements and helps make them count towards job opportunities and lifelong learning.
Give recognition for the things you teach. Anyone who meets the standard can award badges for skills
or learning.
Display your verified badges across the web. Earn badges from anywhere, then share them wherever
you want—on social networking profiles, job sites and on your website.
Verify skills. Employers, organizations and schools can explore the data behind every badge issued
using Mozilla Open Badges to verify individuals’ skills and competencies.
6.6. Open Badges: Use Cases


User stories75 - Everyday examples of badges in the real world.
The 2 Million Better Futures76 project from CGI America77 aims to help 1 million workers and 1
million students succeed using Open Badges.
78
 This Chicago Summer of Learning was the first citywide badging initiative developed, and it was so
successful that Mayor Emmanuel committed to continuing the program next year79.
80
 Participating Issuers on the Open Badges site for an updated list of badge issuers and designers.
81
 Badges on P2PU - create a badge and get feedback on something you want to learn. Or give
feedback to other people’s projects.
Expenses for Phil Barker - main speaker at Open Education Booksprint, 3rd September 2013
75
Badges in the real world, http://openmatt.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/badges-in-the-real-world/
The 2 Million Better Futures, http://www.2mbetterfutures.org/
77
CGI America, http://www.cgiamerica.org/
78
Chicago Summer of Learning, http://chicagosummeroflearning.org/about
79
Mayor Emmanuel committed to continuing the program, http://www.enewspf.com/school-news/45425-mayoremanuel-announces-nearly-100-000-badges-awarded-through-chicago-summer-of-learning.html
80
Participating Issuers, http://www.openbadges.org/participating-issuers/
81
Badges on P2PU, http://badges.p2pu.org/en/
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7. Open Learning and Practice
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:





How does open relate to pedagogy (traditional and new forms)
Boundaries of open pedagogy
OER reuse and production (Digital Literacies)
Open assessment
case studies
7.1. What is Open Learning and Practice?
Open pedagogy, or open learning and practice, sees the blurring or removal of traditional roles such as
Teacher, Student & educator and moves towards mentor and learner.
Example: ‘Any online content, from text, images, video, comments etc. which are openly available online to
view or download without the need to login or join.
7.2. Open Practice
Example: ‘Individuals and groups who share personal and professional practice online through participatory
blogs and online community networks. Content (resources & ideas) are mostly unrestricted to access and
freely downloadable for use and reuse, content is openly licensed using creative commons or similar.
7.3. Open Learning
What exists already (in terms of context of open pedagogy):
Openness and innovation in elearning82
Open Pedagogy – A New Paradigm for Teaching and Learning83
Definitions







Define Open Pedagogy
What is an open learner? Who is the open learner?
What is an open practitioner?
Define Mentor
Spectrum of openness (not all about a MOOC)
Examples of open practice in existing pedagogy (agile)
Produce a Glossary of Terms & Acronyms Example
Challenges – what needs to change




Culture Change (ownership and practice)
Social change
Institutional ambition / change – processes will change (time)
Student perspectives (open not always reduce contact hours but compliment)
82
Openness and innovation in elearning, http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/course/h817.htm
Open Pedagogy – A New Paradigm for Teaching and Learning, http://open.umich.edu/education/umflint/educationtech/edt585/winter2010
83
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

Open Accreditation (what are the values /perceptions)
Make it relate to many individuals
LinkedUp Support Action – 317620
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8. Open Data
8.1. What is Open Data?
“Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the
requirement to attribute and sharealike.” The Open Definition84
The Open Definition gives full details on the requirements for ‘open’ data and content. Key features are:



Availability and Access: the data must be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable
reproduction cost, preferably by downloading over the internet. The data must also be available in a
convenient and modifiable form.
Reuse and Redistribution: the data must be provided under terms that permit reuse and redistribution
including the intermixing with other datasets. The data must be machine-readable.
Universal Participation: everyone must be able to use, reuse and redistribute – there should be no
discrimination against fields of endeavour or against persons or groups. For example, ‘noncommercial’ restrictions that would prevent ‘commercial’ use, or restrictions of use for certain
purposes (e.g. only in education), are not allowed
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:







What is open education data
the context of data in open education
Motivational use cases that inspire (Open University, LinkedUP Competition winners, Ace
Learning
How do I create open data sets?
How can opening up data be helpful?
Conferences about open data in education
Groups of people or individuals interested in open data in education
8.2. What is Open Education Data?
Open education data is all open data that can be used for educational purposes (e.g research data, GLAM data
etc.) as well as open data that comes out of education institutions.
Concepts




