There’s no denying that education can be expensive, but there are a couple tools educators are using to make it accessible for all. Join us in celebrating two upcoming global events: Fair Use Week and Open Education Week.

“So what are these events and what do they mean to me as a student?” I’m glad you asked!

Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week (Feb. 24 – 28)

According to the event’s website(https://www.fairuseweek.org/), “Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is an annual celebration of the important doctrines of fair use and fair dealing.”

So what’s fair use anyway? Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder for uses such as criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and instruction.

Fair use is especially important in education because it can allow instructors to use material under copyright in their classrooms that they might not be able to use otherwise. Without fair use we might have a harder time accessing educational material and we might have to spend more money.

To learn more about fair use and copyright visit the Madison College Libraries’ Guide:  https://libguides.madisoncollege.edu/copyrightandfairuse.

Open Education Week (March 2 – 6, 2020)

This is a global celebration of Open Educational Resources (OERs). OERs are high quality learning tools designed to be accessible to everyone and repurposed or “remixed” by anyone who wants to make the OERs their own.

This is made possible by OER creators applying what’s called a “Creative Commons license” meaning others can use their work as long as they credit the original author.

OERs come in many forms including textbooks, classroom presentations, videos, quizzes, and more. Educational resources in this form are easily accessible by anyone regardless of economic situation and can be translated into any language.

Unlike traditional textbooks, OERs can be remixed to reflect student voices unique to each institution and incorporate a higher level of diversity.

Perhaps you’re already using an OER text in your class. Or maybe your instructor has created their own learning tools specifically for your course.

Check out Open Ed Week’s page for more info: https://www.openeducationweek.org/. If you want to learn more about OER and how you can get involved check out the Madison College Libraries’ Guide: https://libguides.madisoncollege.edu/OER.

Visit Madison College Libraries’ social media pages during Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week and Open Education Week for cool facts and information on how you interact with these two subjects every day.

If you have any questions stop in the library and we will be happy to help.