Broaden your research impact with open educational resources

Although there are many measures of research impact, its benefit to society is one of the most fundamental. But to make an impact, research should be accessible, reusable and encourage people to engage with its data and findings. One effective way to ensure this is to use research outputs to create free, open learning materials, such as ebooks, data sets, courses, learning activities and media, called open educational resources (OERs). They can be used by teachers, students, community groups, citizen scientists and independent researchers worldwide. 

At our institution, OERs play an important role in communicating research outcomes, encouraging public engagement and contributing to our shared knowledge commons. Several of our research groups now build OERs into their research projects and impact pathways to disseminate their research to much wider audiences. 

Examples include:

• SatSchool, an outreach programme to teach secondary school pupils about Earth observation, designed by research students from the Centre for Satellite Data in Environmental Science and partner institutions.
• NEST (NEurodivergent peer Support Toolkit), a suite of materials to facilitate peer support for neurodivergent pupils in mainstream secondary schools, created by Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre.
• Supercytes, games-based resources that promote early interest in science, developed by the Centre for Inflammation Research.
• Mastitis training resources for the Ethiopian dairy sector, from the SEBI Livestock Centre for Supporting Evidence Based Interventions in Livestock.

Our university’s OER service supports researchers, educators and students to co-create a collection of high-quality OERs for use in schools worldwide. This award-winning collection covers a wide range of topics for learners aged between three and 18. The free learning materials have been downloaded more than 250,000 times, reaching beyond the academy to communicate scientific research and inspire new generations of researchers. 

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Here are practical steps you can follow to create OERs from your research outputs. 

• Check that your research funder allows you to share your research outputs under open licence. 

• Identify your intended learners, for example, primary school children, A-level students or community groups. And think about what they already know. The UK Qualifications Frameworks outline what is expected at different levels of learning in school curricula.

• Define your learning outcomes; describe what learners should be able to do by the end of an activity or course. Short, modular resources are often easier to reuse and repurpose than larger resources.

• Use language that is appropriate for your learners. Avoid jargon and overly scholarly terms. If you must use scientific terms, make sure you define them clearly. Think carefully about the language you use to communicate your research. Some terms can have one meaning in academic parlance and another in everyday usage.

• Make sure your OERs are accessible and inclusive for all learners. Use an accessible font and colour scheme. Always add alternative text (a short text description) to online images so they can be read by screen readers. Avoid text in images as much as possible. If you include diagrams or infographics, provide the same information in text format. Always add captions to videos and provide audio transcripts. Offer resources in alternative formats on request. To find out more, visit the Accessibility Fundamentals Overview from the Web Accessibility Initiative. 

• Ensure you have written permission from any participants to share your research outputs under open licence, especially if they are being recorded or filmed.

• Make sure any third-party images or media that you use are either in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions) or have been shared under an open licence (for example, a Creative Commons licence) that permits reuse and repurposing. Using public domain and open licensed images and media can help communicate ideas while saving you time and budget. 

• Use Vimeo, Pexels, Videezy and Videvo for free video content.
• Use OpenDoodles, The Noun Project and Open Peeps for icons and illustrations.
• Use OpenVerse, Wikimedia Commons and Europeana for images, media and audio.
• It’s good practice to attribute all images and media that you use. Good attribution includes the title of the work, the name of the creator, the licence it is shared under, or a note if it’s in the public domain, and a link to the original.
• Add an open licence to your OER. Creative Commons has a simple tool to help you choose the one that is right for you. For example: © S. Smith, R. Sanghera & J. Clarke, University of Edinburgh, CC BY-SA 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
  • Share your open licensed resources in a public access website or repository, such as TES Resources, where they can be found and reused by others. 

If your university doesn’t have a dedicated OER service, your library, teaching and learning centre, learning technologists or outreach officers may be able to provide advice on creating OERs for different audiences. Research councils also provide advice, support and funding for public engagement, for example, the UK Research and Innovation Public Engagement strategy.

Lorna M. Campbell is the learning technology team manager and Stephanie Farley is the OER advisor at the University of Edinburgh.

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