Design of an OER
The UNESCO definition of OERs is as follows: "Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open licence. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation."
What do you need to know about the use of some OERs or images in your own OERs?
Images
When designing an OER, it is not enough that each image used is in our possession or has already been used in one of your courses (restricted use). You must make sure that it can be used in a freely available resource. This also applies to photographs of people, logos, etc. All images, photographs, figures and logos in the resource therefore need to be checked in this respect.
In the resource https://oer.uclouvain.be/jspui/handle/123456789/320, cited here as an example, the images and photographs come from three specific sources; the author has included the following credit (inserted at the end of the document):
"The source of the images in this OER has been thoroughly researched.
© CC: These photographs may be used freely.
© AA: For these photographs, the authors' permission has been directly obtained.
© DA: For these photographs, a disclaimer is required: despite every precaution, we have been unable to identify the author of the photograph. However, if the author should recognise his or her work, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can rectify the situation. Contact: author's e-mail"
Texts
If you have obtained an OER from another person, you must acknowledge who holds the rights. The page "How to correctly cite your sources" at https://uclouvain.be/fr/etudier/plagiat/comment-citer-correctement-tes-sources.html gives useful advice on this subject.