When considering sharing your own digital resources as OER, you might be sharing something you have created or identified as shareable from your own resources. Alternatively, you might have used and modified or ‘remixed’ an existing OER.
Remixing is an important concept in both OER and OEP. It relates not only to what is sometimes called ‘localisation’ including minor changes such as references to the country or subject in which it is being used, but to broader changes such as adaptation for cultural differences, disciplinary differences or pedagogical distinctions which are important in your teaching. Remixing might involve adding annotations to an existing resource, combining existing resources in a new structure, rebuilding a course through reorganisation of OER, or even blending open textbooks. Keep in mind also that students could be remixing – this might form the basis of a collaborative activity as part of your teaching.
Please note that this section deals with remixing OER in general. You can refer to the later section Adapting/creating open textbooks for issues specific to textbooks.
Remix resources
- Localisation terminology, clarifications, rationale (OpenStax)
- Localisation and remixing OER (UK Open University)
- Creating a Remix on OER Commons (OER Commons) — see particularly the Questions to Consider
Activity
- Find an resource that you would like to openly license, in one of the following ways:
- Remix: Use the OER located in the previous activity OR identify an OER on CCSearch that can be edited. Make a few changes to the resource, to tailor it to a topic or module you are teaching.
- Create: Identify and locate a specific digital resource, created by you, that you wish to share. This might be an image, video clip, or text-based resource you have created for a topic in your teaching, checking the material to ensure you have originated all of it. Remember that once you share a resource openly, you may never know who uses the resource, where, or for what reasons.
- What to consider: Whether remixing or identifying a digital resource you have created, think about who might be interested in using the resource, and how? Responses to these questions can help you to determine which CC licence to use, and where and how to share your OER.
- Get ready to license and share your resource as part of an activity in the next section.
- Reflect: Could students undertake creation or remixing of resources to share with their peers or other people teaching? How could you build this into a lesson plan?