Forum on Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources hosted by Creative Commons China Mainland and supported by OpenCourseWare Consortium took place on Oct 17th in Renmin University of China

The Forum brought together representatives from various fields and organs devoting to promoting open educational resources such as the Center of the Excellent Curriculum Resources (JingPinKe) of Ministry of Education, the National Science Library (NSL), the Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences(CNIC), the Department of Digital Resources of the National Library of China (NLC), China Education and Research Network (CERNET) and universities like Renmin University of China, Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiaotong University, as well as famous Internet enterprises, like Mozilla Online, Netease, Sina, ifeng, together with other users and promoters of CC licenses and OER such as Kong Bohua Chinese Medical School, NGO 2.0, Science Squirrel, Social Learn Lab, YaoRui Education Consulting Co., ltd, and HackerSpace. The participants conducted an in-depth discussion on a series of topics including how to share educational resources by open licenses, the significance of CC licenses to OER, the domestic OER practice, the experiences in construction of the open platforms to share OER, and how to initiate legal sharing in the OER domain and promote the prosperity of society and culture. There were almost 70 participants in the forum, which made it a grand get-together in the field of OER. The forum was broadcasted live on Creative Commons China Mainland’s microblogs of Sina and Netease.

Keynote Speeches by the Guests on the Forum


The Project Lead of Creative Commons China Mainland, Professor Chunyan Wang of the Law School of Renmin University of China introduced the background on the forum and stated in her opening address that CC and OCWC share the common spirit of opening and sharing. And CC makes the open sharing of educational resources possible by providing the legal tools. There is a close cooperation between CC and OER. (For more information on CC China Mainland, see http://cn.creativecommons.org/) The Executive Director of OCWC, the supporter of the forum, Mary Lou recognized the work of Creative Commons China Mainland in OER, and stated that the primary intension to create OER is to provide more people with the access to educational resources and knowledge as well as a more convenient approach to improve their work, study and life. (For more information of OCW Consortium, see http://www.ocwconsortium.org/ )

Mr. Wangli Dong, the Senior Consultant of the Center of Excellent Curriculum Resources (JingPinKe) of the Ministry of Education, introduced to the participants the current situation and the future development of the Integration Project and the Center of the National Excellent Curriculum Resources and shared his thoughts and inspirations in the operation of OER. (For more information of JingPinKe, see http://www.jingpinke.com/)

Mr. Lingqian Kong, the representative successor of the intangible cultural heritage of Kong Bohua Chinese medicine family, CEO of Kong Yi Tang Technology Limited (Beijing) gave a speech on “Chinese Medicine Culture and OER”. He elaborated from three aspects: sharing knowledge leading to a society of harmony and integrity; to be people-oriented and society-oriented; OER in Chinese Medicine. (For more information of Kong Yi Tang, see http://www.kongyitang.com/)

Mr. Lianglin Hu, the Senior Engineer of the Center of Scientific Statistics, Computer Network Information Center (CNIC) of Chinese Academy of Science, gave a speech on “Sharing the Scientific Statistics”. He firstly introduced the history, current situation and the future plans of the Center of Scientific Statistics, and raised the problems exiting in the citation of scientific statistics. He also expressed the willingness to have further discussion and cooperation on Science Commons with Creative Commons China Mainland. (For more information of CNIC, see http://www.cnic.cn/)

Ms. Aiping Jiang, the Deputy General Manager of CERNET said in her speech on “CERNET and the Sharing of Educational Resources” that CERNET has set up the platform of sharing educational resources (www.oer.edu.cn) and provides access services. CERNET is trying to make full use of the educational resources of the universities to make further contribution to the sharing of knowledge. (For more information of CERNET, see http://www.cernet.edu.cn/)

Ms. Ruobing Zhang from Department of Digital Resources of the National Library of China (NLC) introduced the application of CC models in the construction of digital resources in libraries from the following aspects: the development of CC models, the application of CC in libraries, the significance and construction of CC models in the digital resources in libraries. (For more information of NLC, see http://www.nlc.gov.cn/)

Professor Chunyang Wang gave a speech on “Creative Commons and Open Educational Resources”. The transition from traditional education to open education calls for a flexible and free authorization model, which is the very reason why CC attracts partners from different fields and communities. Open license is a kind of contract, which allows for the open access to the relevant resources. One of the important roles of CC China Mainland is to promote the application of CC licenses in the OER domain. She also introduced the practice of CC China Mainland in OER, including the cooperation with UNESCO and an OER volunteer plan.

