Go Open and Free! Resources for Teaching and Learning

The information below was prepared for the May 2017 TLISI program, Go Open and Free! Resources for Teaching, Learning, and Publishing.

Navigating the complexities of copyright law can add time, trouble, and frustrations to your work as a teacher and scholar. To avoid those issues, you can consider incorporating open resources with few to no copyright restrictions into your classroom and scholarship. Open resources differ in many ways from textbooks and other course materials, with both advantages and disadvantages over traditional reading material.

The Value of Open Resources

  • Open resources are free, so they save money for your students - the estimated cost of books at Georgetown is $1200-$1300 per year for most degree programs
  • Open resources can be highly creative and more engaging for students, leading to pedagogical innovation
  • Open resources may express different voices than a traditional textbook, which may bring new ideas into your classroom
  • Open resources can be combined with traditional class materials or with other open resources to enhance flexibility and foster innovation
  • Open resources can often be modified to support your teaching and pedagogy
  • Open resources are online can bring very current information to your students
  • Open resources are often more accessible to students with disabilities
  • Open resources, including videos, audio, and images are where students often go when they are looking for information, so students may be more engaged in using multimedia resources instead of or in addition to a textbook
  • Open resources often have few to no copyright restrictions and therefore may be shared widely on websites and publications

Cautions about Using Open Resources

  • The quality of open resources varies significantly; a few are peer-reviewed, but most are not
  • Locating appropriate materials and to putting them together for a course requires time
  • Not all academic subject areas have quality open materials to support a particular course
  • Not all open resources are kept up-to-date
  • Open resources may incorporate proprietary material that is not be accessible to Georgetown University students

Open Source Licensing Systems

Open resources may (i) be in the public domain having no copyright restrictions, (ii) have an open license specifying what rights are granted to the user, or (iii) freely available for viewing, but with other rights retained by the author. The links below provide information on how to understand what rights are granted under a specific open license.

DigitalGeorgetown, the University’s Open Access Repository

DigitalGeorgetown is Georgetown University's open access repository which makes publicly available scholarship from Georgetown University's faculty, students, centers, initiatives, etc.

Find Open Resources

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