Participation in OER: Collaboration through Open Educational Resources (OER) is beneficial in many ways for the district and for the education community in Nebraska.  The Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council (ESUCC) and the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) have provided a platform to share educational materials with OER designation which can be reviewed and aligned to Nebraska’s state standards.  The board authorizes the superintendent to allow staff members to participate in OER, at the superintendent’s discretion, both by incorporating OER materials into the curriculum adopted by the board and by sharing materials and resources owned by the district.  Those materials and resources include works made for hire by district employees. Unless the superintendent or superintendent’s designee(s) determines otherwise, materials owned by the district may be shared to the ESUCC-NDE OER Collection(s) with the Creative Commons Attribution License designation of either (1) “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike,” which is universally noted as “CC BY-NC-SA”; or (2) “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives,” which is universally noted as “CC BY-NC-ND.”

Proposed Policy Wording for OER Participation by Nebraska Department of Education is licensed CC BY

Approved by Board of Trustees 2010

Policy

Albany Senior High School wishes to encourage the open and free exchange of information, knowledge and resources; and support the collaborative production of intellectual property that is freely available to all.

The school:

1. Asserts its copyright over school employees’ work created during the course of employment 

2. Applies by default a Creative Commons By Attribution License (BY) to all its teaching materials and policies and to its other work wherever possible. 

3. Intellectual property in relation to other work (other than teaching materials and policies) is protected by default and may only be waived or altered as detailed in clause 4 below and with the express agreement of the Principal.

4. May make exceptions to the sharing of Intellectual Property (IP) it owns on a case by case basis with detailed reasons for limiting the free access to material; any such restrictions should be time dependent and will include consideration of applying other Creative Commons licenses to the work including Attribution-Share Alike (BY-SA), Attribution-Noncommercial (BY-NC), Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike (BY-NC-SA), Attribution-No Derivative Works (BY-ND) and Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND). 

5. Will transfer the copyright of created works to the original creator when a license which meets the free cultural works definition (i.e. Creative Commons By Attribution License (BY) or Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (BY-SA)) is applied to them. 

Albany Senior High School encourages staff and students to support free and open access to Intellectual Property and also to apply the Creative Commons Attribution framework to work created in their capacity as an individual.

Albany Senior High School does not make any claim over the ownership of outputs or outcomes of students’ work. These belong to the creator.

Definitions of Intellectual Property

• In this policy “intellectual property” includes the rights to all created work.

• Outputs are the products that are created by an individual or group of individuals. This may include for example artworks.

• Outcomes are the consequences or results arising from the development of, or use of IP other than products that are created from IP. Examples may include a publication such as a book, web site or, an exhibition.

Ownership of IP and outputs arising from intellectual activity

In general all IP and the outputs and outcomes arising from that IP are owned by the creator. While Albany Senior High School will derive benefits from the outcomes; there are exceptions to this, as follows:

1. Outputs and IP created by staff in the course of their employment are owned by the school unless otherwise expressly agreed by way of contractual obligations in an employment agreement.

2. Outputs and IP will be jointly owned by the school and a staff member only where such joint ownership is expressly agreed between ASHS and the staff member.

Clarity of Licensing

All published works should be clearly labelled using the appropriate symbol from the Creative Commons icon set.

Disputes

Where there is a dispute over ownership, including co-ownership of IP, and/or the commercialisation of any co-owned IP, the following process will apply:

1. In the first instance the dispute should be documented and presented to the school Principal.

2. If the dispute is still not resolved then the documentation should be presented to the chairman of the Board of Trustees.

3. Mediation with an appropriate authority will be undertaken if the dispute cannot be resolved by the Principal and / or the Chairman of the Board.

Albany Senior High School Creative Commons Policy by Albany Senior High School is licensed CC-BY

In some cases, Divisions policy allows for creators to apply CC licenses without consultation from the Division (Albany, Nebraska). Mountain Heights Academy in Utah describes a process for submission and review as part of licensing:  

"All public education materials developed by School employees in whole or in part with School funds shall, upon review and approval of the School, be licensed and subsequently shared under a Creative Commons attribution license (“CC-BY license”)." (Mountain Heights Academy, 2023)

View Full Policy on Page 139 of the Board Policy Manual

Mountain Heights Academy. (2023). Public Education Materials Development Policy. Governing Board of Directors Policies & Procedures Manual (p.139-40). Mountain Heights  Academy, Utah. https://mountainheightsacademy.org/images/pdfs-doc/BOARD_POLICY_MANUAL_-_MHA_10-31.pdf 

Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)

Excerpt on Open Educational Resources (OER) from

OER Key Considerations for Districts

• Update instructional materials adoption policies that rigidly define textbooks or curricular materials with more flexible language that includes consideration of OER (Open Educational Resources).

• Enable more flexible use of instructional materials budgets. This funding could support development and adaptation of OER and technology infrastructure.

• Clarify the current district policy regarding copyrighting of created material and emphasize that materials created by state, regional, or local entities using public funds will hold an open license for sharing, collaboration, and access for all educators and students.

 OER: Key Considerations for Districts by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Logos are property of OSPI.

OSPI's Copyright and Open Licensing Policy

As a State Department of Education, Washington's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has its own policy for openly licensing work created by the department. It also acknowledges that when public funds are used to create the resources, an open license is in the best interest of stakeholders:

"OSPI policy requires all copyrightable intellectual property created by OSPI employees, contractors, and grantees to be openly licensed. This policy allows all stakeholders to realize the educational impact from the substantial investments the state, the federal government, and private foundations make in educational resources created by or for OSPI".

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (2016). Copyright and Open Licensing Policy. Washington State, US.  https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2023-08/copyrightopenlicensingpolicy.pdf