Byu

Two units at Brigham Young University have adopted open access policies - both the Harold B. Lee Library faculty and the faculty in my own department, Instructional Psychology and Technology, voted to adopt the policies earlier this month. IP&T’s policy was based on the HBLL policy, which was based on existing OA policies at other universities. I am giddy with excitement to see some of my own published articles beginning to appear in BYU’s institutional repository - they now have an open, permanent, curated home and I can link to them with confidence. And the whole world can and will be able to access and read them, legally, in perpetuity! This is the way science should work. ...

BYU Independent Study (BYU IS) has launched its opencourseware pilot - http://ocw.byu.edu! University Courses Public Speaking (TMA 150) Personal Finance (BUSM 418) Cooking in the Home (SFL 110) High School Courses United States Government and Citizenship (GOVT 45) World Geography: The Forces That Shape Our World (GEOG 41) Earth Science, Part 1 (EARTH 41) The pilot includes three university-level courses and three high school-level courses (BYU IS offers 250 university-level courses online for credit and another 250 high school-level courses online for credit). The courses in BYU IS OCW are content-complete - that is, they are the full courses as delivered online without the need of additional textbooks or other materials (only graded assessments have been removed). ...

Bryan Sudweeks from Brigham Young University’s Marriot School has just released his absolutely incredible collection of Personal Finance courses and resources under a CC By-NC-SA license.

The Brigham Young University David O. McKay School of Education’s Open Learning project has joined the OCW Consortium! We’ve only published two courses to date, but more are coming. We’re still in pilot mode, so if you find anything not working or looking out of sorts, please let me know!

Being at Brigham Young University now, I have many more opportunities to think about the relationships between my personal beliefs and my professional interests. This year’s Annual University Conference theme has focused on light, and during his address this morning, McKay School of Education Dean Richard Young quoted Matthew 5:14-16: Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. ...

A good friend suggested to me yesterday that openly publishing my course materials may not be possible at BYU due to the Brigham Young University Intellectual Property Policy. Curious that such a restriction on my ability to openly share my course materials might exist, I explored the policy in more detail. Here’s what I found. 1. Course materials are Creative Works as defined by the IPP: Intellectual properties are divided into two categories: technical works and creative works. Technical works include intellectual properties that are generally of a scientific, engineering, or technical nature - such as patentable or unpatentable inventions, devices, machines, processes, methods, and compositions; computer software; and university collections. Creative works include all intellectual properties not covered in technical works that are of an artistic, scholarly, instructional, assessment, or entertainment nature. Examples of creative works might include creative productions, such as works of art or design; musical scores; books, poems, and other types of scholarly or creative writings; films; video and audio recordings; and instructional materials, such as textbooks and multimedia programs. All computer software is included in technical works except that which is clearly developed for entertainment or for instructional purposes, e.g., electronic textbooks and textbook supplements, classroom and self-study tutorials. (Section I Para 1) ...