As you search for OER, you will notice that resources have different licenses to indicate exactly how and in what capacities they may be used.
There are three main forms of licensing to consider when searching for OER:
The information above is adapted from UH OER Training by William Meinke, CC BY 4.0.
Creative Commons licenses are licenses which allow creators to grant permission to use creative works under copyright law, with six different types of licenses. They are listed here, from most to least permissive (open) here:
| CC License Name | License Text (What can someone do with this?) | Image of License | URL of License |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC BY |
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. CC BY includes the following elements:
|
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| CC BY-SA | This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. CC BY-SA includes the following elements: BY: credit must be given to the creator. SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms. |
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ |
| CC BY-NC |
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. CC BY-NC includes the following elements:
|
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| CC BY-NC-SA |
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA includes the following elements:
|
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| CC BY-ND |
This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. CC BY-ND includes the following elements:
|
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ |
| CC BY-NC-ND |
This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. CC BY-NC-ND includes the following elements:
|
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Creative Commons also offers a CC0 license, which allows a creator and copyright owner dedicate their work to the public domain to the fullest extent allowed by the law.
The information above is adapted from Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0.
When incorporating an OER into your own work, it can be tricky to know if you should cite the source or provide an attribution statement. This table summarizes the differences between citing and attributing:
| Citation | Attribution |
| Academic and legal purposes (plagiarism and copyright infringement). | Legal purposes (e.g., rules of Creative Commons licenses). |
| The rights of the copy (meaning copyright) are NOT shared with the general public by the copyright holder. | Copyright IS shared with the general public by the copyright holder by marking the work with an open-copyright license. |
| Protects an author who wants to refer to a restricted work by another author. | Author of an open work has given advanced permissions to use their work. |
| Used to quote or paraphrase a limited portion of a restricted work. | Used to quote (or paraphrase) all or a portion of an openly licensed work. |
| Can paraphrase, but cannot change work without permission. | Author has give advanced permission to change work. |
| Many citation styles are available: APA, Chicago, MLA. | Attribution statement styles are still emerging, but there are some defined best practices. |
| A reference list of cited resources are typically placed at the end of the book. | Attribution statements are found on the same page as the resource. |
The information above is adapted from Self-Publishing Guide Copyright © 2018 by Lauri M. Aesoph, CC BY 4.0
Below is an example of an OER attribution statement. Notice that the clause "except where otherwise noted" has been included.
Open Educational Resources (OER) by Kourtney Blackburn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
The inclusion of "except where otherwise noted" is extremely useful as it allows you to incorporate content in your OER that does not necessarily utilize the same license as the license you have chosen for your OER. For example, the OER example above has a CC BY 4.0 license and by including the clause "except where otherwise noted" it notifies downstream users that some of the content, such as images or charts, may be: under a different CC license, in the public domain, or used pursuant to fair use in the United States. From a legal perspective, this clause helps to clarify that you are not claiming copyright over all the content in your OER, just the content that you created.
The information above is adapted from Open Educational Resources by Jen Hughes, CC BY 4.0.
What should you consider when choosing a license?
Aren't sure where to start? Creative Commons has a handy license chooser to walk you through the decision-making process:
To make others aware of your work's chosen license, include the code or marking provided to you after using the license chooser. Some platforms have CC license tools built into their sites, and you may be able to designate your chosen license as you upload your work to that platform.
The information above is adapted from Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Want to remix or combine two different Creative Commons Licensed works? Use the Creative Commons License Compatibility Chart to determine if the licenses of your selected resources are compatible:
CC License Compatibility Chart was created by Kennisland under a CC0 license.
NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.
ND: No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.