Open education data - on the whole administrative data created by educational institutions that can
improve efficiency, allow students to make informed decisions etc.
open educational data - As a working definition we mean by this all data relevant to educational
institutions (i.e. wider scope & includes research data)
open data in education - more general term to refer to both of the above concepts
open data exploited/used by education - focus here is on the use of this data (or concept 3)
i.e.LinkedUp Project.
8.3. Why Should You ‘Do’ Open Data (as an Institution)?
Principle
84
The Open Definition, http://opendefinition.org/
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The charitable mission of education can be helped through a commitment to open data, help educators and
institutions to engage with learners more effectively and in better ways. Role of data openness and exchange
in driving quality research (collaboration, testing, replication) - new knowledge missions. Promote the social
role and place of institutions - help maintain public and political commitment (and investment) in education at European, national, regional/ local levels. Part of the identity of the institution - an open institution v. closed
and private.
Policy
Education institutions are already subject to freedom of information in some countries. New open research
data policy (HEFCE consultation in the UK on inclusion as part of next Research Excellence Framework),
large amounts of reference data already being collected for public policy by HESA and UCAS - financial,
student, courses - as collection and dissemination of data already happens, open data logical next step. QAA
Subject benchmarks. Key information Sets being collected and disseminated for use by students - institutions
all collecting and submitting same set of data based on agreed framework. Student number controls and
widening participation data. Digital curation - research council data management policy and plans. School
league tables.
Practice
Easy way of publishing data - e.g. reference data could just be published as open data without need for central
collection function (but would want to maintain the shared data standards). Internal usage of data to inform
decisions and practice Improve usage of data by an institution and third parties, improve management and
curation of data, improve links between different data sets, make links between different types of data.
Business intelligence - from corporate data through to learner analytics - market strategy, online learning
pedagogies - open data practice can helps to integrate data sets that might be held across an institution.
Services and support for students and staff - facilities. Efficiency and modernisation agenda.
8.4. Types and Categories of Data





Provenance
o Reference (gov data, geo-data, etc.) - e.g. national curriculum
 Location of schools, Universities etc
o Core/Internal (course catalogue, course resources, staff data, buildings, etc.)
o User-generated/contributed (user activities, assessments, etc.)
Granularity
o individual/personal
o aggregated/analytics
o report
openness
o open-open (e.g. CC0)
o open-close (e.g. open license with restrictions)
o close-open (proprietary data with open API)
o close-close (core, not sharable) - internally sharable, not internally sharable
descriptiveness
o data streams (multimedia resources)
o data content (textual content, database)
o resource metadata
o content metadata
o paradata (as in metadata about data collection)
Content
o Usage/activity data (paradata as in the learning analytics definition)
o student personal info
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
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student profiles (interest, demographics, etc.)
student trajectories
curriculum / learning objectives / learning outcomes
educational resources (multimedia or not)
resources metadata (including library collections, reading lists -- see Talis Aspire)
assessment/grades
institutional performance (e.g., ofsted, KIS)
resource outputs (publication repositories, etc.), research management data (projects and
funding, etc.), research data
o cost and student funding data, budgets and finances
o Classifications/disciplines/topics (e.g. JACS)
Barriers on the use of data: Legal, ethical, cultural, medical, personal
Principles and practical uses of data
Educationally relevant data, e.g. for informal learning
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Publications & literature: ACM, PubMed, DBLP (L3S), OpenLibrary
Domain-specific knowledge & resources: Bioportal for Life Sciences,
historic artefacts in Europeana, Geonames
Cross-domain knowledge: DBpedia, Freebase, ...
(Social) media resource metadata: BBC, Flickr, ...
Explicitly educational datasets and schemas:
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University Linked Data: e.g. The Open University UK85, Southampton University, University of
Munster (DE) Lodum86
OER Linked Data: mEducator Linked ER87, Open Learn LD
Schemas: Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI88 mEducator Educational Resources
schema89
Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK) Dataset90
Vast Open Educational Resource (OER) & MOOC metadata collections (e.g. OpenCourseware,
OpenLearn, Merlot, ARIADNE)
KIS data91
The community platforms LinkedEducation92 and LinkedUniversities93 provide an overview of
existing datasets and schemas in field of educational Linked Data
8.5. How can You use Open Data to Meet Educational Needs?

