Learning Path
First-time learners can start with the basic units. Learners who already know the context, or facilitators preparing workshops, can go directly to the advanced units and activities.
Open Technology MOOC Course
An Open Culture Foundation self-learning course on open technology, including basic and advanced units on open culture, open data, digital rights, and AI applications. The course videos and slide decks are currently in Mandarin Chinese.
Open access, no login required
A self-learning course from open culture and open data to digital rights in the AI era
This course is designed for learners who want to quickly understand the context of open technology. It is also useful for speakers, educators, and community organizers who want to reuse the materials for teaching. The page brings together slide decks, lesson outlines, and hands-on activities so learners can start from either the basic or advanced units.
Note: The embedded course videos and slide decks are currently in Mandarin Chinese.
This course was filmed with support from lecturer Ming-Lun Chung for the Data Science in Education course in the Educational Big Data micro-credential program at National Taiwan Normal University.
3
Basic units
6
Advanced units
Mandarin
Current video and slide language
Teaching Use
Each unit includes an outline, learning goals, activity prompts, and slide links, making it easier to adapt the materials into short talks or workshops.
Open Access
Most materials are presented as Google Slides and released under CC BY or CC BY-SA licenses; some internal materials have separate licensing terms.
Materials
Slide Materials
The following materials are collected from a public Google Drive folder. They are presented as Google Slides for online learning and teaching use. The slide decks and course videos are currently in Mandarin Chinese.
Google Slide
Unit 1: Open Technology Everywhere
From the digital world to everyday life
Google SlideUnit 2: Is Open Data Useful?
Making open data a learning resource
Google SlideUnit 3: AI and Digital Services
The digital rights behind them
Google SlideUnit 4: Transparency Reports and Privacy
Unstoppable surveillance and privacy as a counterforce
Google SlideUnit 5: Using AI to Clean Open Data
From data to information
Google SlideUnit 6: Using AI to Visualize Open Data
Basic and advanced practice
Basic Units
Basic Units
Basic Unit 1
Open Slides
Open Technology Everywhere: From the Digital World to Everyday Life
Learn how open technology connects to daily life through open culture, open data, data governance, and civic technology projects.
Outline
- What is open: open culture and community perspectives
- Is open data useful? Using open data as a tool for understanding the world
- Open technology in everyday life: civic technology projects that inspire creativity
Who Should Start Here
This unit is a good first step for learners who are new to open technology and want to build a quick overview.
Basic Unit 2
Open Slides
Make Open Resources Your Marketing Advantage: Digital Social Responsibility in the AI Era
Use marketing cases around open resources to understand AI tool use, privacy protection, and digital social responsibility.
Outline
- The culture and spirit of openness
- Marketing case discussions using open resources
- Digital rights behind AI tool use
- Using AI and other tools while starting from personal privacy protection
Learning Note
This unit can lead into the advanced units on corporate digital rights and transparency reports as an entry point to AI and digital rights.
Basic Unit 3
CC Licensing and the Use of Open Cultural Resources
Start from copyright, Creative Commons, and open data to understand how cultural resources can be shared, circulated, and reused.
Outline
- What is copyright? Why use Creative Commons?
- What is open data?
- What kind of world has Creative Commons helped create?
- Case discussions on cultural promotion through open resources
Learning Note
This unit can be paired with the OCF Open Technology handbook and open licensing cases as a foundation for reusing cultural or community teaching materials.
Advanced Units
Advanced Units
The advanced units are designed as a connected course. Each session is around 2-3 hours and works well with discussion, experiential activities, and hands-on practice, helping learners understand the internet freedom and digital rights issues behind open technology.
Advanced Unit 1
Extended Slides
Open Culture and Community Collaboration
Understand free software, open collaboration, and ways to participate in open source projects, with a small activity using Open Source Star Village.
Learning Goals
- Explain the four freedoms of free software in your own words
- Describe the spirit and benefits of open collaboration
- Use the after-class activity to learn about open source projects
Outline
- What do we want to make open?
