Chapter 6: The Open Educational Resources Capability Toolkit: Reflections on Creation and Development

Chapter 6

The Open Educational Resources Capability Toolkit: Reflections on Creation and Development

Frank Ponte, Deakin University

Jennifer Hurley, RMIT University

Abstract

There is a fast-growing global impetus to enhance traditional educational methods with open educational practices (OEP). In Australia adoption of OEP in the higher education sector is constrained by educators’ lack of knowledge and skills needed to engage with this emerging way of teaching and learning. To progress the integration of OEP at RMIT University, Library staff produced the OER Capability Toolkit as a professional development resource for teaching and professional staff. This tool has enabled the development and sharing of knowledge and skills required to find, evaluate and use open educational resources in teaching, thereby supporting teachers at RMIT and other institutions to engage in OEP.

Keywords: open education, open educational resources, professional development

Introduction

There is fast-growing global impetus to integrate open educational practices (OEP) with traditional teaching methods in higher education institutions, as evidenced by international collaborations such as the Open Educational Quality Initiative (Cronin, 2017; Open Educational Quality Initiative 2011). While there are active proponents of open education in pockets of the Australian education sector, OEP are yet to become entrenched as a core component of the industry (Stagg et al., 2018) and levels of awareness of open educational resources (OER) and open education are generally low (Rolfe, 2017).  Educators’ decisions about whether to engage with OEP are informed by their personal understandings of what OEP encompass (Cronin, 2017). To engage in OEP, educators need awareness of the potential for this new pedagogical approach to transform teaching and learning experiences (Baas et al, 2019). The wider establishment of open education is reliant on educators being supported by their institutions to adopt new practices (Open Educational Quality Initiative, 2011; Bossu & Stagg, 2018). Other key factors that influence educators’ engagement with OEP include personal knowledge of the availability and use options of OER, skills in finding, evaluating and integrating OER in course content, and peer adoption of open practices (Baas et al, 2019). Understanding the factors that promote the use of OER amongst educators is important because without the commitment of these key players in the industry to adopt open practices, barriers to students in accessing educational resources will persist. This is especially problematic for students with low socio-economic status and from minority groups such as migrants and Indigenous Australians. To address this need for awareness, knowledge and skills amongst educators, staff of the RMIT University Library developed the OER Capability Toolkit (The Toolkit), to support RMIT teaching staff to develop their capacity to find, evaluate and use OER in their course content. To encourage other institutions to customise the The Toolkit for their local needs, it was published with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial (CCBYNC) licence. The impact of this initiative has gone beyond its immediate purpose. As evidenced by the 1090 online visitors to The Toolkit in the three months since its publication in July 2022, it has reached a broad audience. Moreover, it has raised the capacity of the authors, both in their knowledge of OER and open education more broadly, and in their skills in publishing open books.

Background

Open Educational Resources (OER) are digital and print materials for teaching, learning and research available in multiple formats. They reside in the public domain or have been released with an open licence permitting zero-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. (National Copyright Unit, 2022). Creative Commons licences (CC) are the most commonly applied open licences. The licence permissions are the characteristics which allow educators to share and adapt content to suit their specific pedagogical circumstances and needs of their students. The COVID pandemic forced widespread changes across the education sector, through the shift from face to face teaching to reactive online teaching. This shift was a catalyst for a spotlight on digital resources, including OER. However, the limited understanding of many educators about the intricacies associated with OER and creative commons licensing meant that resistance to their use continued.  A common confusion was in relation to the distinction between the terms  “open” and “free,” with the assumption prevailing that all cost-free resources were OER. (Seaman & Seaman, 2021).  To fully benefit from the potential uses of OER, educators need to understand how they can be used without breaching copyright.  This means being able to identify resources that can be accessed online without payment but which are still protected by ‘all rights reserved’ copyright, and resources that are badged with CC licenses and can be used according to the particular CC license without first seeking permission from the copyright owner.   Baas et al, (2019) identify three key factors that hinder educator OER adoption and propose that addressing these areas will foster greater adoption rates. These factors are: awareness, availability and capacity; OER adoption; and, the need for support, as set out in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Factors hindering educators’ OER adoption*

*Table 1 is adapted from: “Teachers’ Adoption of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education” by M. Baas, W. Admiraal, & E. van den Berg, 2019, Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1-11.

