Open Education Resources clearly save students money on textbooks. After years of use and research we know that open resources can provide so much more. Students are just one body that benefits from their use, and we now know that faculty, staff, administrators, and institutions have all started to reap the rewards. Over the decades we have found or gained with:
"OER degree pathway implementation can contribute to transformational institutional change...At many of colleges, adoption of OER is spreading beyond clear issues of student affordability to the less obvious issues of access, completion, reducing time to degree, decreasing debt, advancing equity, and rethinking pedagogy, setting into motion policy, funding and systems change at the institutional, state and federal level."
-Dr. Karen A. Stout, President & CEO, Achieving the Dream
"ZTC Brochure" by Kelsey Smith, West Hills College Lemoore, is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Discover and explore select collections of Open Educational Resources (OER) through the Florida Open Academic Library:
Discover and Explore Additional OER
Find Open Content to Adapt and Create OER
Collaborate with fellow Floridians by joining the listserv:
Who can join? In short, anyone is welcome:
Accomplishments by the community:
The open and affordable community of Florida, OPEN FL, has defined open in a spectrum. As you begin around the O we start with public domain, the most open content we can use in an educational setting and where you should start your journey to find suitable, quality content. When you work your way around the O, the openness of the content actually closes, but all efforts support an open and affordable learning environment for our students.
For education and information on U.S. Copyright please see the Copyright Guide.
Content in the public domain has fallen out of copyright protection, has been placed in the domain by U.S. law, or was marked as public domain by the content creator.
List of Resources for Finding Works in the Public Domain - This source list is provided by the Public Domain Review, an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.
Copyright Genie The Copyright Genie will walk you through the steps to determine if a work is in copyright and, if it is, when it will enter the public domain.
Digital Copyright Slider From the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy, a visual and interactive way to figure out if something is under copyright.
Trademark and the Public Domain - an informative page on the Public Domain Sherpa website that offers insight into reusing works that are in the public domain (or whose copyrights have expired) yet include a trademark. Essentially, what it comes down to is how you use the trademark. To commit trademark infringement, you would have to use the trademark commercially and/or potentially confuse consumers regarding the identity of a product or service.
If you find materials with CC licenses, you are free to use the content as long as you follow the license requirements. You can Search the Commons to find relevant content on a number of search engines and websites.
Creative Commons - A non-profit organization that works to increase the amount of scholarly works (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in "the commons" — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, re-purposing, and re-mixing.
Science Commons - A Creative Commons project "meant to lift legal and technical barriers to research and discovery".
Open access content is often licensed similarly to Creative Commons content, however there are no set license terms. Each publisher may have different terms and permissions allowed, so content licenses and terms of agreements should be read thoroughly to understand what is permitted.
DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) - DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books - Directory of Open Access Books is a joint service of OAPEN, OpenEdition, CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université, provided by DOAB Foundation in cooperation with SemperTool
Content in this area is most likely open access; however, there is not a clear license. The content should have no access barriers and must be free to use. Content licenses, statements, and terms of agreements should be read thoroughly to understand what is permitted. With this content it is advised that faculty link out to this content and not embed or re-mix into their course/work.
Licensed Works (Caution- Most Materials Not Open)
If you are using library-licensed materials for an online course, such as on Canvas, you should consider providing perma-links, DOIs, or citations of the specific resource rather than including them in the learning management system (LMS) for students to download directly. This is beneficial for several reasons: usage statistics for that resource will increase, which will let librarians in collection development know that the resource is being used (because when resources have low usage statistics, they have a greater chance of having their subscription canceled); some of the licenses may not allow for electronic reuse in learning management systems, like the LMS; and if you provide citations (with no links), students will better learn how to search and navigate the library databases for the specified resources.
Open Oregon Video: Library Resources as Course Materials
Digitized Works (Caution- Mixed Copyright)
Copyright, and course use, is determined by the original material's copyrights, not the libraries' digitized item. These items will vary and may be in the public domain, creative commons licensed, open access licensed, undetermined, or under full copyright protection. Please contact the local library to get assistance in determining use rights if you are uncertain.
Content in this area is most likely okay to use for coursework; however, there is not a clear license. The content should have no access barriers and must be free to use. Content licenses, statements, and terms of agreements should be read thoroughly to understand what is permitted. With this content it is advised that faculty link out to this content and not embed or re-mix into their course/work.
If you are only having students use the materials in the physical class room section or within the LMS you may be able to use exemptions allowed by U.S. law Sections 110(1) or 110(2). However, if you expect students to use the material outside of the active classroom/lecture you should determine if you have a fair use exemption (Section 107) instead. If you feel the documented evaluation of your use is fair then you may be able to use the content, so long as it is a legal copy. When the environment, such as where the materials will be made available, changes or the context of why you are sharing the materials changes (i.e. the first factor of fair use or the purpose of your use), your use must then be re-evaluated. If you decide to make copyrighted materials available publicly online rather than only available to students officially enrolled in the course (e.g. through Canvas), then you will need to evaluate if this use is a fair use. (Please note, case law favors plaintiffs with proven or potential market impact.)
Please note that all exemptions in the law need to be determined each time the content is reviewed or curated. We advise that faculty re-evaluate their exemptions at least once per year. New content is falling into the public domain every year or being created in an openly licensed way everyday.
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use from the Association of Research Libraries
If necessary, request permission or purchase a license through a collective rights agency to use the item; it's not very common for an individual faculty member to purchase a license for use of a copyrighted work in the classroom. Faculty members in music, drama, and dance may be familiar with purchasing specific public performance licenses.
Model Permission Letters can be used to ask permission before posting content, from Dr. Kenneth D. Crews (formerly of Columbia University)
The primary goal of OPEN FL is to provide and promote quality and affordable access to Florida higher education by creating a consortium of Florida colleges and universities to collaborate on developing, implementing, and providing discovery to open educational resources (OER) throughout high impact degree pathways. Secondary, central efforts will 1) facilitate systematic identification and updates of OER, 2) address barriers to adoption, 3) support OER programs and implementation efforts, and 4) lay the foundation for a sustainable OER state network. Coordinating OER efforts across Florida public institutions of higher education enables us to curate, modify, develop, review, and disseminate OER that meet quality, accessibility, licensing, technical, and student learning outcomes (SLO) in a unified structure that allows for inclusion and growth. The sustainable goal will be to create an OER community and infrastructure that perpetuates OER development, proliferation, and research through the state.
1006.73
2022- Proposed Legislation, originally CS/HB 5201: Higher Education, became part of SB 2524; Establishes requirements for open education resources, Student Open Access Resource Repository, Student Open Access Resource Grant Program. Vetoed June 2, 2022.
2021-
Florida Postsecondary Academic Library Network.
(1) PURPOSE.—The Board of Governors and the Department of Education will jointly oversee the host entity in accordance with subsection (5) that will deliver the following services to public postsecondary education institutions in this state, which, for the purposes of this section, means all Florida College System and State University System institutions:
(e) Promote and provide recommendations concerning the use and distribution of low-cost, no-cost, or open-access textbooks and education resources and innovative pricing techniques that comply with all applicable laws, in regards to copyrighted material and statewide accessibility measures, as a method for reducing costs.
2013-2020
Florida Library Services—