Creative Commons, U.S. Department of Education, and Open Society Foundations present
Participation in the competition constitutes your full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of the Official Rules, so it is important that you read and understand them prior to participating in the competition.
A: Open Educational Resources have been available online for the more than a decade and there's enormous potential for OER to aid teachers, students, and schools. The problem is that few people around the world have ever heard of Open Educational Resources. We want you to tell that story to the world by creating and sharing short videos.
A: You may submit your video entry via the competition website form. You need to provide the URL of your video as well as contact information. Entrants must agree to the official rules when submitting their video. When submitting a video, you get an account on the whyopenedmatters.org website. You may use this account to log in to vote for the Public Choice Award.
A: You must be at least 13 years old to enter. Nonprofits, schools, and companies may also enter a video.
A: Yes, submissions can come non-U.S. citizens and from organizations outside of the United States, provided you comply with the requirements laid out in the Official Rules.
A: Videos must be submitted by June 5, 2012.
A: Videos should be no more than 3 minutes long.
A: Yes. But, if you work in a team, each team member must fill out and submit the Team Member Release Form at the time of submitting the video. Team Member Release forms should be emailed to tvol [at] creativecommons.org.
A: A panel of judges will award the first and second place prizes. The public will choose the Public Choice Award by voting for their favorite video on the Why Open Education Matters website. Judging and public voting will take place from June 11 - July 11, 2012. See the Judging page for more information.
A: To award the first and second place prizes, submissions will be judged on a 100-point scale according to the following criteria:
A: The first prize is $25,000. The second prize is $5,000. The Public Choice Award is $1,000. The prize money is graciously provided by the Open Society Institute.
A: Winners will be publicly announced July 18, 2012. If you are a winner the competition organizers will contact you on or after July 5, 2012 to confirm your prize. You must respond within three days of being notified you are a winner or you will not be eligible to receive your prize.
A: The Why Open Education Matters video competition is being organized by Creative Commons, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Open Society Institute. The Participatory Culture Foundation designed the competition website on the Miro Community platform.
A: Information about Open Educational Resources and other FAQs are available on the FAQ page.
A: All submissions to the Why Open Education Matters Video Competition must be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for more information.
A: You can use any video hosting platform (such as YouTube, Vimeo, blip.tv, etc.) as long as those platforms allow you to license the video under CC BY. Alternatively, you can host the video on your own website as long as the video is licensed CC BY.
A: Yes, as long as you are authorized to include it, either because you have permission or it is in the public domain. Note that you should not include content if you are relying on fair use or any other exception or limitation to copyright law. It is very important that you understand your legal obligations when incorporating third party content. Before creating and submitting your video, read the FAQ for more information.