In early 2021, staff from the RMIT University Library Teaching and Research Team deliberated on how to address the lack of educator OER engagement, by focusing on capacity building, enhancing OER adoption, and support for teaching staff. Through a series of in-house discussions and review of the current literature, we decided on an OER capability toolkit for staff, as a capability-building initiative with the aim of increasing OER adoption amongst staff.  As a comprehensive resource, the toolkit needed to address the foundational aspects of OER, Creative Commons licencing and open pedagogy, and be customized to the Australasian context.  While there were several OER publications that covered this content, they all had a North American focus. The solution was to adapt one of these resources with customization to local Australasian audience with nuances in local language, and local case examples and media content. We anticipated that the toolkit would foster educators’ interest, as new and bespoke local works create deeper engagement due to currency, affinity, and familiarity (Cozart et al, 2021). The first iteration of the Toolkit was completed in September 2021 and externally peer reviewed in February 2022. The published Toolkit has been accompanied by a series of online modules available to RMIT staff through the Human Resources learning platform for staff. The OER Toolkit was published on 12 July 2022, on the RMIT Open Press platform.

Process

As a first step, a capabilities framework was developed to provide scope and direction for staff involved with the adaptation and creation of this work.  This framework provided a clear structure aligned with RMIT University Library’s draft Open Educational Practices Framework to ensure that minimum standards of competence for teaching and professional staff were addressed.  We adapted the Open Educational Resources Competency Framework OER, a creative commons resource by the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF). Our framework defined the field of competence for each chapter with the associated outcomes to be achieved upon completion of each chapter. Table 2 below details the fields of competence for each chapter. Each chapter contained further subheadings with defining attributes and outcomes.

Table 2. The Toolkit structure: fields of competence for each chapter**

**Another key resource, part of which were adapted for The Toolkit, was Abbey Elder’s The OER Starter Kit.

Structuring the team

As this was the Library’s first foray into adapting and creating a new open text, there was no benchmark on how this could be achieved. The Library did not yet have an authoring platform like Pressbooks with built in structures and processes, and compounding this conundrum was that we were all situated at home due to pandemic lockdowns, with no ability to meet in person. Having seen successes at other Australian university libraries in relation to publishing open textbooks, Frank Ponte was motivated to initiate a staff development project at RMIT.  As Manager, Library Services (Teaching), Frank set about creating a clear structure and a series of meetings and check-ins within our online team environment (Microsoft Teams) and treated what we were about to embark on as a project with a clear start and end points, and tangible outcomes.  Staff were selected based on their knowledge of OER, although none had been involved in an OER creation or adaptation previously.

Meetings and engagement 

Fourteen online meetings were arranged in 2021 for OER Capability Toolkit team. Meetings were monthly to begin with, shortening to three, then two weeks towards the delivery stage. A file structure in Teams was created emulating the fields of competence associated with the fields of competence framework. In addition, file storage locations for cover design, attribution statements, contributors, preface and glossary were created.  The file structure within Teams served as an obvious way to allocate chapter creations. Staff were coupled and expected to present chapter development and ask questions at each meeting. Engagement with other staff occurred via the Teams channel and the online meetings served to clarify activities and as an opportunity for authors to seek guidance and report on their progress.

 Outcomes

The process we undertook raised interesting questions about the creation and adaptation of an open textbook. The following section explores the key issues and reflects on the learnings that emerged from our project.

The library’s role in open textbook publishing

The question of the Library’s role in open textbook publishing came up regularly in our team meetings throughout this process. It was an issue that required careful consideration and a thoughtful and sustainable approach.  The literature told us that commercial textbook costs were high, and students did not often purchase prescribed resources set by academic staff (The National Union of Students, 2019). Academic staff, particularly in North America, responded by adopting, adapting or creating open works facilitated by university libraries who were taking a more active role. In Australia, due to a lack of funding and supporting policy, universities and Libraries are encumbered with the financial burden of publishing and are challenged by this aspect resulting in inaction. (Bossu & Stagg, 2018).  However, CAUL (Council of University Librarians) recently developed a national project entitled: Enabling a Modern Curriculum to tackle this very issue where the focus is on three key areas of development:

1. 1. Enabling a modern curriculum through Open Educational Resources
   2. Enabling a modern curriculum through students as partners
   3. Delivering a CAUL conference.