By supporting students
o Through creation of new tools that enable new ways to analyse and access data e.g. maps of
disabled access, tools for disciplines
o By enriching resources, making it easier to share and find them, and how to personalize the
way they are presented
o By allowing student to explore resources, concepts, ideas and objects in various areas.
o To make informed choices on education e.g. by comparing scores, course data etc.
85
Open University data, http://data.open.ac.uk,
Lodium, http://lodum.de/about/
87
MEducator, http://ckan.net/package/meducator
88
LRMI, http://www.lrmi.net/
89
mEducator Educational Resources schema, http://purl.org/meducator/ns
90
Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK) Dataset, http://lak.linkededucation.org
91
KIS data, http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/
92
LinkedEducation, http://linkededucation.org
93
LinkedUniversities, http://linkeduniversities.org
86
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By supporting schools and institutions
o Learning analytics data can help retain students
o Use data can enable efficiencies in practice e.g. library data can help support book purchasing
o Benchmarking and performance measuring
By supporting governments and policy
o Open data can lead to change in policy
o Open data can lead support transparency and enable efficiency
o Data on equity and equality issues (3rd world countries)
o Education reform
8.6. Creating Open Data
How you open up data is covered in detail in the Open Data94. There are some key rules recommend when
opening up data:
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Keep it simple. Start out small, simple and fast. There is no requirement that every dataset must be
made open right now. Starting out by opening up just one dataset, or even one part of a large dataset,
is fine – of course, the more datasets you can open up the better.
Remember this is about innovation. Moving as rapidly as possible is good because it means you can
build momentum and learn from experience – innovation is as much about failure as success and not
every dataset will be useful.
Engage early and engage often. Engage with actual and potential users and reusers of the data as
early and as often as you can, be they citizens, businesses or developers. This will ensure that the next
iteration of your service is as relevant as it can be.
It is essential to bear in mind that much of the data will not reach ultimate users directly, but
rather via ‘info-mediaries’. These are the people who take the data and transform or remix it to be
presented. For example, most of us don’t want or need a large database of GPS coordinates, we would
much prefer a map. Thus, engage with infomediaries first. They will reuse and repurpose the material.
Address common fears and misunderstandings. This is especially important if you are working
with or within large institutions such as government. When opening up data you will encounter plenty
of questions and fears. It is important to (a) identify the most important ones and (b) address them at
as early a stage as possible.
Opening up data
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Choose the dataset(s) you plan to make open. Keep in mind that you can (and may need to) return to
this step if you encounter problems at a later stag
Apply an open license.
Determine what intellectual property rights exist in the data.
Apply a suitable ‘open’ license that licenses all of these rights
Make the data available - in bulk and in a useful format. You may also wish to consider alternative
ways of making it available such as via an API.
Make it discoverable - post on the web and perhaps organize a central catalogue to list your open
datasets.
8.7. The Technology for Data in Education
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94
Common open data technologies:
o CSV, XML, Linked Data
Common Data Management
Open Data Handbook, http://opendatahandbook.org/en/how-to-open-up-data/index.html
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o RDBMS
Common tracking tech.
o Logs, analytics platform
Specific metadata standards
o XCRI, MLO, LRMI, LOM, ...
Primary schools
Note that primary schools, unlike higher education, are dependent on governmental education policies to
determine the learning objectives expected for each key subject. These can be managed as data. More
information can be found by referring to Information Models for Learning Outcomes and Competencies95.
Secondary schools
Secondary school data includes:
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Administrative data,
employability data
Social data
Students
8.8. Open Data: Use Cases
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:
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Case studies for:
o Policy maker
o University manager
o Academic instructor
o Researcher
o Policy and education departments
o Vocational
o University
 OU
 Southampton
 Data.ac.uk
 Oxford
o MOOC and online learning platforms
P2PU
Privacy
8.9. Open Discovery Space Case Study
Other open education: Open Discovery Space, using social data
The EU funded Open Discovery Space 96(ODS) project aims to create a platform for teachers across Europe
for sharing and repurposing of open educational resources. This objective is covered well in the resources
95
Information Models for Learning Outcomes and Competencies, ftp://ftp.cen.eu/CEN/Sectors/List/ICT/CWAs/CWA
16655-1.pdf
96
Open Discovery Space, http://www.opendiscoveryspace.eu/project
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section of this handbook. However, ODS, also deals with mining data and usage for further improving the
