OE Global 2018

While open educational resources have expanded exponentially in the last decade, most educational resources are copyrighted works that are not openly licensed. Copyright limitations often allow the use of such resources in the classroom, in research, and in the creation of new OERs, but the degree to which use is possible varies greatly by country. Furthermore, proposed changes to copyright limitations will affect the degree to which these uses will remain legal.

We propose a panel to discuss how teaching, learning and research activities are supported by a two-track strategy of encouraging open licensing and open access policies, as well as limitations and exceptions to copyright law. It will introduce Open advocates to legal provisions that allow teachers and researchers to use copyrighted works without permission from rightholders, will show how poorly crafted legal provisions common in many countries make such uses illegal, and will discuss how the two communities of activists can jointly pursue common goals. Panelists will briefly present two studies illustrating how differently crafted copyright limitations yield different outcomes in the real world. Teresa Nobre’s survey of education exceptions in 15 European countries shows that teachers in some countries can make use of certain types of resources, while others cannot. Mike Palmedo’s study of publishing output and citations data shows that scholars in middle-income countries with more permissive research limitations tend to produce more papers, and more highly cited papers. Meredith Jacob will present examples of how teachers and OER authors have relied on fair use to include third party materials in the OER context. Most of the panel’s time, however, will be devoted to a structured conversation with the audience to find areas where Open and user rights advocates can cooperate to expand access to a broad set of educational materials, including books, papers, and videos.