Assignment – Unit 5: Creative Commons for Educators

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Values of openness and cultural competence at UTS

Values of openness and cultural competence at UTS by Jenny Wallace is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

I work as a Learning Design and Technology Specialist in the Learner Experience Lab (LX.lab) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), on Gadigal Land in Australia. UTS is a public university, meaning that it has primarily non-commercial goals and functions. Yet, most educational research and resources produced by UTS are closed to public access, and students must pay to attend. In addition, as a UTS staff member, all intellectual property (IP) I produce in connection with my work belongs to UTS.1

It appears that UTS’s closed practices conflict with the values of Creative Commons (CC). CC’s strategic goals are advocating for equitable sharing, innovating to enhance sustainable and ethical open infrastructures, and building capacity around the openness of knowledge and cultural heritage assets.2 However, the university is working towards these goals in two areas.

UTS policy and values

Open access

In its Intellectual Property Policy, UTS states that one reason the university retains rights over its staff members’ IP is to support the principles of its Open Access Policy. This policy claims that UTS is committed to open education and will facilitate open access to research and educational resources. To support this endeavour, UTS provides staff members with a procedure for making and sharing open UTS course and educational materials, including recommending using Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licenses.

Developing cultural competence

The Open Access Policy includes specific guidance for working with Indigenous Knowledge and points to the Indigenous Policy. According to the Indigenous Policy, UTS aims to ‘raise the status and visibility of Indigenous people and culture across UTS’ and ‘undertake training to build [staff members’] Indigenous professional competency’ to create more equitable education. When using materials that incorporate Indigenous Knowledge, staff members should obtain permission, give attribution, and consider the appropriateness of the material in its new context.

Applying the values in practice

UTS is a large university with thousands of students, and yet the tutors teaching the subjects create most materials for undergraduate courses. Many UTS tutors are employed on a casual basis, and historically, there has been a culture of tutors being given unmanageable workloads.3 Subsequently, whatever the institutional values of UTS, tutors often have to prioritise speed and volume, rather than openness and equity, when creating content.

A specific instance of this in practice is an unsystematic approach to the inclusion of images in learning materials. Tutors want to make their resources engaging, flexible and culturally appropriate, but there is little information to guide tutors on incorporating images, and insufficient time to search for information. As a result, images in learning materials are often unattributed, from undisclosed sources, or even inappropriate (for example, including Aboriginal art with no description or context).

This means that many images, and therefore the materials they are embedded in, are:

  • unsuitable to be adapted into Open Educational Resources (OER).
  • less inclusive and equitable. For example, inappropriate use of Indigenous Knowledge contributes to the inequity that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People experience in education. 
  • less sustainable because unattributed images are more difficult to update.

Strategy and recommendations

UTS already has structures and systems that could support tutors to use images in a way that upholds the values outlined in UTS policy. These systems require adaptation and more integrated implementation. I propose a three-step strategy. The first step lays the foundation of information tutors need to follow UTS policy values, the second step trains tutors on how to apply it, and the third reinforces the relevance and benefits for tutors of open and culturally-appropriate resource practices.

1. Adaptations to the UTS Library Copyright Content Tool

This tool currently allows users to toggle content types and uses to access suggestions for content sources and guidelines on copyright considerations. The tool includes OER as a separate category from other content types (e.g. artistic works, video), meaning users are not directed to OER repositories to find content. The tool does not have a category for Indigenous Knowledge. 

These categories should be integrated and explained within each type of content (e.g. artistic works > open access images), with links to further information and resources, such as:

The only attribution guidance the tool currently provides is ‘You must properly attribute the author/creator and source of the copied work’. I recommend that scaffolding be added to support tutors in giving attribution. The section should outline the essential components of attribution: Title, Author, Source and License (TASL).4 This information would reinforce the importance of crediting creators and support tutors to comply with attribution requirements in UTS policy.

2. Integration of UTS Copyright Content Tool into LX.lab events

I recommend integrating the tool into relevant LX.lab events. These events (group workshops and one-on-one consultations) are regular sessions run by the learning designers in LX.lab to support and train tutors in learning and teaching approaches.

As tutors have limited time for training, I suggest incorporating the tool into an existing event. For example, the upcoming workshop Canvas essentials for new subject coordinators could have a section on content-sourcing practices. This approach would contextualise the UTS values of open access and cultural competence within the greater landscape of UTS learning materials and engage tutors in applying the principles.

3. Open Education Champions in disciplines

Finally, I suggest identifying and training representatives from faculty disciplines to serve as Open Education Champions. Identified champions should already have or be receptive to knowledge of OER and Indigenous Knowledge, and demonstrate appropriate practice in their learning materials creation. The champion would advocate for better image sourcing and attribution practices from within their discipline and be an approachable person for advice. 

This implementation method encourages the engagement of other tutors via contextualised and relevant peer support. It is also a sustainable way to implement image sourcing and attribution guidelines because champions can model good practice and engender a gradual cultural shift.

1000 words

  1.  UTS. (2023, July 11). Intellectual Property Policy. https://www.uts.edu.au/about/uts-governance/policies/uts-policy/intellectual-property-policy ↩︎
  2. Creative Commons. (n.d.). Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians, and Open Culture. Unit 1: What is Creative Commons. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/1-2-creative-commons-today/ ↩︎
  3. ABC News. (2020, August 18). University underpayment so rampant tutors ‘instructed to do a poor job’ to avoid unpaid hours, former staff say. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-18/rmit-uq-now-among-universities-accused-of-underpaying-staff/12565528 ↩︎
  4. Creative Commons. (2022, December 15). Recommended practices for attribution. https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Recommended_practices_for_attribution ↩︎

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