1.2: Open Licensing and Creative Commons Primer
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This resource is a condensed adaptation of the Open Educational Resources: OER 101 Tutorials for Designers (CC-BY) authored by Linda Neff, Coconino Community College and Sandra Cerreta, Arizona Western Community College, most recently updated 3/15/22, and has been made available from the Canvas Commons.
Introduction to OER
Overview
Open educational resources are somewhat different from open learning, in that they are primarily content, while open learning includes both content and educational services, such as specially designed online materials, in-built learner support and assessment.
Open educational resources cover a wide range of online formats, including online textbooks, video recorded lectures, YouTube clips, web-based textual materials designed for independent study, animations and simulations, digital diagrams and graphics, and even assessment materials such as tests with automated answers. OER can also include slides or lecture notes.
This video explains what Open Educational Resources (OER) are and provides an overview of Creative Commons licensing, which we will describe in this primer.
Attribution: “What is an open license and how does it work?” by The Council of Chief State School Officers is licensed CC BY 4.
Definition
Open educational resources (OER) are openly-licensed, freely available educational materials that can be modified and redistributed by users. They can include any type of educational resource, from syllabi to full courses.
The most comprehensive definition of OER available today is provided by the Hewlett Foundation:
Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.
Most library subscriptions cannot be altered, remixed, or redistributed; therefore, these materials cannot be considered “open.” Although some materials are free to access for a library’s users, that does not mean that they are free to access for everyone (including the library). Similarly, while some open access resources are made available under a copyright license that enables modification, this is not always the case.
Benefits
As Figure 1 shows, the price of college textbooks has risen greatly over the past 35 years, outpacing all other consumer goods in the Consumer Price Index by a great margin.
Data source: Bureau of Labor Statistics(Links to an external site)
According to the 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey: Executive Summary, Download 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey: Executive Summary, the cost of textbooks has a profound impact on college students, many of whom must wait to purchase their course materials until well into the term or choose not to purchase them at all.
The problem of food and housing insecurity among college students compounded with the additional rising cost of textbooks can make the difference between a student persisting in college or dropping out.
Additionally, students have access to OER from day one. No more waiting in long bookstore lines or for their financial aid to come through in order to purchase expensive textbooks!
- Cost savings for students - One of the first aspects of OER to be praised by the general public was the cost savings that they could bring to students. The price of college textbooks has risen greatly over the past 35 years, outpacing all other consumer goods in the Consumer Price Index by a great margin (Data source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).
- Access to quality materials for students - Open materials can be accessed before, during and after your course, without costs and without having to be affiliated with the university.
- Access to quality materials for faculty - Using high quality materials that align more closely to your student learning outcomes allows for customization, selection, the ability to easily update or create a second edition, and tailor ancillary materials.
- Network and collaborate with peers - Professors can access materials that have been peer-reviewed by experts in your field, create materials with colleagues, and even have students work to co-create certain materials.
Challenges
- Subject availability
- Format and material type availability
- Time and support availability
Considerations
- How will an OER improve your course?
- How will you tailor the OER to your target (and possibly secondary) audience(s)?
- Does the OER you need already exist?
- How will you share and update your OER?
- How can you learn the necessary expertise to develop your OER?
- What kind of copyright/open license will you want to use?
Copyright and Open Licensing
As you begin to explore OER for use in your classroom, it is important that you understand your rights over the works you create and what it means to give those rights away.
Most copyrighted works are under full, “all rights reserved” copyright. This means that they cannot be reused in any way without permission from the work’s rights holder (usually the creator). One way you can get permission to use someone else’s work is through a license, a statement or contract that allows you to perform, display, reproduce, or adapt a copyrighted work in the circumstances specified within the license.
