SREB Digital Learning Content
The Digital Learning Content Initiative was created to identify guidelines
and develop recommendations to assist those who develop, evaluate, select,
acquire and use digital learning content. Interest in the initiative grew out of
concerns about the difficulty of moving learning content between hardware and
software environments. This led to the formation of the
Digital Learning Content
Working Committee
within the Educational Technology Cooperative, which pursued the problem
vigorously. The resources below are related to their work.
Technical Guidelines for Digital Learning Content
The Technical
Guidelines for Digital Learning Content
is the committee's resulting product. The 20 suggested guidelines identify the
minimum technical requirements for digital learning content. While not directly
addressing instructional quality, they encourage the development of all content
to the same standards, thus enabling selection of content based on quality
rather than on accessibility, technical interoperability, or compatibility with
a specific application (such as a Learning Management System).
SREB Digital Learning Content Toolbox - Accessibility,
Portability, Usability
The SREB Digital Learning Content ToolBox provides policy and technical digital content resources for schools, colleges
and state education agencies. The resources are organized into two topical
areas: accessibility and portability/usability. Accessibility addresses Section
508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act and related disability issues.
Portability/usability relates to the migration of digital content to student
learning materials, including e-courses.
SCORE - Sharable Content Object Repositories for Education
This goal of the SREB - SCORE Initiative
is to improve the quality of digital learning course content (learning objects
and tools), to improve teaching and learning, and to achieve costs savings.
SCORE was conceived to help state educational agencies, colleges, universities
an schools work together to create and share quality digital learning course
content through the use of federated state repositories.
Principles of Effective Learning Objects
The purpose of this publication,
Principles of Effective
Learning Objects,
is to define learning objects in the context of the SCORE—Sharable
Content Objects Repository for Education
initiative, identify expectations for SCORE participants' use of learning
objects and provide evaluation criteria of effective learning objects. Each
school, college, university or state education agency that seeks to provide
digital resources to SCORE will be asked to ensure that they comply with these
principles.
Current Topics and Resources
Courses and Other Digital Content
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Open CourseWare Consortium |
OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication
of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. The
OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 100 higher
education institutions and associated organizations from around the
world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a
shared model. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance
education and empower people worldwide through opencourseware.
http://ocwconsortium.org/index.html
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Digital Textbooks
Intellectual Property
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BC Commons
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BC Commons (British Columbia, CA) has shaped their own guide to intellectual property guide through adaptation of the Creative Commons. A comic-style (like Creative Commons uses) describes the BC Commons license.
http://www.bccampus.ca/Assets/BC+commons/BC+commons+brochure.pdf
Summary of BC Commons License in human language
Summary of BC Commons License in legal language.
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| Copyright Advisory Network (CAN) |
The Copyright Advisory Network (CAN) is a Web site, bulletin board, blog and wiki established to help librarians discuss
copyright issues with colleagues facing similar concerns, share solutions, and learn more about copyright from trained
copyright specialists. Pose your copyright query on the Network Forum, and trained copyright specialists –known as the
CAN Scholars - will respond to your question within 48 hours. The Scholars will not provide legal advice but informed
opinion on your topic.
http://www.librarycopyright.net
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| Copyright and Fair Use (Stanford University) |
This comprehensive site provides links to a wide variety of topics on copyright: Copyright and Fair Use Guide; Primary Materials; Key Copyright Sites; Copyright, Books and the Internet plus more. Lawrence Lessig, the original creator of Creative Commons, is on the faculty at Stanford University.
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/index.html
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Copyright and Image Management
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This crash course in copyright is written by Georgia Harper and provided by the University of Texas System. While not directed specifically to cyberspace, it provides a good overview and evolution of copyright law.
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm#top |
| Copyright: The United States Copyright Office
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The U. S. Copyright Office states their purpose is promoting progress of the arts and protection for the works of authors. A registration fee is required for some services.
http://www.copyright.gov/about.html
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| Creative Commons |
Creative Commons, a non-profit organization, "provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from All Rights Reserved to Some Rights Reserved."
A Spectrum of Rights is graphically described in a four-page comic style description of "all rights reserved," "public domain" or "no rights reserved."
A similar comic style piece, How it Works (Choosing a License) also is instructive.
http://creativecommons.org
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Creative Commons and Creative Commons Search Tools |
In this article in Infomation Today, Generosity and Copyright, copyright laws and Creative Commons are featured in a nut-shell with a good overview of the evolution of the copyright revisions.
http://www.infotoday.com/SEARCHER/jul05/gordon-murnane.shtml
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| Creative Commons Content
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Creative Commons offers a search engine powered by several search engines that lets searchers limit their search by type of format (audio, image, interactive, text and video) and by different licensing options. After the search the results will connect to Web sites that contain either the Creative Commons metadata or a link back to a Creative Commons license. Results display the licensing options that the owner has agreed to allow.
(Laura Gordon-Murnane in Generosity and Copyright http://www.infotoday.com/SEARCHER/jul05/gordon-murnane.shtml )
http://search.creativecommons.org/find
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The Digital Learning
Challenge; Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Materials in the
Digital Age
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This foundational white paper reports on a year-long
study examining the relationship between copyright law and education by
the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The study explores whether
innovative educational uses of digital technology - everything from DVDs
in the classroom to digital music libraries to online resources such as
Wikipedia -- are hampered by copyright restrictions. You can also listen
to an
interview with McGeveran about the paper at AudioBerkman. "Digital
Learning Challenge" is a part of the Digital Media Project; if you'd
like to learn more about our research in this area, go
here.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2006-09 |
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Managing
Intellectual Property for Distance Learning |
Managing Intellectual Property for Distance Learning
by Liz Johnson. Educause Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2006.
Managing permissions for hundreds of pieces of intellectual property
(IP) can be a daunting task for any course, but it is vital in distance
learning courses because of legal implications specific to the online
environment. The University System of Georgia selects intellectual
property for inclusion in online courses using a formal protocol and
assessment process.
http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm06/eqm0628.asp. |
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Questions & Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community |
Published by The Software & Information Industry
Association, Association of American Publishers, Association of American
University Presses, National Association of College Stores, and
Copyright Clearance Center - "Questions & Answers on Copyright for the
Campus Community" provides answers to 31 common copyright questions, as
well as other information, to help colleges understand how copyright law
applies to them.
http://www.nacs.org/public/copyright/introduction.asp |
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The TEACH Act
American Library Association, 2004
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The TEACH Act redefines the terms and conditions under which
accredited, nonprofit educational institutions throughout the U.S. may
use copyright-protected materials in distance education (including on
Web sites and by other digital means) without permission from the
copyright owner and without payment of royalties. (See the American
Library Association commentary at:
http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/copyrightb/distanceed/Default3685.htm.)
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Video Games
For additional resources related to Digital Content consult
-SREB
SCORE Related Web sites.
For more information, e-mail Bill Thomas at
bill.thomas@sreb.org.
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