value chain of educational resources and open education. It creates a social data layer around education
resources that crowd sources appreciation and usage data. Social data in this context is appreciation metadata
that further describes a resource. It comprises intentional user inputs such as likert scale star ratings,
comments, free or guided tags, shares, etc. From these datasets aggregations can be used in an infinite number
of mashups to provide e.g. resource recommendations or karma measures. In addition, ODS also uses tracking
data (called paradata) which collects users’ activities in the ODS portal (e.g. looking at a resource,
downloading, etc). This allows for other statistical analytics such as most looked at, or most downloaded
resource. In more sophisticated ways it also permits to draw conclusions about the similarity of users that
looked at or downloaded the same resources or that follow similar type users. Analogous methods are well
known from social networks (Facebook: “friends you may know”, Twitter: “people who you may want to
follow”), sales sites (Amazon: “people who looked at this also looked at…”), or review portals (Tripadvisor:
“most popular or most highly rated hotel”).
ODS goes beyond collecting data from users of the portal alone, but also harvests social data from other OER
portals. This is to say that if a user star-rates a resource in a sister portal to ODS, this rating will enter the ODS
ratings data through a data harvesting cycle. In this way, opinion mining is not restricted to a single portal
alone and enhances the value of the resource descriptor no matter where the users tag it. Harvesting social
metadata from other portals encounters no legal obstacles, even if this data is not linked open data, because:
(1) it is anonymous data and cannot be connected to a user’s identity, (2) there is no copyright associated with
protecting user expressions like star ratings, bookmarks or keyword tags. This is because it does not constitute
an act of (substantial) creativity on behalf of the author of such social metadata.
ODS not only re-uses social data from associated repositories, it also aims at exposing its own data as open
linked data to other third party service providers. It has to be said, though, that paradata (recording user
activities in the portal) is not going to be exposed due to ethical and privacy reasons.
8.10. LinkedUp Project Case Study
The LinkedUp Project97 (Linking Web data for education) is an EU FP7 Coordination and Support Action
running from November 2012 to November 2014 which looks at issues around open data in education, with
the aim of pushing forward the exploitation of the vast amounts of public, open data available on the web. It
aspires to do this by facilitating developer competitions and deploying an evaluation framework, which
identifies innovative success stories of robust, web-scale information management applications. The project
comprises of six pan-European consortium partners led by the L3S Research Center of the Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz Universität Hannover and comprising the Open University UK, the Open Knowledge Foundation,
Elsevier, the Open Universiteit Nederland and eXact learning LCMS. The project also has a number of
associated partners with an interest in the project including the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada and the
Department of Informatics, PUC-Rio, Brazil.
LinkedUp Veni shortlisted entries
There were 8 shortlisted entries in the LinkedUp Veni competition. They offer real-world examples of how
linked and open data can be used in an educational way. Three of the shortlisted demos and tools show how
linked data from various resources allows learners to explore resources, concepts, ideas and objects in various
areas.
98
 KnowNodes is a collaborative websites that enables relating, defining and exploring connections
between web resources and ideas, making use of graph visualizations. Knownodes scored high on
educational innovation.
97
98
LinkedUp Project, http://linkedup-project.eu/
Knownodes, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#knownodes
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Mismuseos99 connects museum data with sources including Europeana, Dbpedia and Geonames. With
Mismuseos, learners can browse and explore the backgrounds and relations between objects from
multiple Spanish museums.
ReCredible100 is a browsable topic map with wikipedia-like content next to it. The topic library
showcases interesting topics varying from dog breeds and alternative medicine to nanotechnology and
information systems.
Another focus, which can be seen in the next three shortlisted candidates, is how open and linked data can be
used for enriching resources, making it easier to share and find them, and how to personalize the way they are
presented.
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DataConf101 is a mobile mashup that enriches conference publications. The reviewers applauded its
nice and effective design. DataConf is especially useful at the graduate education level.
We-Share102 is a social annotation application for educational ICT tools. We-Share can help educators
to find tools to support teaching at all educational levels, and received high scores on educational
innovation.
YourHistory103 is a Facebook app that makes history tangible by showing historic and global events
that are related to your own life events and your interests.
The next two applications are less generic than the previous ones, but both of them are great examples on how
effective use of linked data can help to learn about and make sense of the world we live in.


