So You’re the Creator – Now What?
Open pedagogy and renewable assignments bring much more to the classroom than traditional assignments. Open pedagogy gives you and your instructor the opportunity to work together to create meaningful educational experiences. But now you are the creator – what does that mean and where do you go from here?
There are two key elements to taking on the role of a creator in your class: your rights as a creator and your responsibilities
If this is your first time working in the open, you may not have had a conversation before about your rights as a creator. These rights start with copyright and intellectual property.
Your Rights as a Creator
Copyright
Copyright law in the United States grants a creator control over certain uses of their work. In order to qualify for copyright protection, a work must be an “original work of authorship” and fixed in any tangible medium of expression.[1] This means it could be written on paper, typed on a computer, recorded as a video, or any other form of media, and must also have “at least a modicum” of creativity and be an independent creation of the creator.[2]
When you begin creating content for your renewable assignment, you own that copyright over your work. What is wonderful about working in the open is that you get to decide how you want to express your copyright. You can choose to keep your work under “All Rights Reserved” which is traditional copyright, meaning if someone were to use your work without your permission in ways that are not covered under copyright law, then there is legal misdoing. Or you could choose to openly license your work with Creative Commons licenses, which allow you to intentionally choose how someone could use your work in the future. We’ll talk more about Creative Commons licenses in the next chapter.
As we talked about in the Student Agency section of the toolkit, engaging in open pedagogy means that this distinction of choosing how to express your copyright is completely up to you.
Student Privacy
When making your decision about whether to openly license your work or not, you might be wondering about your own privacy. Posting something publicly, whether to an open repository or even on a class website, might feel a bit scary; everyone could see your work! Again, this is why the decision to openly license your work is up to you, but there are ways that your instructor can help mitigate some of the discomfort you might feel about sharing your work.
For example, you could choose to openly license your work anonymously or under a pseudonym. This way, if you really want to share all the hard work you’ve put into creating, you can do so without the fear that anyone will know it was you who created it. As you work throughout the semester you should carefully consider and reflect on your privacy rights so that you feel comfortable with the decisions you’re making. You might want to reach out to your instructor to ensure you’re both on the same page. You can also collaborate on signed agreements so you can be sure to exercise your rights in the way that make sense for you. At the end of the toolkit, there is a collection of sample student work agreements so that you can have a better idea as to what one might look like.
Authentic engagement in open pedagogy leads to spaces where you should feel comfortable expressing any thoughts, concerns, or questions you might have.
- U.S. Copyright Office. (2021). Copyright basics. Accessed September 5, 2023. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf ↵
- U.S. Copyright Office. (2021). Copyright basics. Accessed September 5, 2023. https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.df ↵
as a creator. In the next two chapters, we’ll go into more detail regarding your rights and responsibilities as a creator.
Student Creator Rights from The Open Pedagogy Student Toolkit Copyright © 2023 by The Open Education Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
