Open Educational Resources (OER) are openly licensed educational materials that permit learners to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute materials. Through such permissions, students are able to contribute to OER and participate in learning as co-creators of knowledge with their peers and professors.
Instructors, however, must respect the laws and policy that respect students' educational privacy and copy rights. U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, Sec. 106) provides copyright protection for any work by an author, including students’ papers and/or projects. FERPA (Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act, 34 CFR Part 99) prevents an institution from disclosing or publishing student work without prior written consent. The KU Intellectual Property Policy states “the ownership of student works submitted in fulfillment of academic requirements shall be with the Creator(s)” except under certain circumstances.
Instructors must request written permission from the student author prior to distributing student work, including in OER. KU Libraries has created such a permission form and process for obtaining informed consent. If you are interested in partnering with KU Libraries to educate students about their privacy and copy rights, please contact us at oer@ku.edu.
Additionally, below are some resources to help you inform students of copyright and their rights as student-creators.