We were going to call this section "Ground-Up Quality and Legality," but we figured that might be a little confusing.

Sea Change or Just a Little Swell?

Depending on to whom you are speaking, open resources are either drastically transforming, somewhat influencing, or completely not effecting education worldwide. That said, there remains such great promise that, with the little bit of work we've put in so far, many of us are anxious to get started making and sharing our own free resources.

Trying to shift completely and suddenly to open resources, however, will overwhelm you, frustrate you, and might even backfire, causing you to go back to the same old same old. A successful opening of your resources demands something of a philosophical shift at the core of some of your educational practices, particularly those related to how you put together materials and prepare for class sessions.

People clearly differ in terms of their estimation of the free culture philosophy. Some see copyright as a legitimate, ethical, and profitable way to generate better products through the free market. Others see sharing and open access to remixing as the catalyst for cultural enrichment. You don't have to be any kind of anti-copyright radical, however, in order to participate in and benefit from the open-resource movement.

Byte: You don't have to make the transition to OER all at once. You don't even have to complete the transition. Take microsteps, if necessary, and stop whenever you want.

This module contains a few tips for putting your open resources together so that, in the end, you can be happy with an end product that is both effective and legal.