Policy for Open Educational Resource, University of Jyväskylä

Introduction

Open Education supports the multimodality and accessibility of learning and teaching. This involves both Open Educational Resources and Open Educational Practices. The University of Jyväskylä has signed the national Declaration for Open Science and Research as well as the related policy for open education and open educational resources. The national policy complies with the UNESCO recommendation.

Open Educational Resources support the development of learners’ expertise and continuous learning. With the help of such resources, it is easy not only to stay up to date in one’s field but also to get familiar with other disciplines. Open Educational Resources are versatile, accessible and often easy to modify, which supports learning in various ways. Learners can themselves produce educational resources and demonstrate their expertise by networking already during their studies.

When they so wish, authors can make their educational resources open and demonstrate their skills in this domain as both producers and as peer reviewers. This enhances networking and cooperation possibilities. Open Educational Resources are also often applicable to societal interaction. The Open Educational Resources by others help us enhance our own teaching work and get new perspectives on the learning themes and pedagogical practices.

Open Educational Resources support the University’s strategic goals for education and research, such as continuous learning, high-quality teaching as well as our characteristic working culture. By opening the educational resources, we support our students’ equal and equitable opportunities for learning and developing their own competences, enhance the appeal of the University’s educational provision, and strengthen appreciation for teaching as well as the continuous development of its quality.

The JYULearn concept also supports the opening of educational resources. The idea in JYULearn is to promote multilocal learning as well as to involve the university community in the development of appropriate both digitally and pedagogically relevant educational practices.

In the same vein, the principle of Open Educational Resources is in line with the goals of the ongoing Digivision 2030 project. In the future educational ecosystem, central roles are reserved for well-functioning digital services, lifelong and flexible learning across institutional borders, and open course provision.

The University of Jyväskylä

1. Recommends for the JYU researchers, teachers, other staff, and students to open educational resources and also supports by its strategic measures teaching and learning practices that aim at open access.
2. Requires compliance with accessibility requirements for Open Educational Resources and various open digital contents.
3. Creates conditions so that the author of teaching content and educational resources (a person producing the materials) has sufficient knowledge of, for example, copyrights and data protection. The author is responsible for ensuring that they follow the University’s instructions for copyright and data protection issues (instructions available in the University’s intranet), and that they have the necessary rights to open the material.
4. Requires the acknowledgement of everybody who, in terms of copyright, has significantly contributed to the production of educational resources; this includes students as well. Copyrights belong to the authors, unless otherwise agreed. As regards co-authoring, it is recommendable to agree on it beforehand. The University provides agreement templates for these purposes.
5. Recommends that Open Educational Resources be licensed with Creative Commons licences.
6. Recommends an ORCID identification for the author for Open Educational Resources.
7. Recommends that the metadata of Open Educational Resources be saved either in the national Library of Open Educational Resources (aoe) or the JYU publication archive JYX, regardless of where the actual material is saved. If the entire educational resources cannot be saved in aoe or JYX, the metadata is added with a link to the material.
8. Recommends the use of the best applicable platforms for different forms of Open Educational Resources in terms of visibility, findability, and usability. A recommended option is the national aoe.
9. Encourages the use of the existing high-quality Open Educational Resources in teaching and as course material.
10. Promotes the acknowledgement of the production and opening of high-quality educational resources as part of meriting.
11. Encourages the producers of educational resources to act as mentors and peer reviewers to each other.
12. Supports the use of open learning environments and the production and use of accessible, high-quality Open Educational Resources on the platforms available at JYU.

The policy for Open Educational Resources also has related instructions, including instructions on applying the resources for the producers of educational resources.

Terminology

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources are learning and teaching materials and educational information that have been made openly available. They come in various forms, for example as texts, audiovisual materials or games. They have been provided for open use based on an agreement between the author and the University (e.g. MOOC courses), or they have been licensed with an open licence such as Creative Commons, for instance. Sometimes educational material is not protected by copyright, or the protection period has expired, and anybody can freely use the material (public domain).

Open Educational Resources can be accessed free of charge and applied in new contexts. They can also be modified and shared in accordance with the licensing terms.

Open Educational Practices

Open Educational Practices make learning shareable and enable its further development. Such practices include, for example, opening the educational provision to the general public, peer learning, and opening the educational materials.

Open Education

Open Education provides access to learning for the general public and lowers the barriers to learning. It diversifies possibilities for learning and teaching as well as knowledge production, joint development and sharing. It often employs digital technologies and combines various means of formal and informal learning.

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)

MOOC courses are open and free-of-charge online courses.

Peer review

In this policy, peer review of Open Educational Resources refers both to commenting on educational resources in aoe and to collegial mentoring in daily life when planning courses and other training.