Defining Your Program Policy

Authors will likely approach you about using AI in creating their OER projects. Is that something you and your program want to support? Or would you rather focus on supporting human created content? You will have to decide what aligns with the values of your publishing program. Either way, it will be helpful to anticipate faculty questions and define what is right for your capacity and program.

We offer a series of Reflective Questions following this unit to help you consider whether using AI is something you and your OER program want to support.

Publishing Program Guidelines

You may want to develop guidelines around using generative AI tools for creating OER. Here are two examples:

Affordable Learning Georgia shares Guidelines for Using Generative AI Tools in Open Educational Resources
Cleveland State University offers Use of Generative AI Guidelines for Affordable Learning @ CSU OER Authors

Here are related recommendations from Mandi Goodsett, Performing Arts & Humanities Librarian, OER & Copyright Advisor at Cleveland State University:

CSU's AI guidelines were generated directly in response to faculty questions about using AI to generate content for their open textbooks. If you're thinking of developing guidelines of your own, I would be in communication with your faculty authors about the kinds of uses they were thinking of making, and how AI can make their work easier. I would also take a look at your institution's communications and/or policies around AI. AI has the potential to make a huge, positive difference in the productivity of open textbook authors, but it's a fast-changing space that has to be re-considered regularly.

Citation & Front Matter Attribution

If your authors use Generative AI to help them create their OER, it's a good idea to include an explanation in the front matter of the published work. For example, in Critical Worlds: A Targeted Introduction to Literary Analysis (CC BY NC) by Liza Long, she includes a section called OER Philosophy and Use of Generative AI in the About this Book section:

This text represents a collaboration, reuse, and sharing of others’ Creative Commons licensed content, including student work. As much as possible, I have tried to create a text with diverse perspectives and writing styles. I invite you to provide feedback as well as using, reusing, or remixing any of the materials in this text in accordance with the terms of their Creative Commons licenses.

As I was writing this textbook, ChatGPT and other new generative artificial intelligence technologies were introduced. I decided to explore how these tools could assist in developing content for OER. I also am experimenting with these tools in crafting assignments for students.

I acknowledge that ChatGPT does not respect the individual rights of authors and artists and ignores concerns over copyright and intellectual property in its training; additionally, I acknowledge that the system was trained in part through the exploitation of precarious workers in the global south. In this work I specifically used ChatGPT to assist me in outlining chapters, explaining basic terminology, drafting model essays, and creating student prompts. I have included links to the chats I used for this book in an appendix.

In addition, APA, MLA and the Chicago Manual of Style offer citation guidelines for content generated by AI. You can see additional models of content transparency in our previous module, Copyright, Public Domain and Evolving Law.

Resources for Authors Who Want to Learn About AI

There may be a need for faculty development and capacity building around using AI to create OER. Here are two resources to get started:

AI Pedagogy Project - a project out of the metaLAB at Harvard that includes a guide for getting started with AI.

Introduction to Large Language Models - a Google Cloud micro-course about large language models.