ILS - Digital Literacy Series – No. 3
Creating Safe and Effective Online
Learning Resources
You have decided to create an online learning resource. If you are creating a learning
resource either your own students or the public you are going to need to provide people
with methods for self-reflection at the very least. Where do you start?
The best place to start is with a series of questions, some of which you will be able to
answer immediately and others you will only be able to answer following some activity
on your part. Please do not throw up your hands in horror at the list of questions below
– they are there to help you get started in the correct way, right from the beginning. If
these questions are tackled at the beginning it will save you a lot of time and worry later
on.
This is where you probably say, “I really don’t think I can be bothered”. Do not be
disheartened the Learning and Teaching Technology Unit, the Academic Librarians, the
Digital Literacy Adviser and all the rest of ILS are there to support you. We want to help
you produce the best learning materials you can.
To guide you through the process we have this document and, if necessary, the OER
strategy guide; a flow diagram, which you can use to help keep you on track. Please
use these and other documents/online resources you are directed to in order to
complete everything you need to do.
The first questions you need to ask yourself and your team are listed below. Advice to
help you make your decisions follows on after the questions.
Questions
The first questions are:
1. Have you identified the group of people you will need in order to complete all this
work
2. Is this going to be an Open Educational Resource (OER)
3. Is this going to be a resource your students will use prior to an activity in class
4. Is this going to be a resource your students will use to complete an activity
started in class
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5. Have you read any professional or HE policies that might influence your work
6. Have you identified the policies, consent forms and guidelines you will need to
produce prior to starting work on the project
7. Have you decided which Creative Commons licence your work will be published
under
8. Are you going to use only material created by yourself
9. Are you using material created by others e.g.
a. Diagrams
b. Maps
c. Pictures/photographs
d. Quotes
e. Chapters or parts of books
f. Online resources
g. Audio recordings
h. TV recordings
i. Your own pictures/recordings/photographs of things other people have
created
10. Have you obtained permission to use all these “other”, third party, materials
Advice
1. You will need help
a. in the production of your material – you need someone from LTTU
b. in identifying policies, guidelines and consent forms – you need advice
from the Digital Literacy Adviser
c. in tracking down information and obtaining copyright permissions to use
what you want – you need help from the Academic Liaison Team
d. in tracking down digital resources, OER and understanding copyright
permissions to use what you want – you need help from the Digital
Literacy Adviser
2. You need to know what type of learning material you want to produce
a. Read the information on the definitions of OER which can be found at
JISC Open Educational Resources Infokit.
https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/24836860/What%
20are%20Open%20Educational%20Resources
b. If this is an activity for current students you will need to read your
Department/Institution policy on Contact time and Lecturer Directed Study.
3. You need to ensure that the material you produce does not contravene any
professional or HE body’s policies
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a. – contact your professional body and ask them to send you any
information relating to Distance Learning and/or Online Learning and/or
eLearning.
b. – contact the Academic Quality Unit and ask them to send you any
information relating to Distance Learning and/or Online Learning and/or
eLearning
c. – contact the Academic Development and Practice Unit and ask them to
send you any information relating to Distance Learning and/or Online
Learning and/or eLearning
4. It is best if you have a Creative Commons Licence attached to your materials
even if you intend to only run it within Blackboard. That way, if other people do
want to use your work, they will know under what circumstances they may do so
a. Contact the Adviser in Digital Literacy for help and read the information
provided by:
i. OER IPR http://www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/index.html
ii. Up to the minute IPR news
http://www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/blog/
iii. Creative Commons Organisation http://creativecommons.org
5. If you are only going to use material completely created by yourself you will not
need to obtain any form of copyright permission. However, it is highly unlikely
that you will end up not using anything created by someone else.
6. If you are using any sort of material created by others (see the list above) you will
need to obtain copyright permission
a. Contact the Adviser in Digital Literacy
b. Contact the Academic Liaison Librarian specialising in Copyright
c. This site might be useful to you as a first step http://www.copyright.com/
You should now read No.5 in the Digital Literacy Series; OER Framework – Supporting
Text and Flow Chart.
For further help or information please contact Tim Johnson Adviser in Digital Literacy
k.johnson@worc.ac.uk
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