Three projects emanating from the broader project of enabling a modern curriculum will support a national approach to OER creation and adaptation, develop the requisite skills through a national OER professional development program and, create an advocacy toolkit that will support practitioner OER advocacy work. (CAUL, 2022). Sustainability was a common thread in our discussions, and it prompted us to think about how the Library at RMIT would manage an open publishing program on a larger scale. How would we address funding, staff time, and co-ordinate the administrative processes associated with open publishing in a way that eases the burden for academic staff but encourages them to publish openly?  There is no easy answer to this conundrum but reflecting on what the Library can bring to open publishing is an important exercise. Our own experience emphasizes that we have skills in searching, selecting and curating resources. There is a depth of knowledge in creative commons licensing and copyright, and established processes in permission seeking if required.  To move to a sustainable model, the Library needs to consider an author do-it-yourself (DIY) approach. This approach allows the library to support each creation through a project management structure with clear workflows, guidance and financial support, and the author is tasked with the responsibility for creation and delivery of the final product. Other issues emerge from this model such as the support for copy-editing, proofreading and peer review, and to this end the Library needs to consider financial incentives for educators so that they can buy in the expertise required.

Publishing workflow and authoring platform.

We developed a file structure to manage the toolkit creation in Microsoft Teams. Colleagues worked in pairs on chapters and reported back to the larger group on their progress. As relative newcomers to OER creation, we eagerly dove in and dealt with issues as they arose.  In retrospect, there needed to be a clearer understanding of the fundamental principles of an OER workflow and the processes that underpinned it before we embarked on our project.  For example, when our project was initiated, it would have been appropriate to develop a workplace compact. This action would have set parameters, ensured compliance via an agreed workflow and cleared misunderstandings before they arose.  It was fortuitous that Frank was a member of the CAUL Enabling a Modern Curriculum OER Collective that was examining an OER publishing workflow. Through several meetings and discussions this group created a workflow that described the seven stages of textbook creation: initiate, plan, draft, design, review, publish and evaluate. The Open Publishing Workflow has been developed into this online guide. 

In addition to the OER workflow, we also required an authoring platform. At the time of creating the toolkit, the availability of such a platform did not exist, however, towards the end of 2021 the RMIT University Library secured access to Pressbooks, further supporting the sustainability of an open publishing program at RMIT University Library. The platform has been badged as RMIT Open Press and will be used to support and guide open authorship moving forward. Pressbooks is a book production software built on WordPress which meets the needs of open authoring and has features such as LMS integration, institutional branding and training. Access to such a platform will streamline the publishing workflow and level of support provided by the Library.

Creative commons licensing and remixing

The Toolkit content was built using material that was badged with Creative Commons licences, and customized to our region. The content sourced was either badged under a Creative Commons-Attribution (CC-BY) licence or in the public domain, as these are the most open licenses having the least restrictions on use. However, this exercise unearthed a myriad of misunderstandings associated with remixing which needed clarification as we progressed through the development phase.

Some of the problems we encountered included:

• The realisation that there were only four CC licenses that could be combined with the license type of our adapted work, which was Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial. (CC-BY-NC). The four compatible CC licenses were:
  • Public Domain (PD)
  • Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)
  • Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC)
  • Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-BY-SA)
• A non-derivative license could not be used in any adaptation.
• Maintaining a log of resources and keeping track of what was used assisted in creating the reference list and acknowledging the original resource.
• Linking out to more restricted content by providing a link in the adaptation rather than embedding it was deemed acceptable.

When creating an original work (not a remix) and planning to apply a creative commons license, consideration of the following factors is important:

• New works created within the context of your workplace may be subject to intellectual property policies and require permission to be made openly available. Check with your institution’s copyright officer to ascertain these parameters.
• All creative commons licenses are not revocable. You are free to stop offering material under a creative commons license at any time, but this will not affect the rights associated with any copies of your work already in circulation.
• You need to assess your level of comfort associated with what creative commons licensing allows. That is, are you happy for your newly created work to be adapted, remixed, or monetized. Carefully consider the license options available.

