OER guidance for contributors
This Guidance for contributors is intended to supply best practice information and advice for authors
preparing resources for sharing as OER. In some cases you may find that you need to take advice
from the RHED team at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (RHED@rgs.org), your institution,
the Jorum repository team, or other third-party contributors in order to present your resource in the best
possible way.
Copyright and IPR
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) provide legal protection for things created by the human mind. IPR
issues generally arise around the use, creation, repurposing, alteration, transaction and dissemination
of different types of content. Teaching and study resources created entirely as e-content may be
sensitive to IPR challenges if the IPR of others is included without proper permission, attribution or
other conditions.
The copyright owner of a work is usually the author, i.e. the person who actually records the expression
of the idea, unless other agreements apply (this will usually be recorded somewhere in the original
resource). The author has the right to control their work and the right to be identified as the author of a
work.
If your resource was created in the course of your job then it is likely that your employer owns the
copyright, rather than you (the default position). Your contract of employment, terms of service or other
related documentation should give details on the ownership of IPR in materials created as an
employee, and contracts do differ from institution to institution. In many cases, employers are happy to
share resources as OERs as long as they are attributed as owners/creators of the resource in covering
pages and/or metadata.
It is important to work through these IPR issues as soon as you can, because you cannot apply a
licence to something you do not own or do not have permission to release. This process can take
substantial effort when trying to convert existing resources for OER release.
The resource portal team will work hard to ensure that contributors only include content in their
resource that:
 They have created themselves (it is their intellectual property) and/or
 They have permission from or are licensed by the rights holder to use and share as part of the
OER.
Protecting your intellectual property when you share as an OER
Intellectual property owners can protect their creations by sharing under the terms of a licence, which
outlines the ways in which users may use, modify or share the resource with others. See the section on
Licensing below.
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].
Sharing content that belongs to someone else as part of your OER
If you have content in your resource that may be the IPR of a third-party, you must either gain personal
permission for use or have a licence to use the content.
Authors whose resources contain third-party content must work through this Rights Management
Workflow (created from the C-Change in GEES project) to identify potential challenges before
proceeding: http://labyrinth.sgul.ac.uk/openlabyrinth/mnode.asp?id=qwnw2gcf4jesnqajxhq1rx7jzqajxhq
Some types of content may no longer be in copyright or have an IPR holder you can contact for further
information. For example, unless otherwise specified in a resource, the following limitations may apply:
Type of work
Example
Duration of copyright
Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic
works
Journal articles, books, letters, lecture
slides/handouts, pictures,
photographs, images, graphs, tables.
70 years after death of author.
Sound recordings
Songs, speeches, performances,
pieces of music, any recorded sounds.
50 years from the end of the year in
which the recording was made.
Films
70 years after the end of the year in
which the last of the principal director,
author of screenplay, author of
dialogue or composer of music dies.
Broadcasts
TV programmes, podcasts, online
seminars as aired.
50 years from the end of the year in
which the broadcast was made.
Typographic arrangements
The typeset/ appearance of
something, i.e. layout, format,
stylisation etc.
25 years from the end of the year in
which the arrangement was first
published.
Requesting permission to use a resource
If the resource is still in copyright or ownership, you will need to request permission to use the resource
in your OER. It is best to request this permission in writing.
If you do not receive permission, or do not receive a reply, you have three options:
 Remove the material completely – consider this when the loss of the resource will not detract from
the overall impact or pedagogy of the OER
 Remove the material, but re-direct – provide a link or reference information so that user can find the
original or an alternative
 Remove the material but replace – with an alternative that you have created, or which you have
permission to use (see below).
Replacing protected content with permitted or licensed content
In some cases, it may be simpler to replace content for which copyright or permission is unknown with
content that is permitted or licensed for use. Many authors/creators provide material under the terms of
a Creative Commons licence, meaning that they are happy to make it available for use so long as
certain criteria are met. The licence terms vary, so take care when selecting material and be sure to
credit it appropriately.
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].
Search for video, images and audio:
http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/
http://search.creativecommons.org/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
JISC also suggests some other search options for different types of resources and different types of
licences: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/crossmedia/advice/finding-video-audio-and-imagesonline/#creative-commons
Referencing/crediting permitted resources
All quoted text, images, scanned resources/ documents and any other materials provided as part of the
resource must be referenced with the source/attribution. It is especially important to include this
information when you have been given permission to use it under the terms of a licence that requires
attribution, and you should include the terms of the licence under which it is used somewhere near the
included material.
Licensing
Licences are the tools to facilitate permissions to use and sometimes even access, modify or further
share content, and the permissions are normally granted by the rights holder (or a third party
represented to act on behalf of the rights holder). In the field of Open Educational resources, the most
common licences are ‘Open content licences’, of which ‘Creative Commons licences’ are one type.
Creative Commons licences give the rights holder the ability to pre-grant users’ permissions to use their
content with a range of terms that place a minimum of restrictions around reuse, modification and
sharing upon the user.
