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  • Open educational resources (OER) at the ZHAW

    • OER are open educational resources that are deliberately made open by the author and furnished with certain rights of use (so-called licences) in order to allow for the simple use, further processing and publication of educational materials. Open educational resources include, for example, all types of course materials, texts, images, audio content, videos, educational software and complete course units.

      See also the UNESCO definition.

      OER are seen as having great potential in the area of university teaching, for example in supporting methodological-didactic approaches as well as in updating and further developing standardised and rapidly changing educational content and even in supporting individual teaching-learning processes.

      OER are educational resources that can be openly used, adapted and republished – for any purpose. Creative Commons licences, especially CC0, CC-BY and CC-BY-SA licences, allow this type of subsequent use.

      The CC licence represents permission for the free use of copyright protected works under the conditions of the respective licence. It is not required to obtain separate permission from the authors or to conclude an individual agreement.

      You can also find answers to many of the questions you have about OER in the “Creative Commons licences” section of this FAQ list.

      In the ZHAW Open Educational Resources (OER) Policy, ZHAW staff and students are expressly called on to publish their materials as OERs under a CC-BY or CC-BY-SA licence.

      The e-learning strategies of individual Schools also support the publication of OERs, for example the

      However, please note that under the FaHG law governing the Zurich universities of applied sciences and arts (§16(1)(b)) you require the approval of your line managers, as the usage rights for works that you create in performing your official duties lie with the ZHAW.

      At the ZHAW, there is an OER community with a TEAMS channel for self-registration. Members share their OER, their experience with OER projects, and questions as well as news related to OER. Furthermore, there are networking events with presentations, discussions, and good practices.

      All of ZHAW staff is welcome to join the OER community.

      Copyright is divided into moral rights and rights of use.

      • The moral rights remain unchanged with you, even if you publish your work under a CC licence: you decide on initial publication and your name must be stated in connection with the work.
      • The rights of use for copyright protected works that university employees have created in performing their official duties lie with the university in accordance with the FaHG law governing the Zurich universities of applied sciences and arts §16(1)(b)).
        If you would like to publish your materials in accordance with the ZHAW Open Educational Resources (OER) Policy under an open licence, you must obtain approval from your line managers. For reasons of proof, you should give preference to the provision of written confirmation of consent (e.g. e-mail).

      Under the FaHG law governing the Zurich universities of applied sciences and arts (§16(1)(b)), the rights of use for copyright protected works that have been created by university staff in performing their official duties lie with the university.

      Upon publishing such a work under a CC licence, the rights of use remain with the ZHAW, although not exclusively. A corresponding order or consent from your line manager is thus required. For reasons of proof, you should give preference to the provision of written confirmation of consent (e.g. e-mail).

      Be sure to always obtain the consent of each person whose face or voice you would like to publish in images, videos or audio recordings under a CC licence. Here you can find a form for requesting consent. Keep the consent for reasons of proof.
      In CC-licensed material for third parties wishing to subsequently use the material, indicate that consent has been provided. You can find a disclaimer in the Information sheet on CC licences and publishing open educationalresources (OER) at the ZHAW.

      When making use of openly licensed materials of third parties in which people are depicted, you should exercise caution. It may be the case that the affected individuals have not actually issued their consent to the open licensing and reuse of the illustrations in any context.

      The use of the ZHAW logo in materials under CC licence is permitted. Wherever possible, include a disclaimer, for example:

      • For German works: “Die Marke ZHAW ist von der vorliegenden Lizenz CC-BY 4.0 unberührt. Gemäss Abschnitt 2.b.2 der Lizenz werden Patent- und Kennzeichenrechte durch die vorliegende Public licence nicht lizenziert.”
      • For English works: “The ZHAW trademark is not affected by the CC-BY 4.0 licence. Under section 2.b.2 of the licence, patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this public licence.”

      The Microsoft Office templates of the Schools and Institutes in the ZHAW layout as well as the ZHAW video intro and outro (as at March 2023) can be used under a CC licence. This does not infringe on third-party rights.

      When using intros / outros or other media elements of the Schools, make sure that it is allowed to publish these under a CC licence.

      See more in the Information sheet on CC licences and publishing open educationalresources (OER) at the ZHAW.

      The University Library’s OER competence centre will advise you on any questions you may have about Creative Commons licences and open educational resources (OER). We look forward to receiving your e-mail at: oer.hsb@zhaw.ch

    • OER Logo Open Educational Resources.png von Markus Büsges (leomaria design) für Wikimedia Deutschland e. V., steht unter CC BY-SA 4.0

Creative Commons licences
Any other questions