AN OPEN DISCUSSION
[Librarian at a podium in front of the Administrator, the Instructor, and the Student].
Librarian: Thank you all for coming here tonight for this talk on Open Access and Open Educational Resources.
Admin [raising hand]: Let's cut to the chase. So what is the difference between Open Access and Open Educational Resources? They sound like the same kind of thing to me.
Librarian: Good question. They do have a lot to do with one another as we shall see. Let’s define them first.
Instructor [aside to the student]: Here we go again. Prepare yourself, it might have something to do with cake.
[Student casts quizzical side eye at Instructor]
Librarian: Open Access materials are resources available on line, which are free to use, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. One of the founding groups to coin the term “Open Access” - the Budapest Open Access Initiative - drafted this declaration:
[Librarian clears throat]
By “open access” to this [research] literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution and the only role for copyright in this domain should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.
"BUDAPEST OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVE" by Budapest Open Access Initiative is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Student [raising hand]: So how do they differ from Open Educational Resources?
Librarian: In a very crucial way. Open Access materials can’t be changed. You see, in order to be a true OER the work must meet those OA criteria AND also adhere to the 5 R’s.
Instructor [gently smacks hand to head]: So that’s where the 5 went!
[Admin and Student give the Instructor the side eye]
Librarian: The five R’s are Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute.
Instructor: Like in that video you showed me.
Student: You got to see a video? I want to see a video.
Admin: Yes, yes. I think we had both best go and watch this "video" as well, we’ll be back. You two, take five.
[Admin and Student walk back to the “BY NC SA ND” tab.]
[Audience may also download and watch or re-watch the five minute video, which is attributed and linked here: "Brief Introduction to Creative Commons Licenses and OERs" by Philip Jensen, Tarrant County College is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ]
Librarian [To Instructor]: While they’re doing that let me put up the most relevant slide for this discussion:
[After the Admin and the Student return to the current tab]
Librarian: Okay, now we all know that OERs are licensed in accordance with how they adhere to the 5 Rs. For example, CC BY allows for all the R’s, where as CC BY-ND does not allow you to Revise or Remix. In fact, any CC license including a ND (NoDerivatives) clause is still an Open Access work, but it is not truly open therefore NOT an OER.
Admin: You’re saying that all OERs are Open Access, but not all Open Access works are OERs.
Librarian: Exactly.
Student [Rubbing temples]: That kinda makes my head hurt.
Instructor: What is the advantage of using Open Access materials, I mean why are they important to faculty and students?
Librarian: When talking about Open Access, as opposed to the traditional Closed Access model, the conversation often revolves around research and publishing. Say you or your students are researching a topic. And while looking for articles on the internet you keep finding promising resources, but they always seem to be behind a paywall.
Instructor: Can’t we just access our library’s proprietary databases instead?
Admin [Nodding head knowingly]: You could, but those proprietary databases are also being paid for by the college thanks to student tuition among other things.
Student: So our access to knowledge really is dependent on how much money we have. That can't be right. Sounds awful.
Librarian: And wasteful in so many ways. Here let’s turn down the lights and watch this video about open access… and closed access… from a science publishing point of view. It’s about 8 ½ minutes but I think it is worth it.
“Open Access Explained!” Attributions: Animation by Jorge Cham Narration by Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen Transcription by Noel Dilworth Produced in partnership with the Right to Research Coalition, the Scholarly Publishing and Resources Coalition and the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students. CC BY 3.0.
Admin: Lights!
Instructor: [Squinting in the bright lights.] So how would one go about openly publishing their work then?
Librarian: Good question. There are a couple of different ways to do it. Two of the most popular being Green OA and Gold OA. The most basic is Green OA, where you can make your work available for free in your institute's archives, repository, or on your own website. It's also known as "self archiving". It's free and immediately available. And you keep your copyright.
Student: Wait a minute, how would you, as the creator, loose your copyright?
Librarian: In the closed publishing model, the author often has to transfer their copyright to the journal before they will publish it. Then the journal can limit control and access to the article, make money off of library subscriptions, etc.. like we saw in the video.
Student: How is the Gold OA different.
Librarian: Well in Gold OA you can choose to publish through an Open Access journal under an open license. In this case the OA journal may charge an Article Processing fee sometimes $0 sometimes more - they need to eat as well you know. But by choosing to do so you are publishing your article with free public access and, as in the Green OA, you retain your copyright, so you can make the article immediately available to everyone.
Instructor: I could see where that publishing model would be helpful in all sorts of disciplines, not just the sciences.
Librarian: Exactly. Top it all off with a CC license that allows for text and data mining for easier discovery of like works, and the advantages of Open Access start to become very clear. Hopefully the researcher uses the CC BY to easily allow mining. Some mining is considered an adaptation, in which case that pesky ND could be a deterrent.
Student: Ah, I think I get it. So now with a non ND CC license this Open Access work is also an OER?
Librarian: Right. And OERs are really useful in keeping knowledge free.
Admin: Don’t recall if you’ve already said this, but apart from the OA publishing model, why in general are OERs so important to faculty and students?
Student: [Raising hand] I know this one too. It’s to keep textbook costs to a minimum or even to replace expensive textbooks completely. [Aside to the Instructor] Sometimes the books you have us buy are even more expensive than the class itself.
Librarian: And an advantage to the Instructor is that you can use OERs or even make OERs to design your own materials to fit your specific student learning outcomes. You can literally model the textbook after the class instead of modeling the class after the textbook.
Instructor: That sounds great, but like a lot of work and time.
Librarian: It can be. However, you’ve got a whole community of CC and OER users out there who can help. You could also look into getting a grant for your proposed work. There are government grants that can help, such as the OER Grant Program here in Texas.
[Instructor and Admin exchange glances]
Librarian: And locally, the Library will be here to help you in anyway we can. Additionally, you could even enlist the help of students in the design of your OERs. By being OER creators students not only learn more 21st century tech tools, they also become more engaged with the subject and may perhaps bring different points of view and a greater diversity to the work than are usually seen.
[Student sits up straighter in their chair]
Librarian: Instead of some disposable homework assignment, have them create materials that other students, present or in the future, in your classroom and beyond, can benefit from. There are all kinds of repositories out there in which to share OERs. They could even just start by creating a LibGuide on something like, like…
Admin: Learning about Creative Commons [smiles].
Librarian: Well, I sure hope that this OER was and will continue to be of help to Tarrant County College and maybe even out to the Creative Commons and the Open Educational Resources community at large.
Instructor: If we have any more questions, can we come to ask you?
Librarian: Of course, feel free to reach out to the Library. We will always be happy to help. Thank you all for your time this evening.
[Admin, Instructor, and Student exit stage left].
Librarian: [turns to audience] And in closing - an adaptation from Shakespeare's "The Tempest":
Now restrictive copyrights are all o'erthrown,
And what rights I have's mine own,
Which is most open: now, 'tis true,
I must be here to share with you,
Or sent to closed publishers. Let me not,
Since I have my Commons got
And pardon'd the adapter, dwell
In this bare LibGuide by your spell;
But release me from my bands
And close the tabs with your good hands.
- Adapted from The Tempest (Shakespeare 5.1.357-365) (1611)[1]
[1] Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Project Gutenberg. Oct 26, 2007, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23042.
FINIS
"An Open Discussion" by Phil Jensen, Tarrant County College is licensed under CC BY 4.0
