Open education licensing: A toolkit for achieving openness in the global education market

The adoption of open education resources (OER) by Australian higher education can enhance innovation, as well as increase access to teaching and learning in the digital environment. But without a clear understanding of the copyright and licensing challenges inherent in adoption of OER, Australian educators will not be able to create education resources, or disseminate them globally. This panel session will explore the potential impact of copyright and licensing decisions on Australia’s creation and use of OER and their global reach. It will provide a forum to introduce the audience to a new Open Education Licensing toolkit, developed by the Open Education Licensing project; the project has been funded by the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching. Panel members will deal with four main topics: copyright licensing in Australia, how open licensing can transform education in Australia, the different ways copyright material can be used, and the toolkit developed by the OEL project. Panel members will discuss the research and development process underpinning the OEL toolkit and ask audience members to see the toolkit interface and explore the benefits it can provide for their own activities.