Globe-Town104 is a ‘fun to use’ tool that lets users find out the most important trade partners, migrant
populations and airline routes of their own countries. It also provides infographics on issues regarding
society, environment and economy.
Polimedia105 connects transcripts of the Dutch parliament with media coverage in newspapers and
radio bulletins. Polimedia employs innovative information techniques and provides an attractive frontend that invites exploration and browsing.
8.11. Finding Out More
Conferences about open data in education
106
 ARIADNE/GLOBE Convening – Open Federations 2013: Open Knowledge Sharing for Education,
A Convening of Aggregators & Networks of Educational Repositories
107
 OpenEd Conference
108
 LinkedEducation
Groups of people or individuals interested in open data in education

W3C Open Linked Education Data Community Group 109
99
Mismuseos, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#mismuseos
Recredible, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#rethink
101
DataConf, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#dataconf
102
We-Share, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#weshare
103
Yourhistory, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#yourhistory
104
Globe-Town, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#globetown
105
Polimedia, http://linkedup-challenge.org/veni.html#polimedia
106
ARIADNE/GLOBE Convening, http://www.ariadne-eu.org/content/open-federations-2013-open-knowledge-sharingeducation
107
OpenEd, http://openedconference.org/2013/
108
LinkedEducation, http://lile2013.linkededucation.org/
100
109
W3C Open Linked Education Data Community Group, http://www.w3.org/community/opened/
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Relevant sources of information:
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Katy Boner – her research focuses on the development of data analysis and visualization techniques
for information access, understanding, and management. She is particularly interested in the study of
the structure and evolution of scientific disciplines; the analysis and visualization of online activity;
and the development of cyberinfrastructures for large scale scientific collaboration and
computation. 110
Equipment.data.ac.uk111 - Funded by EPSRC in response to the need to improve visibility and
utilisation of UK research equipment. Enables searching across all published UK research equipment
databases through one aggregation “portal”, allowing greater accessibility with the aim to improve
efficiency and stimulate greater collaboration in the sector. The technology behind this development
has been a partnership between a number of UK universities, primarily outcomes of the UNIQUIP
Project.
ViVo network112 - Network of scientists facilitating scholarly discovery. Institutions will participate in
the network by installing VIVO, or by providing semantic web-compliant data to the network.
LRMI113 - The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) is working to make it easier to publish,
discover, and deliver quality educational resources on the web.
Linked Data for Open and Distance Learning by Mathieu D’Aquin - Commonwealth of Learning114
BBC knowledge and learning115 - The BBC Knowledge and Learning product will bring together
factual and learning content from over 100 existing BBC websites.
LAK data challenge116 - The LAK dataset provides access to structured metadata from research
publications in the field of learning analytics
LUCERO project117 - Linking University Content for Education and Research Online
XCRI118 - The XCRI Knowledge Base was created in response to requests from educational
institutions to Jisc for a single source of information on XCRI - the information model and schema
recommended by the national Information Standards Board in January 2009 as the UK eProspectus
standard.
MLO119 - Metadata for Learning Opportunities - Advertising (MLO-AD), supported by CEN WS-LT
(CWA 15903:2008), is a European standardized model addressing metadata sufficient for advertising
a learning opportunity.
Ariadne120 - ARIADNE has created a standards-based technology infrastructure that allows the
publication and management of digital learning resources in an open and scalable way.
PAR framework121 - The Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework is a non-profit multiinstitutional data mining collaborative that brings together 2 year, 4 year, public, proprietary,
traditional, and progressive institutions to collaborate on identifying points of student loss and to find
effective practices that improve student retention in U.S. higher education.
Which? University122 - brings together information that exists about UK full-time and part-time
undergraduate courses, including the Guardian and Times league tables, official employment and
satisfaction statistics and UCAS course information.
Katy Boner, http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~katy/
Equipment.data.ac.uk, http://equipment.data.ac.uk/
112
Vivo network, http://vivoweb.org/
113
LRMI, http://www.lrmi.net/
114
Commonwealth of Learning, http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=420
115
BBC knowledge and learning, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/Knowledge-Learning-Product
116
LAK data challenge, http://lak.linkededucation.org, http://www.solaresearch.org/events/lak/lak-data-challenge/
117
LUCERO project, http://lucero-project.info/
118
XCRI, http://www.xcri.co.uk/
119
MLO, http://www.cen-ltso.net/main.aspx?put=1042
120
Ariadne, http://www.ariadne-eu.org/
121
PAR framework, http://wcet.wiche.edu/advance/par-framework
122
Which? University, http://university.which.co.uk/