Formative assessment – H5P activities

Formative assessment in the toolkit was considered a critical element. The ability to create quizzes, multiple choice questions, and fill in the blank tasks, was an efficient and inexpensive way to test knowledge and engage the learner. Stiwinter (2013) argues that interactivity assists learners to stay focused and engaged with the content.

The H5P plugin is an addition to the Pressbooks environment that allows the author to create formative assessment content easily and quickly, further enhancing the open book creation process. H5P was a new tool for library staff. A forty-five minute session was all that was required for staff to engage with the software and begin thinking of ways to enhance their chapters with interactive elements.

H5P activities are shareable resources that can easily be adapted and used in your own open work. You can locate many examples from the Pressbooks Directory and repurpose and reuse them in your own open work.  See the example from the following open textbook: An interactive Introduction to Organismal and Molecular Biology.

It is also important for the author to consider adding a learning designer as a collaborative partner. Learning designers work closely with academic staff to conceptulise, design, produce and deliver online courses across a range of disciplinary and educational contexts and the creation of online textbooks has similar challenges.  The added advantage of a learning designer as a member of team would ensure the work being built is aligned to course learning outcomes, assessment tasks and teaching activities. This is a very important point particularly if the textbook is to be ultimately used within their teaching practice and subsumed as part of course delivery.

Copyright – “all rights reserved”

The use of copyright materials in an open textbook was discouraged due to several factors:

• Permission seeking created time delays for the Library copyright staff.
• Lengthy time delays awaiting responses from the copyright holder. Most responses received from authors would be a request for clarification, or no permission granted, holding up the development process.
• It was sometimes difficult to track down original authors due to career changes or other personal factors.
• Copyright works require references to be clearly labelled in an open publication with a notation in the preface that the publication contains “all rights reserved” materials.

Referencing

A distinction between attribution and citation was not clear from the outset. While we had consensus by the team to reference materials using APA 7th edition, we did not clearly distinguish the difference between attribution and citation statements and when they should be used.  Even though they share characteristics, citations and attributions play different roles and appear in different places. A citation allows authors to provide the source of any quotations, ideas, and information that they include in their own work based on the copyrighted works of other authors. It is used in works for which broad permissions have not been granted.

Attribution on the other hand is used when a resource or text is released with an open licence. This legal requirement states that users must attribute — give credit — to the creator of the work and encompass these critical elements at a minimum:

• Title of the work
• Author (creator) of the work
• Source (link) or where the work can be found
• License of the work

The decision in the end was to create a reference list that encompassed both attribution statements and academic citations at the end of each chapter. Additionally, attribution statements would appear under each image, table or video throughout the chapter and be repeated in the list at the end of the chapter.

Peer review, front and back matter

Towards the conclusion of the project, Frank tasked the project group to peer review each other’s chapters. This exercise provided a good opportunity to finesse language, grammar, and comprehension so that the work maintained a level of quality, readability and standardisation. Peer review is especially significant when creating open works as the quality, comprehensiveness, clarity, and currency of OER is often challenged. Peer review can encourage wider adoption and dispel the myths of low quality. The Toolkit has also undergone an external peer review. A useful tool to activate in the peer review process is Hypothesis. Hypothesis is a plug-in available via Pressbooks and primarily used to openly annotate content. It is generally used to engage students with social annotation. Students can reply and share annotations, they can also collaborate privately in groups. It is also a useful tool to apply when conducting a peer review process. All commentary is contextualized within the chapters and responses are received by email and easily edited.

It was also important to include front and back matter as part of the adaptation process.  Including front and back matter provided completeness to the work and served to provide the reader with context. The front matter introduced the new work and helped the reader understand the evolution of its creation. Included are attribution statements, contributors’ names, and a preface. Back matter includes a glossary and appendix.

