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Appendix 7: Student Guide to Renewable Assessment

As part of a course assessment or practical component of your program, you have been asked to participate in creating an open educational resource (OER). To learn more about OER, please see the Introduction to Open Educational Resources page.

When students participate in creating an open resource, it is referred to as a renewable assessment. Renewable assessments allow students to engage in meaningful work, add value to the world, and provide a foundation for future students to learn from and build upon. Renewable assignments are an alternative to traditional, disposable assignments, which students often throw away after they are graded. Renewable assignments are possible because of the permission to engage in the 5R activities granted by open educational resources (OER).

5R Activities:

  • Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your copy)
  • Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)
  • Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)
  • Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)
  • Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend)

The terms “open content” and “open educational resources” describe any copyrightable work that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities.

Open Licences

An open licence is a copyright agreement that anyone can benefit from as long as they follow its rules.

An example of this is the Creative Commons licenses, which give everyone, from individual creators to large institutions, a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. Each of these licences is made up of the following four elements:

  • Attribution (BY): You must give credit to the creator when you use this.
  • Share Alike (SA): You must share this under the same licence if you adapt this.
  • Non-Commercial (NC): You must use this for non-commercial purposes.
  • No Derivatives (ND): You must use this without any adaptations.

Every licence from Creative Commons combines these elements to form a licence. Since each element introduces more restrictions, we can place the licences on a spectrum from most to least open. Additionally, any Creative Commons licence that includes the No Derivatves (ND) element is technically not an OER since it prohibits remixing, one of the 5R activities.

Spectrum of the Creative Commons licences.The are arrange from left to right in order of most open to least open. From left to right, they are as follows: Public Domain, CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, CC BY-ND, and CC BY-NC-ND.
The spectrum of Creative Commons licences. Icons: Creative Commons, Trademark Policy

Refer to the Creative Commons website to learn more about the licenses. In the Design Studio, we most often use the CC-BY-NC-SA license.

Student Rights

You have the right to authorize how your work is shared beyond the classroom, including the choice to share your work openly with a Creative Commons license, the choice of what license to use, and the name under which you would like to be attributed, if at all. If you have any questions about what license to choose, please reach out to the Copyright Officer at Fanshawe by emailing copyright@fanshawec.ca.

Resources

Explore the content below for further resources on creating an OER.

 

Copyright and OER
References
Attributions
Grammarly
Generative AI
Open Images

Support

Reach out to oer@fanshawec.ca if you have any questions.


Renewable Assignments” from Advanced Engagement by Andrea Bearman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Fanshawe OER Development Guide Copyright © 2023 by Fanshawe College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.