Definition

First thing’s first: Let’s make sure we share a common vocabulary before we dive into specific resources and how they can be used. According to the online repository OER Commons, “Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights.”

Authors will always get credit for their work!

This means that if a learning object has an open license attached to it, you may use it in your course or lesson without having to pay a fee; just be sure you pay attention to whatever license the original creator initially chose, and comply with the conditions of re-use.

Open Licensing

What is an open license?

Licenses from Creative Commons are copyright notices that allow for the sharing, revising, and updating of original work, while setting whatever limitations the creator sees appropriate. Authors will always get credit for their work! Unlike copyright, these licenses are global.

You can check your knowledge on this later.

Creative Commons Licenses

There are seven licenses with varying levels of restriction. The first two licenses are the least restrictive.

[CC0 License Icon]

The CC0 license means the creator of a work has decided to forgo all writes, including attribution, and that the work resides in the public domain. You may use a work without assigning credit, and you may make whatever changes you wish.

[CC-BY License Icon]

A work with a CC-BY license may be used without restriction, but you must credit the original author of the work. This work can be used commercially and can be altered in any way.

[CC-BY-SA License Icon]

This license means that the corresponding work can be altered and re-used for any purpose, assuming you provide credit to the original offer. SA refers to a concept of “ShareAlike,” which means that you must share any derivative works you create using item in question must also carry the CC-BY-SA license.

[CC-BY-ND License Icon]

A work with a CC-BY-ND (NoDerivatives) license means that you may use it for any purpose (including commercial) with attribution, but that you may not alter it in any way.

[CC-BY-NC License Icon]

NC means “noncommercial.” This license means you may re-use and alter this work however you wish, but it cannot be used for commercial purposes. Using a work with this license in your class is an acceptable, non-commercial use. You must also include accurate attribution.

[CC-BY-NC-ND License Icon]

A work that is licensed CC-BY-NC-ND means that you can use with attribution the entire, whole work — you may not alter it in any way. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

[CC-BY-NC-SA License Icon]

This license means that the attached work can be re-used and altered with attribution, but only for non-commercial purposes. The ShareAlike license means that you must attach this same license to any derivative works.

Identifying a Work’s License

Each resource should have an easily visible license displayed somewhere on the page. You may see the letters we’ve discussed so far (for example, CC-BY-NC), or you may see the license images reproduced. Examine the following screen shots and look for the license information.

Finding Openly-Licensed Resources

You have many avenues to discover new resources. You can use established learning object repositories like OER Commons, or Merlot, and can find open textbooks from the Open Textbook Library and BCcampus Open Textbooks. You can also try searching through Creative Commons search function; watch the video below to see how to use their search engine. Be sure to click on the buttons that pop-up throughout the video for opportunities to check your knowledge. You can find more resources at Ohio State’s Affordable Learning Exchange.

Check Your Knowledge