A207: Open Education

2. DEFINITIONS

Open Educational Practices: The creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources, as well as open pedagogies and sharing of teaching practices.

Open Educational Resources (OERs): Teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that allows for free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with others, including full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

3. POLICY

Fanshawe College supports open educational practices.

3.1. Scope

This policy applies to students, faculty, staff, and other external stakeholders who engage in open educational practices.

3.2. Principles

3.2.1. Fanshawe will promote sharing and collaborative engagement within open educational practices.

3.2.2. Fanshawe will support affordable and equitable access to educational resources.

3.2.3. Fanshawe will implement processes and procedures to facilitate the use of OERs within its programs and courses.

3.2.4. Fanshawe has established guidelines regarding the creation and adoption of OERs.

3.3. Administration

3.3.1. Associated addenda to this policy may be amended by authority of the Policy Sponsor.

3.3.2. The Library Learning Commons houses and supports the use of OERs.

4. REFERENCES

• A113: Programs and Courses
• A126: Program Excellence
• A204: Copyright
• A205: Intellectual Property

5. ADDENDA

• Guideline A: OER Creation and Adoption

Addendum: Guideline A: OER CREATION AND ADOPTION

Issued by: Director, Library and Media Services

Effective: 2024-09-01

1. PURPOSE

Fanshawe College is committed to assisting faculty and staff in selecting, creating, and adopting high quality accessible OERs that meet the objectives of:

• supporting affordable and equitable access to students;
• enhancing student success and engagement through the embrace of innovative open curricula;
• improving quality by providing faculty with freedom to create and modify instructional resources.

2. LICENSING AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

2.1. OERs are licensed in a way that permits free use with attribution to the original author.

2.2. Individual resources may require different types of licensing schemes. The Library Learning Commons will support and guide the correct licensing for new OERs.

3. CREATION AND TRAINING

3.1. Fanshawe's Library Learning Commons provides support to faculty and staff looking to adopt or create OERs to be used by students in Fanshawe courses and programs.

3.2. The College utilizes a grant program to support the creation, adoption, and adaptation of OERs.

3.3. Training in the creation and use of OERs is provided through a course and resources offered by the Library Learning Commons and Organizational Development and Learning.

3.4. Creators will develop OERs in accordance with the procedures and guidelines set by the Library Learning Commons.

3.5. OERs that are created at the College will be reviewed regularly for currency and usability. Reviews are scheduled by the faculty who use them in consultation with the Library Learning Commons, the relevant Academic Manager, and appropriate subject matter experts.

4. ADOPTING OERS IN PROGRAMS AND COURSES

4.1. Program and Course Development

• Program and Course Development and Program Review will consider the use of OERs.
• Programs may consider and implement OERs within curriculum at any time.
• The Fanshawe bookstore offers a printed version at cost of each resource for students to purchase as an alternative, or in addition, to the freely accessible digital copy.

4.2. OERs selected by faculty for teaching and learning must:

• Align with course and program level learning outcomes;
• Meet requirements of accrediting or regulatory institutions where applicable;
• Meet accessibility requirements;
• Comply with copyright.

4.3. Reporting OER Adoption

4.3.1. OERs that are adopted are reported through the Course Outline Mapping and Management System (COMMS) as well as to the OER Design Studio through their adoption form.

4.3.2. Adoptions are reported to eCampus Ontario to help measure the impact of open education in the province.