Creative Commons licences are normally attached to the digital content (e.g. on a covering page) and
authorise anyone who copies the work to use it in accordance with the terms of the licence.
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK (CC BY-NC-SA).
Under the terms of this licence, summarised in simple form, users of your OER are…
Free:
 to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
 to Remix — to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
 Attribution — They must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor
(but not in any way that suggests that they endorse them or their use of the work).
 Noncommercial — They may not use this work for commercial purposes.
With the understanding that:
 Waiver — Any of the above conditions can be waived if they get permission from the copyright
holder.
 Public Domain — Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under
applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].
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Other Rights— In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:
o Their fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions and
limitations;
o The author's moral rights;
o Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such
as publicity or privacy rights.
Notice — For any reuse or distribution, they must make clear to others the license terms of this
work.
The full legal code of the licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode
Releasing OERs under an alternative licence
The portal team recognise that it may occasionally be necessary for OER to be released under an
alternative licence with slightly different conditions. Use www.creativecommons.org/choose to select
the most appropriate licence.
Institutional logos
If you are asked to include an institutional logo in your resource, e.g. because of project funding or
university ownership of some or all of the resource, you will need to apply different licence criteria to the
logos. You may also choose not include any logos with your materials, in which case there will be no
need to also include the license text either. You could, for example, just include a simple sentence of
thanks to the funders or supporters within the credits section of the back page.
The following text is an example of what would be included in a resource where the HEA logo was
included:
The HEA logo is owned by the Higher Education Academy Limited and may be freely distributed and copied for
educational purposes only, provided that appropriate acknowledgement is given to the Higher Education Academy as
the copyright holder and original publisher.
The following text is an example of what might be included in a resource where a university logo is used
(this text should be checked with your university before use):
The name of the University of <name> and its logos are registered and/or unregistered trade marks of the University.
The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources.
Resource structure and format
Contributors are asked to follow a basic resource structure and provide their resources in a few
common formats to ensure that the resources are consistent when uploaded to the portal. Using a
common structure will help improve accessibility and ease of use by users.
A completed OER package
A good OER teaching resource is complete when it has the following parts:
 Completed cover page, including licence information
 The resource
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].
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
[If applicable] Teaching instructions or notes for tutor; Notes/activity for students and any
supporting resources (e.g. presentations, images, video/audio…)
Completed metadata
For more information about filling out the cover page and the metadata back page, refer to the section
on Metadata.
Teaching instructions and/or notes/activity for students
It is suggested that the teaching resource be structured using the following headings:
 Introduction for teachers/tutors: to include brief notes on the themes, aims and objectives
(learning outcomes), expected time to complete, whether it is for individuals or small groups, and a
brief summary of any archival or other learning materials (e.g. physical objects, places, websites)
included or to be consulted as part of the teaching activity.
 Reference list: Supporting list of references, ideally in Harvard format. Consider organising
thematically if a long list.
 Activity: Outline of teaching activity, including any hand outs for students. The hand-outs should
be formatted ready for printing (i.e. only the information for students should be seen; accompanying
resources such as images or quoted text should be referenced and formatted for printing).
Alternative structures should be acceptable as long as the aims and activities are clearly outlined for
users.
Technical formats
It should be possible to edit an OER that is licensed for sharing. Some parts of the resource may be
provided in a non-editable format if they are copyright and not licensed for adaptation (which should be
clearly indicated in the OER). Resources should be provided in the following formats wherever
possible:
 Text, diagrams or images that may be edited, such as teaching notes, presentations and
hand-outs: if possible, use an Open Document format (ODP). Rich Text Format (RTF) is useful for
simple documents and MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint (compatible with MS Office 2003 or better) is
also acceptable. Try to minimise the use of special formatting, layouts and slide animations – files
created in MS Word and PowerPoint (.DOC and .PPT) that are opened in other programs may not
look or behave the same – but do use styles for headings and sub-headings to improve navigability
and accessibility.
 Images (including photographs, diagrams and scanned files): use JPEG, PNG or similar format
when providing images that need to be of a high resolution/quality for teaching purposes. If an
image should not be edited by the user consider saving it as a PDF. Saving as PDF can also help
to compress the file size of large images e.g. scanned versions of original documents.
 Text or images that should not be edited, or require the user to have special software to
open: use PDF format where possible, or embed an image/output into MS Word or MS PowerPoint.
 Video and audio: use WMV, MPEG-4 or MOV (Quicktime) format for videos, and MP3, WAV or
OGG Vorbis for audio. Try to find a balance between quality and file size to offer a good classroom
experience without lengthy download times or difficulty playing the file over a network/internet
connection. The portal team can provide assistance with downscaling large audio and video files to
web-ready quality and suitable file sizes. Also see the section on Metadata in multimedia files.
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].


