OpenNCCC Content and Submission Policy
Mission Statement
openNCCC, a product of the NC Community College System (NCCCS), is a library of Open Educational Resources (OER) that promotes exploration, creation, and collaboration, with the goal of enriching teaching and learning in North Carolina and around the world.
The content consists of a variety of learning formats that supplement courses, provide information and training, including but not limited to links to videos, websites, eBooks, webinars, and articles.
Licensing OER
NCCCS policies on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) must be adhered to. When using OER, students and staff must comply with the terms of the license of use.
It is the responsibility of faculty and staff to ensure that they have the necessary rights to publish an OER and that all resources published comply with all relevant policies (e.g. copyright, IPR, accessibility).
Faculty and staff are advised to publish OER using a Creative Commons attribution license (CC BY). Other Creative Commons licenses (for example to add a non-commercial use or share-alike element) may be used if the creators feel this is necessary or appropriate for their particular resource, or to comply with the license of any third-party content used in the resource.
When creating and publishing OER, the copyright owner(s), author(s), date, and Creative Commons license applied must be visibly attributed. Author(s) should also be properly acknowledged, giving recognition for work undertaken, along with date and Creative Commons license applied so that others can clearly understand what permissions for reuse are being granted.
OER Quality Assurance
The repository strives to provide resources of the highest quality. Contributions will be peer reviewed, but users are also able to leave comments. You are encouraged to provide constructive criticism and feedback on the modules which you access. Although there are mechanisms in place to support quality resources, you should still approach all the resources provided with a critical eye, and students should be taught to use multiple sources, and critically evaluate all information they access.
Submission Guidelines
Thank you for your interest in adding resources to openNCCC. Below, you will find the rubric used by our openNCCC Steering Committee to review content submissions. If your resource fails to meet any of the required criteria, your resource will automatically be disqualified from publication. If your resource fails to meet suggested criteria, your submission may be rejected, based on the discretion of the Steering Committee.
Educational Context | ||
Criteria | Status | |
| Resource clearly supports learning in curriculum, continuing education, basic skills, vocational, or professional learning contexts. | Required | |
| Resource presents a clear context of use for a specific educational audience. It is clear who would use this resource and how this resource could be used to meet teaching or learning goals. | Required | |
| Resource presents clearly articulated learning goals or objectives. It can be aligned to educational standards, courses and/or programs as well as professional development use. | Suggested | |
Licensing/Usage Rights | ||
| Required | |
| The resource itself or collection provider website clearly states that content is released under a Creative Commons license, is within the public domain, or that usage rights have been granted for non commercial or educational use. | Required | |
User Access | ||
| Resource is openly accessible without creating an account or logging in, unless the resource is restricted for use by the faculty and staff of the NCCCS. | Required | |
| Resource is openly accessible in its entirety. (i.e. not partial commercial “sample” content.) | Required | |
| Resource does not require use of commercial software or services. | Required | |
| Resource is appropriately granular to facilitate ease of user access to specific teaching or learning content, i.e., links are not indexed to the top page of a large database but directly to individual learning resources. | Required | |
Relevance | ||
| Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) content has been created or updated within the last 3-5 years. | Required | |
| Software or browser applications required for use of the resource are supported in modern operating systems and browsers. | Required | |
| General content has been updated within the last 5-7 years. | Suggested | |
Formatting and Style | ||
| Resource is formatted appropriately and easy to use. For example, headings and sections are labeled clearly and meet accessibility standards. Proper grammar and spelling utilized throughout. | Required | |
| Headings utilize the “headings” tool in the Open Author editor. This ensures screen reader accessibility. | Suggested | |