Projects


CC Learn has now released several reports about CC licensing for education, open educational resources (OER) and other issues. You can find all of these reports on our CC Learn Productions page.

CC Learn is also engaged in key projects and collaborative activities with several organizations in the open education space. Our key projects:

  • DiscoverEd. This prototype for the search and discovery of (open) educational resources is now in public beta. Read more about the project here and here. And be sure to browse the DiscoverEd FAQ for additional details and technical specifications.
  • OpenEd. This international site is intended to serve as a clearinghouse for people from anywhere in the world to learn more about open education, including the people and organizations involved. The site is also designed as a community-building platform (it is a wiki) so that interest groups can establish projects and collaborative activities and facilitate the growth and increased impact of the open education movement. Among other functions, OpenEd is also host to the ODEPO Project, which is a database for finding and networking projects and organizations engaged in (open) education.
  • Creative Commons Licensing Portal for Educators. A licensing portal that will address CC licensing specifically in the context of education.
  • Student Journalism 2.0 project. This is a pilot project that seeks to engage high school journalism students and teachers in new forms of participatory learning around core themes of copyright, web-based publishing, and the new media landscape.
  • AgShare Project. This is collaborative project with MSU Global, OER Africa, RUFORUM, and others, focused on building educational opportunities and community (especially at the higher education level) for sustainable agriculture in Africa. Our role is primarily focused on the technical aspects of developing and publishing OER that are sharable and discoverable both among project partners and around the world.
  • Open Education Policy. Throughout the world, educational processes and institutions receive substantial and continued support from institutions and governments which recognize that investing in education can bring indirect but substantial benefits to the prospects and prosperity of their constituents. As such, these lines of funding depend on clear and forward-looking policies to ensure that the funds catalyze innovation, achieve their maximum impact, and provide educational opportunities for everyone who seeks them. CC Learn is providing guidance and advocacy around sensible policy decisions that affect open educational resources domestically and internationally at all levels. In particular, we seek to provide clarity around the key characteristics that define resources as open educational resources (OER). This project will officially launch in early January, 2010.

The OpenEd site is being developed explicitly as a tool for regional and international engagement.

  • Copyright exceptions (fair use) and OER production. We are working with several partners to better understand the issues around the use of copyright exceptions and limitations as they apply to the production of OER, especially in an international context. Look for international surveys, community activities, and white papers on this topic soon.
  • University Copyright Ownership Policies (UCOP). This database is being assembled in recognition of the fact that many university intellectual property (IP) policies are very difficult to find and interpret, especially with respect to the question of who (faculty versus institution, for example) owns the IP in question. This question is important because CC licenses can only be applied by the legitimate copyright holder(s), so confusion on this point prevents people who might want to share their educational resources from openly licensing them and thereby converting them to Open Educational Resources (OER). If you are aware of other institutional policies that are accessible online, and any analyses of them, please go ahead and add the new information.
  • Open Database of Educational Projects and Organizations (ODEPO). Similar to UCOP in form, this is an ever-growing database of educational projects and organizations that are perceived to be associated with the Open Education movement. Note that this database is an open wiki, so we do not verify the legitimacy of every entry. Note too that many different perceptions exist regarding the definition of “open;” as a result, many of the organizations in ODEPO do not actually appear to be producing or using add the new information.
  • Other Communities of Practice. There are many different communities, in multiple languages, establishing homes on OpenEd and pursuing a diversity of conversations and goals. Check them out! Establish a community of your own!

In addition, we have hosted or been involved with a number of events or projects of broad international interest, including: