Making Open-Ready Courses

When developing conventional online courses, instructors sometimes choose to develop “open-ready” content that can also be reused in massive open online courses (MOOCs) or other open learning experiences. Here are some measures that instructors should take when developing content that can be reused:

• Avoid using content and images that are protected by copyright and covered only under “fair use.”

  • In general, use only content and images that you own, that are in the public domain, or that have a license.

  • Evaluate content you are not sure about with this Framework for Analyzing any U.S. Copyright Problem.

• Incorporate skill building in addition to academic objectives.

• Modularize content when recording: chunk content into very short sections. Learn why!