Teacher: Open licenses or closed books?
Context:
You are considering replacing a traditional, commercial course book with an Open Educational Resources (OER) project where students create and publish a “college survival guide”. This means teaching them about Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which are valuable for digital citizenship, but complex for first-years and time-consuming.
Dilemma:
A) Adopt the OER approach, dedicating class time to CC licenses and empowering students as creators while also teaching digital citizenship.
B) Keep the traditional textbook.
Story behind the dilemma:
In Fall 2019, a First-Year Studies program transformed its curriculum by replacing commercial materials with student-created open educational resources (OER). Across 18 sections serving 403 students, learners developed a "college survival guide" by selecting topics, conducting original research, and creating multimedia artifacts (videos, documents, infographics). This OER-enabled pedagogy project emphasized student agency, with participants making key decisions about group work, content creation, and—critically—licensing options for their contributions.
A structured process guided students through Creative Commons licensing choices using instructional videos, forms, and classroom discussions. While most students (82%) opted to attach their names to their work, some chose anonymity for personal reasons. Post-project interviews revealed that while students initially lacked licensing knowledge, they developed nuanced perspectives—wanting attribution and prohibiting commercial use, but often welcoming adaptations that could improve their work.
The project successfully created a reusable resource while giving students practical experience with digital citizenship, copyright, and knowledge sharing. Notably, participants expressed strong motivations around helping future students, with one remarking they were "all for sharing knowledge." This initiative demonstrates how OER creation can simultaneously build student skills and generate valuable academic resources, though it requires careful support for both technical licensing concepts and personal disclosure decisions.