Guidance for Contributing Authors

This section provides guidance for course contributions and the submission process.  Energy + Environment OpenCourseWare encourages submission of materials in existing and new categories of subject.  If your have additional questions about contributing course materials, please contact Craig Hart at chart@eeocw.org.

Modular Course Materials - Flexible Building Blocks
Energy + Environment OCW course materials are modular in nature, allowing teachers and learners to select the building blocks to develop their own courses.  Energy + Environment OCW breaks down subjects into discrete teachable units that can be easily combined with others.  Duration of these modules is typically 1-4 hours, allowing for a single one-hour class or a week's worth of teaching material, depending on the subject. 

Example of Planned Modules and Building Block Approach
Teachers can select modules to create a 1 or 2-semester courses appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students, in a science, engineering, public policy, law or business school setting.  The planned course modules will include:

Course Materials
Course materials include should syllabus and reading list, PowerPoint slides, and teaching notes.  Materials may also include interactive software. 

Video Materials
Video materials are also welcome.  Please contact Craig Hart at chart@eeocw.org for more information about arrangements for video materials.

Easy to Understand Non-Technical Language
Our goal is to make complex ideas understandable.  Slides and teaching notes should use non-technical language that is easy to understand and to translate into foreign languages.   Materials should be written at the level of non-major college students and high school students. 


Example Slides
An example of the plain language and level of accessibility we seek is provided in a description of Global Warming Potential (GWP) in our Science of Climate Change module.

Use of Graphs, Pictures, Models
We encourage the use of graphs, pictures, interactive models and other teaching methods that encourage interest and active learning.  Energy + Environment OCW's mission includes improving the quality of teaching methods in energy and environment in education through the highest quality materials. 

Review and Comment
Materials are reviewed by the Energy + Environment OCW Curriculum Committee, which may provide comments and request changes prior to posting.  Energy + Environment OCW is under no obligation to post materials on the site.

Author's Copyright and License
Contributed materials remain the property of their authors.  The site's default license is a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License (allows users to adapt materials provided they provide attribution), which we encourage because it allows teachers to adapt materials for their own courses.  However, authors have several other options for the license terms governing the use of their work, including  a common law "All Rights Reserved" license (user may only download for personal use only), a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives license (does not permit users to adapt materials), and a GNU Free Document License (allows free commercial and noncommercial use, subject to conditions).  Contributors can specify custom license terms for work subject to preexisting restrictions (contact us for details).  Please note that Energy + Environment OCW is not responsible for violations of copyright terms by users.

Third Party Copyrights
Contributors are responsible for arranging copyright permissions for any materials posted to the site.  By submitting materials, contributors represent to Energy + Environment OCW that they have all rights.  If Energy + Environment OCW believes that copyrights of any third party have been infringed, Energy + Environment OCW may remove or amend materials, or request the contributor to amend materials, and may take any other action in its legal rights.

Keeping Materials Up To Date
We ask contributors to update their materials periodically.  Energy + Environment OCW also reserves the right to update materials without notice to the author.