The changing role of librarians

Technology and new platforms have streamlined the process of open publishing. In turn, Librarians have led the way by creating awareness of OER, advocating, curating, increasing OER adoption, advising on copyright and creative commons and driving discoverability. As these aspects become more mainstream, Librarians at RMIT University are transitioning to become facilitators of open publishing projects. Encouraging academic staff to create and adapt open resources and supporting the publishing process through open workflows. They are building skills technical expertise of authoring platforms like Pressbooks, but also publishing skills like copy editing, proofreading, and peer review. They are gaining critical knowledge that underpins the motivations of open education adoption, that is, how a social justice viewpoint can benefit students by building author awareness of diversity and inclusion. They understand what it means to be learner driven, allowing students to forge their own learning pathways using open educational practices, and, using connected learning techniques, by adopting collaborative pedagogical practices to empower learners. They are also considering the development of local grant programs to incentivise open publishing for educators, gathering a deeper understanding of learning analytics, sharing impact stories of open works and ensuring that published resources are archived and preserved.

The future of open book publishing at RMIT university

The future of open publishing at RMIT University is a dynamic and evolving space. In 2022, the Library has lead the development of an open scholarship policy. This policy will encompass the fundamental activity associated with open research and open education. Open research aims to incorporate aspects of open journal publishing, the deposit of research papers in the institutional repository and greater exposure of RMIT research data. Open education embraces co-creation of learning experiences with students through open educational practices, the development of online peer communities and the creation, and sharing, of open educational resources.

The Teaching and Research team within the Library which is comprised of a newly created Open Publishing team will drive the bulk of this activity. The Open Publishing team has been tasked with guiding the development and delivery of open textbooks by academic staff. The team will establish workflows, support structures, training, and the management of open textbook projects using the Pressbooks authoring platform which will underpin these outcomes.

It is also important to note that the Library is encouraging open textbook development that aligns with accessibility, social equity, justice and inclusion. We urge academic staff to consider issues associated with access such as making resources widely accessible allowing all learners equitable learning experiences; diversity and inclusion; including marginalized voices through images, case studies, and videos; co-creation; allowing marginalized voices to speak for themselves. These are important factors that will create relevant, engaging resources, and align with university enabling plans that reflect the university’s vision and strategy.

RMIT Library is an advocate for sharing and reusing information. The open access philosophy clearly interconnects with RMIT Library’s ethos of sharing knowledge and supporting learning. RMIT Library is well positioned to work with academic staff to create, produce, and disseminate open works via open platforms for maximum impact, and the Library as publisher, can lead and shape the transformation of curriculum pedagogy where every learner is supported and valued.

References

Baas, M., Admiraal, W., & van den Berg, E. (2019). Teachers’ Adoption of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2019, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.510

Bossu, C., & Stagg, A. (2018). The potential role of Open Educational Practice policy in transforming Australian higher education. Open Praxis, 10(2), 145-157. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/183576/

Council of Australian University Librarians (2022) Enabling a Modern Curriculum. https://www.caul.edu.au/programs-projects/enabling-modern-curriculum

Cozart, D., Horan, E. M., & Frome, G. (2021). Rethinking the Traditional Textbook: A Case for Open Educational Resources (OER) and No-Cost Learning Materials. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.9.2.13

Cronin, C. (2017). Openness and Praxis: Exploring the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.3096

Elder, A. (2019). The OER Starter Kit (Rev. Ed.). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Digital Press.

The National Copyright Unit (n.d.). Smartcopying: The Official Guide to Copyright Issues for Australian Schools and TAFE. Retrieved 12 January 2022 from https://smartcopying.edu.au/introduction-to-oer/

International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF). (2016). Open Educational Resources Competency Framework OER. UNESCO Digital Library. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000266161

Open Educational Quality Initiative (2011). Beyond OER: Shifting Focus to Open Educational Practices. The OPAL Report 2011. Open Education Quality Initiative (OPAL)

Rolfe, V. (2017). Striving Toward Openness: But What Do We Really Mean? The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(7). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i7.3207

Seaman, J. E., & Seaman, J. (2021). A Year Apart: Adapting Curricula for a Pandemic: Educational Resources in U.S. K-12 Education. Bay View Analytics. https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/reports/k-12_oer_ayearapart.pdf

Stagg, A., Nguyen, L., Bossu, C., Partridge, H., Funk, J., & Judith, K. (2018). Open Educational Practices in Australia: A First-phase National Audit of Higher Education. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(3). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i3.3441

Stiwinter, K. (2013). Using an Interactive Online Tutorial to Expand Library Instruction. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 18(1), 15-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301.2013.777010