- The four freedoms of the free software movement
- The Open Definition
- The benefits of open collaboration and collaboration practices
- Open Source Star Village: learning about open technology and collaboration through a game
Call for Action
Open the open source project cards, choose a card that interests you, and analyze it from the four angles of FACT, FEELING, FIND, and FUTURE.
Advanced Unit 2
Open Slides
Open Data and Data Platforms
Understand the spirit of open data, data quality, and how to use open data platforms, then practice finding data from an issue.
Learning Goals
- Understand why open data is needed
- Build the ability to search open data platforms and access datasets independently
- Identify different levels of data quality
Outline
- Applications of open data in learning and knowledge-building
- Distinguishing data from information
- FAIR principles and the five-star data standard
- Basic use of open data search platforms
Call for Action
Think about the open data you would expect to find in your academic field, search for it on a government open data platform, and record the data you cannot find while analyzing possible reasons.
Advanced Unit 3
Open Slides
Corporate Digital Rights
Use RDR indicators and everyday platform cases to understand corporate responsibilities around privacy, freedom of expression, and governance.
Learning Goals
- Understand OCF's Taiwan corporate digital rights report based on RDR indicators
- Use the RDR report to review platforms used in daily life
- Learn about corporate governance, user privacy, and freedom of expression as digital rights concerns
Outline
- Identifying privacy issues in everyday life
- Common cases in corporate digital rights
- Using terms of service to understand governance, privacy, and freedom of expression indicators
Call for Action
Open the corporate digital rights report, choose a service you use often, and explain what issues you observe from its score.
Advanced Unit 4
Open Slides
Understanding Everyday Privacy Through Transparency Reports
Understand government surveillance, platform data requests, and transparency reports, and identify how private digital services respond to law enforcement requests.
Learning Goals
- Understand the history and development of government surveillance of communications
- Distinguish different forms of government surveillance
- Understand how private digital communication services interact with government surveillance
- Use open data to learn how platforms protect user privacy
Outline
- Government surveillance cases and negative impacts
- PRISM, government data requests, and surveillance methods in the digital era
- Procedural and substantive safeguards for surveillance in democratic governments
- Reading Google and Meta transparency reports
Call to Action
Choose a digital service you use often, read its terms of service and transparency report, and analyze how it handles your data when the government requests information.
Advanced Unit 5
Open Slides
From Data to Information: Using AI to Clean Open Data
Learn about data formats, spreadsheet basics, and common data issues, then practice using AI tools to support data cleaning.
Learning Goals
- Recognize common open data formats, presentation forms, and data issues
- Learn spreadsheet concepts and prepare for data cleaning and processing
- Learn how to use AI tools to support data cleaning
Outline
- Differences before and after data cleaning, and their impact on quality
- Common file formats for datasets
- Common errors in datasets and spreadsheets
- Hands-on sample dataset cleaning
Call to Action
Use the sample dataset prepared for cleaning practice and try to organize it into a clean, analyzable dataset.
Advanced Unit 6
Open Slides
Using AI to Visualize Open Data
From LLM prompts and data analysis to charts and visualization, practice turning open data into communicable information.
Learning Goals
- Understand how large language models perform in data processing and visualization
- Learn to use LLMs for data analysis
- Build skills for writing clear and specific prompts
- Learn techniques for using LLMs to analyze open data and create visual charts
Outline
- Analyze the functions and limits of LLMs in data processing and visualization
- Compare LLMs with traditional search engines
- Practice clear and specific LLM prompts
- Demonstrate prompts for different data analysis scenarios
Call for Action
Use data combinations such as listed-company information disclosure violations and historical closing prices from the Taiwan Stock Exchange, or Hsinchu County factory industry categories and consolidated income tax statistics, to practice forming analysis questions and creating visualizations.
References
References
The following resources are not course slide materials, but they are useful for preparation, follow-up reading, and facilitation design.
Open Technology Handbook
Understand the conceptual background of open source, open data, and open government.
Digital Rights in Taiwan: 2022 Corporate Accountability Report
Follow-up reading for the corporate digital rights and transparency report units.
Open Source Star Village
A board game project and activity resource for learning about open collaboration and community participation.