Web links: provide web links as text in the format http://www.google.com. It is often helpful to
include a one-sentence description of the website and the date last accessed. If you have a long
list of web links consider providing them as an html page with ready-to-click links – the portal team
can help to do this or provide instructions.
Data: data should be tabulated in a Comma Separated Values (.CSV) file, which is importable into
almost any application. MS Excel is acceptable if the data needs to be formatted or highlighted in
some way for the user, or if it is part of a specific teaching activity. Other data formats, e.g. those
used in specialist software, should be provided in zipped files (.ZIP format) and be accompanied by
a Text (.TXT) file with instructions for use, including the name of the software used to create it.
Metadata
Metadata is basically data about data. It is “tags” of information about a resource that makes it possible
to locate, categorise, search and retrieve the resource later. Metadata is especially important for
sharing electronic resources because it delivers important, concise information about your resource that
will make it easier to find through search engines. All authors need to complete their metadata in full
before the resource is considered complete.
All OERs included in the resource portal should have a cover page that contains basic information and
a metadata back page that contains more detailed information about the resource. It is important to
include the metadata within the resource itself so that when it has been downloaded and shared it is still
possible to trace the creator, licence and other information. Once this is complete, the project team will
use the information to create a searchable online record for the resource.
The metadata collected for resources follows Jorum’s requirements, with additional metadata fields
collected to enable the portal to be more responsive to the needs of the GEES community.
The metadata cover page and back page should be added to each resource you produce. If your
resource is not in a MS Office format, e.g. video, please complete a MS Word version of the cover page
and back page templates and save it into a zip file with the resource.
Metadata for multimedia
Any resource that is released only in a multimedia format (e.g. video, audio, images) should be
accompanied by a completed cover page and metadata back page describing the multimedia resource,
which is then saved with the resource into a zip file so that the files remain together when downloaded.
In the case of video and audio, authors are also asked to add a splash screen to their videos and/or a
short verbal introduction to their audio tracks that states the title, author and licence of the resource,
plus any additional information required by owners/funders.
Cover page
Authors are asked to provide the following information in their cover page:
 Title of work
 Short description of the item (1-2 sentences at most)
 Author(s)
 Institution/department (if applicable)
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].
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Other owner, if not either the author or institution
The licence for resource (short title and visual icon; full licence details are on the back page)
Metadata back page
Authors are asked to provide the following information in their metadata back page:
 Full description of the item, including:
o A concise, objective and keyword-intensive description providing the user with a good
understanding of what the resource contains
o The format or type of resource, e.g. presentation, tutorial activity, reading list…
(selected from list)
o Comments on any educationally significant content
o Course and/or module reference (if relevant)
 Credits & licences:
o The licence used, including the visual icon for the licence and a link to the full details on
the Creative Commons website.
o Details of any licences used for other 3rd Party materials within the item which cannot
be released under the main CC license. Any 3rd party item with a different licence
should also be clearly marked as such within the resource, adjacent to the item.
o Any other acknowledgements or attributions necessary.
o Acknowledgement to any funders or supporters along with all necessary logos. Logos
may require their own licence information.
 Keywords for resource:
o Primary Keywords to identify the resource within Jorum: GEESOER, RGS-IBG
o Disciplinary Keywords, for example: Geography, Earth Science, Environmental
Science, Geology, Oceanography, Climate Change
o Subject Keywords – up to 15 keywords of your choosing with reference to the
subject/topic of the resource
o Descriptive Keywords – Resource type, Level, or Module Ref. etc.
o Geographical location – if applicable, a geographical location for the resource topic to
as close a scale as possible.
o Time period – if applicable, a time period for the resource topic
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Language: Usually ‘English’ but if any other languages are supported by the resource it should
be noted
Accessibility
It is necessary to ensure that your OERs meet with the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA),
by making ‘reasonable adjustments’ so that the materials are accessible by those with disabilities.
Following basic standards for accessibility helps to make your resources look more professional as well
as being more widely usable.
The adjustments you make to your OERs may include:
 Using appropriate font and diagram sizes and colours
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].
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

Formatting Word documents using styles to differentiate between headings and content, which
makes them more navigable
Making slide presentations easily navigable, including full notes, or providing slides in alternative
formats (e.g. export to Word or PDF)
Creating accessible PDFs which include bookmarks for navigation and appropriate font
colours/sizes.
You can find comprehensive advice on making documents accessible in each of these ways from JISC
TechDis:
http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/keyinitiatives/organisationaleffectiveness/enablingtechnology/acces
sibility_essentials
RHED (RHED@rgs.org) can also provide advice and assistance for making reasonable adjustments to
your resources.
Updates to resources
Once submitted, your teaching resource remains a ‘living’ resource. This means that you should
occasionally review your resource to ensure it is up to date with the latest teaching methods, theoretical
debates and sources.
This resource was created by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and released as an open educational resource,
with the support and funding of the Higher Education Academy.
This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 UK:
England & Wales. By previewing, viewing, or downloading this resource, you agree to follow the
terms of the license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/].