Mini-presentation: Sharing the Experiences of the Communities

In the second section, many representatives from universities, online communities, NGOs and internet enterprises which promote OER projects gave mini-presentations to share experiences. Professor Zeyu Chen from Shanghai Jiaotong University introduced the origin, current situation and future plans of OER in Shanghai Jiaotong University.(See http://ocw.onlinesjtu.com/) Mr. Yuanzheng Guo, the General Manager of Mozilla Online, a long-term partner of CC China Mainland, introduced the Drumbeat platform of the open source community of Mozilla Online (See http://www.mozilla.org/drumbeat/), which supports users’ online sharing.

Ms. Jingsong Mei, the Director of the Educational Channel of Sina.com, gave a presentation on “OER in the Age of Microblog”. The open course project of Sina has accomplished the application on all platforms from webpages, blogs to mobile devices. This project has achieved a leap in the development by promotion on the microblog platform, combination with the hot issues, and independent translation of courses. (See http://edu.sina.com.cn/video/open/)

Professor Xueyong Gu from Tsinghua University shared his opinions on “How to Design Integrated Learning Activities with Open-sourced Resources”. By open-sourced resources, engineering education is integrated with humanistic education, and engineering technology transforms humanistic experiences. This kind of opening and sharing brings us a new structure of knowledge, which leads to a new society. (For more information of Professor Gu’s project on open source hardware, see http://toyhouse.cc/)

Ms. Xiuli Zhuang, the founder of the Social Learn Lab and teacher of the School of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University introduced the practice of Social Learn Lab in OER. Based on Web 2.0, the Social Learn Lab provides the students with a cyber environment of open experiences. (For more information of the Social Learn Lab, see http://sociallearnlab.org/)

Mr. Kui Zhou, a member of the NGO 2.0 Project and teacher of Tsinghua University, talked on the topic “Grassroots Public Welfare in the Age of Web 2.0”. NGO 2.0 is a project initiated by Professor Wang Jin of MIT New Media Action Lab in 2008, which is dedicated to improving the media literacy and creative thinking of grassroot NGOs in China. The training courses and materials of NGO 2.0 are shared under CC license. (For information of NGO 2.0, see http://www.ngo20.com/)

Mr. Kang Li, a cyber culture scholar, discussed with the participants the practice of CC. His speech is based on two main words in the theme of the forum, commons and open, to illustrate different levels of opening and sharing. And advocate a proper and positive philosophy of opening and sharing in the promotion of OER.

Mr. Hengxin Chen，an editor of Netease open course project, introduced the practice of Netease open courses. Netease became a member of OCWC in 2011, as the only Chinese enterprise member of the consortium. So far, Netease has invested 15 million RMB in to this project and issued more than 6000 volumes of open courses. (See http://open.163.com/)

Ms. Jingjing Li, a senior editor from ifeng open course project shared ifeng’s experiences on OER as a new comer to the community of open courses. This project tries to provide users with the best, most various and most popular contents, which does not only provide the videos of the courses, but also the background, logics, relevant opinions and experiences, to make comprehensive open courses. (See http://v.ifeng.com/gongkaike/index.shtml)

Orange, a senior member of Science Squirrel, a long-term user of CC license, talked on the topic “Building the Bridge of Sharing Science”. (For more information of Science Squirrel, see http://songshuhui.net/) Mr. Wang Tian, the CEO of YaoRui Education Consulting Co., ltd made a speech on “Chinese OER- a Cloudy Future”.

Meena Hwang, the Director of Community Outreach of OpenCourseWare Consortium, gave a conclusion speech for the forum. She firstly thanked Creative Commons China Mainland for building the platform of communication for OER users and promoters and recognized the practice of CC China Mainland in OER. She was inspired by the practice of OER in China, and she had full confidence in the future of OER cause in China.

Professor Chunyan Wang stated at the end of the forum that CC China Mainland will continue its efforts in the OER domain to further promote the development of OER in China. CC China Mainland will also make further endeavor to build platforms of communications and cooperation for open course communities and promote the open sharing of knowledge and educational resources.