2.6 If you want to know more ...

Each If you want to know more ... section of the course thematically presents additional material and resources on the topics for that section of the course.

The ‘open’ in open licensing

If you’re interested in exploring the ‘continuum of openness’ and what this means in practical terms, read Hilton III, Wiley, Stein & Johnson’s The Four R’s of Openness and ALMS Analysis: Frameworks for Open Educational Resources [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Benefits and challenges of open educational resources

If you’re interested in taking a closer look at the wide range of reasons for using OER or engaging in OEP, there is a range of research available, including the UKOER Synthesis & Evaluation report, which has a section on motivations. This section of the report explores the idea that reasons for engaging in OEP/OER can be categorised by stakeholder group. The OER Impact Study: Research Report by Liz Masterman and Joanna Wild looks at reasons for using OER within the UK’s HE sector.

Take a closer look at some of the benefits and challenges of OER in this series of posts:

If you’re interested in the potential issues with regard to sharing openly licensed resources, these posts might be of interest:

OER policies

Leeds University’s OER policy (which has been used as a basis for, or reviewed, by other institutions such as Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Edinburgh as part of their own development of an OER policy) and The Open University (UK)’s open educational media operating policy are useful to review.

Digital literacy

Read ‘Focus on data literacies and ICT proficiency: the importance of digital capabilities’, which highlights the need for ‘training and support’ in preventing incidents such as that which occurred in September 2015, when a London clinic accidentally released via email personal information of HIV positive patients and other patients visiting an HIV drop-in facility.

In ‘The death of the digital native: four provocations from Digifest speaker, Donna Lanclos’, the author begins her provocations by arguing that it’s a ‘dangerous assumption’ to consider learners inherently digitally savvy.

If you are interested in improving your digital literacy skills, you can participate in the badged OpenLearn course Succeeding in a digital world.

Now go to Section 3 of the course.

2.5 Digital literacies