Copyright Law
U.S. copyright law protects an author’s rights over their original creative works (e.g., research articles, books and manuscripts, artwork, video and audio recordings, musical compositions, architectural designs, video games, and unpublished creative works) (U.S. Copyright Law). As soon as something is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression,” it is automatically protected by copyright. A resource is considered fixed when:
“its embodiment …by or under the authority of the author, is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration” (U.S. Copyright Law).
In other words, an idea for a book you want to write is not protected by copyright, but the first draft of your manuscript is. Copyright protection ensures that the creator of a work has complete control over how their work is reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, and adapted (U.S. Copyright Law).
You do not need to register your resource with the U.S. Copyright Office for this to come into effect; it is automatic.
Public Domain
Works that are no longer protected by copyright are considered part of the public domain. Items in the public domain can be reused freely for any purpose by anyone, without giving attribution to the author or creator.[4]
Public domain works in the U.S. include works whose creator died 70 years prior, works published before 1924, or works dedicated to the public domain by their rights holder. The Creative Commons organization created a legal tool called CC 0 to help creators dedicate their work to the public domain by releasing all rights to it.
Fair Use
If an OER is available under a copyright license that restricts certain (re)uses, you can make a fair use assessment for reproducing or adapting that work. However, having explicit permission is preferable. We do not recommend using fully copyrighted works in OER projects without written permission from the work’s rights holder.
Open Licenses
All OER are made available under some type of open license, a set of authorized permissions from the rights holder of a work for any and all users. The most popular of open licenses are Creative Commons (CC) licenses. While we will focus on CC licenses, note that other open licenses exist, such as the GNU Free Documentation License, a fully open license for any type of resource, and the Free Art License, a fully open option for creative works.
One of the tenets of OER laid out early on in the open education movement was the idea of the 5 Rs introduced by David Wiley. See chart below.
- Retain = the right to make, own, and control copies of the content.
- Reuse = the right to use the content in a wide range of ways
- Revise = the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself
- Remix = the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new
- Redistribute = the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others
Background of OERs
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is a global nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Creative Commons (CC) licenses allow you to explain, in plain language, how your creative works can be reused. These licenses act as explicit, standing permissions for all users allowing others to reuse, adapt, and re-publish content with few or no restrictions. See more: History of Creative Commons.pdf
The Four Components of Creative Commons Licenses
These elements can be mixed and matched to create a total of six Creative Commons licenses:
The 5 Rs of Open Content
To help decide which license is best for your resource, explore the CC Chooser: License Chooser.
Before you choose a license, keep in mind that an OER should be able to exercise all the 5 Rs of open content. Note that the CC BY-ND and CC BY-NC-ND licenses do not allow revising or remixing content, two of the most significant freedoms of OER for many instructors.
Creative Commons has an online Marking Guide that demonstrates how to mark your CC license on different types of media. Making your license obvious on whatever item you are sharing is an important part of the dissemination process for OER. It must be clear, visible, and provide links to the license/work.
Attribution: “Wileys 5Rs and Creative Commons Licensing” is by Krysta McNutt, CC-BY 4.0. To view the full version, visit the Google Drawing.
Types of Creative Commons Licenses
To help decide which license is best for your resource, explore the CC Chooser: License Chooser.
Before you choose a license, keep in mind that an OER should be able to exercise all the 5 Rs of open content. Note that the CC BY-ND and CC BY-NC-ND licenses do not allow revising or remixing content, two of the most significant freedoms of OER for many instructors.
There are six types of Creative Commons licenses that allow differing levels of openness.
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This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. |
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This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and it is also recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects. |
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This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. This license is not an OER. |
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This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. |
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This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
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This license is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. This license is not an OER. |
Descriptions adapted from Licenses - Creative Commons - (CC BY 4.0)
NOTE: A remix that includes OER content with a variety of CC licenses will need to include those licenses on the parts, but to share the whole collection it must carry the most restrictive CC license of the collection.
If you wish to offer your own materials as open educational resources, it is a relatively simple process to choose a license and apply it to any piece of work (see Creative Commons Choose a License).