111
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EDUCATION.DATA.GOV.UK123 - contains a snapshot of Edubase taken in 2009 and published as
linked data.
Pan-European open data portal124 - PublicData.eu is a Pan European data portal, providing access to
open, freely reusable datasets from local, regional and national public bodies across Europe.
The Global Partnership for Education Open Data Project125- provides instant access to key education
indicators and more than 11,000 data points from 29 GPE developing country partners. For each
country, the GPE Data catalog presents 57 indicators in 6 education categories encompassing key
elements of each country's education sector, including domestic and external financing, learning
outcomes and aid effectiveness indicators. Developing country partners played a central role in
gathering and validating the data, which reflects their specific national education strategies and
objectives.
EUCLID project126 - EUCLID is a European project facilitating professional training for data
practitioners, who aim to use Linked Data in their daily work. EUCLID delivers a curriculum
implemented as a combination of living learning materials and activities (eBook series, webinars,
facetoface training), validated by the user community through continuous feedback.
A Survey on Linked Data and the Social Web as facilitators for TEL recommender systems127
Dietze, S., Sanchez-Alonso, S., Ebner, H., Yu, H., Giordano, D., Marenzi, I., Pereira Nunes, B. (2013)
Interlinking educational Resources and the Web of Data – a Survey of Challenges and Approaches128
123
Education.data.uk, http://education.data.gov.uk/
Public data.eu, http://publicdata.eu/dataset?groups=education
125
Global Partnership for Education Open Data Project, http://www.globalpartnership.org/results/data
126
EUCLID, http://euclid-project.eu
127
Dietze, S., Drachsler, H., Giordano, D., A Survey on Linked Data and the Social Web as facilitators for TEL
recommender systems, in: Recommender Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning: Research Trends & Applications,
Eds: Manouselis, N., Verbert, K., Drachsler, H., Santos, O.C., to be published by Springer in 2013.
http://stefandietze.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/diedragio-recsystel-cameraready.pdf
128
Dietze, S., Sanchez-Alonso, S., Ebner, H., Yu, H., Giordano, D., Marenzi, I., Pereira Nunes, B. (2013) Interlinking
educational Resources and the Web of Data – a Survey of Challenges and Approaches, in Emerald Program: electronic
Library and Information Systems, Volume 47, Issue 1 (2013). http://stefandietze.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/dietze-etal-linkededucation-survey-final.pdf
124
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9. Open Policy
In line with the nature of the Open Education Book as a living document, this section will be populated as
part of the second release in M24.
Areas to be fleshed out in this section:
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129
What is open policy?
What policy is there relating to open education?
How does it relate to open education
What are the cultural changes that need to take place
The business case for open education
Cape Town open Education Declaration
UNESCO
Creative Commons OER policy
EC Opening Up Education129
National policies: Netherlands, India
Opening up Europe, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-859_en.htm
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10. Synergies
In line with the nature of the Open Education Book as a living document, this section will be populated as part
of the second release in M24.
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11. Conclusions
In line with the nature of the Open Education Book as a living document, this section will be populated as part
of the second release in M24.
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12. Glossary
In line with the nature of the Open Education Book as a living document, this section will be populated as part
of the second release in M24.
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13. Acknowledgements
Attendees at initial Open Education Handbook booksprint:
 Mathieu d'Aquin, Open University
 Leo Havermann, Birbeck College, University of London
 William Hammonds, Universities UK
 Simon Kear, Goldsmiths College, University of London
 Wolfgang Greller, Open University Netherlands
 Brian Kelly, Web Focus
 Ulrich Tiedau, UCL
 Kevin Mears, University of South Wales
 Madi Solomon, Pearson
 Chris Follows, UAL
 Tony Hall, Tonyhall.co
 Phil Barker, Cetis & Heriot-Watt University (phil.barker@hw.ac.uk)
 Suzanne Hardy, Newcastle University (suzanne.hardy@ncl.ac.uk)
 Pat Lockley, Lots of places (patrick.lockley@googlemail.com)
 Simon Mahony, University College London (s.mahony@ucl.ac.uk)
 Ulrich Tiedau, University College London (u.tiedau@ucl.ac.uk)
 Marieke Guy, Open Knowledge Foundation (marieke.guy@okfn.org)
 Michelle Brook, Open Knowledge Foundation
Other contributors:



Stefan Dietze, L3S Research Center,Leibniz Universität Hannover
Jade Forester, Global Coordinator + Liaison, Mozilla Foundation (jade@mozillafoundation.org)
Bekka Kahn, P2PU University
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14. Licence
The Open Education Handbook is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution (Unported) v3.0 licence
(Attribution CC BY).130
This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as
they credit you for the original creation.
130
Creative Commons Attribution (Unported) v3.0 licence, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
30.10.2013© Copyright lies with the respective authors and their institutions.