Open Education Licensing – making online education really work

Open education will play an important role in digitally enabled learning for a global society. Resources that are openly available for re-use and re-mix are an important part of digital literacy and will be a key component in the online offerings of Australian higher education institutions in the future. However, one of the most significant issues for educators moving into the open environment is the need to understand those copyright and licensing decisions which must be made in order to make resources open. The Open Education Licensing (OEL) project aims to ensure that online material is available for re-use. It also aims to place open content into an evolving knowledge ecosystem in Australian education. The OEL Toolkit will help Australian educational developers make informed licensing decisions for use of their resources in the open environment.