Creative Commons Licensing and OERs
Generally, OERs are copyrightable materials that are shared under a Creative Commons license, allowing the material to be freely distributed, reproduced, and remixed.
Browse this page to become more familiar with how Creative Commons Licensing works.
Understanding Creative Commons License (Infographic)
Other Licensing Info
A quick breakdown of other licensing options and how they work.
- What are Creative Commons and Open Licences?Though Creative Commons is a popular way to license open educational resources, it certainly isn't the only way. Here, BC Commons discusses the differences in Creative Commons, open licensing, public domain, and copyright.
Getting Started with Creative Commons
- About the LicensesThis page contains an explanation of each of the Creative Commons license types in plain language.
- Attributing SourcesThis page gives an example of what attribution for CC content looks like.
- CC SearchSearch for Creative Commons licensed materials for reuse.
- Choose a LicenseWhen you're ready to share work you've created, visit the License Chooser to decide what license to apply to your material.
Attributing Works with a Creative Commons License
This example was pulled from Lumen Learning
What CC Licenses Look Like When Searching for OER
The licensing information for OER may show up in different places, but is usually easily found.
The license may be found right away in the results list of your search. This image is of the results of a textbook search on OASIS. You can see that the license information for this book can be found immediately without even clicking on the book title.
In other cases, you may need to click on a result to find the license information. The below image is of the description page of a learning resource from OER Commons. The information is still readily available, but does require an extra step.
All OER should make the applied CC license available. If you cannot find the license information for a resource, reconsider using it for your class.