Open Access(OA) & OER

Disposable assignments are those which neither the student or teacher will use again. They are used to check whether the student is able to perform the assignment. Ex: Spelling test.

Reusable - personally useful - assignments are assignments which students can use again. Ex: Resume

Reusable - publicly useful - assignments add value to the world (value outside of the classroom) by creating templates or assignments that can be used in a variety educational contexts. Ex: Creating or editing a chapter in a Wiki.

A resume template can be useful in a particular context, and yet be reusable and useful for many different people.  

Templates for formatting are worth the time to make them reusable by allowing people to make derivatives, and share, all the 5 R's.

An assignment for how to do something specifically, such as collecting and drying plants, can also be highly reusable, for anyone who wants to do that specific thing. 

But is making an assignment reusable worth

1) making sure your formatting and wording is not infringing on an existing copyright,

2) making it a reusable assignment by adding a CC license and

3) adding it to an OER repository so other people can find it

-- when it is easy to find similar recipes for this procedure and it is fair use to use the idea without making it more specific or doing any of the above?

Teachers already look at similar assignments and then edit them to make their own version with their specific details.  This is generally deemed fair use because of the educational context. 

The more specific the assignment, the less useful it may be to others, and the less likely it would be worth the time to make it reusable.