An Introduction to OER for Langara Instructors

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Briana Fraser

One way of thinking about open education is with reference to making educational resources - materials that are used for teaching and learning - more openly available. This is typically done by putting them online and making them available with an open licence which permits or encourages re-use and adaptation.

In this lesson, we will define open licenses, discuss the types of Creative Commons open licenses and look at how to apply them.

What is an open license?

A license is a document that specifies what can and cannot be done with a work. It grants permissions and states restrictions. Broadly speaking, an open license is one that grants permission to access, re-use and redistribute a work with few or no restrictions (definition from Openedefinition.org).

There are many open licenses developed for different areas of knowledge. However, when it comes to open educational resources the most typical and common open licenses used are Creative Commons Licenses.


Creative Commons licences explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZvJGV6YF6Y&t=10s
Creative Commons Licences Explained by Chris Fallows, CC BY.

Open licenses allow OER to meet the “4R Framework.”  

The 4R framework (http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/355), developed by David Wiley, is a useful tool to help understand whether a teaching resource is, in fact, an open educational resource. The 4R framework defines the rights of a user over content, i.e., what a user can do with the content in order for it to be considered an OER.

  1. Reuse – the right to reuse the content in its unaltered / verbatim form
  2. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify or alter the content
  3. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new
  4. Redistribute – the right to make and share copies of the original content, a revision of the content or remixes of the content with others

Recently, Wiley expanded the 4R’s to include a fifth one: Retain, which gives users the right to make, own and control copies of the content.

Creative Commons License Types

Creative Commons licences are organized into four different licensing conditions (Attribution, Share Alike, No Derivatives, and Non-Commercial) and can be combined in different ways to produce six licenses. The document below briefly outlines the different conditions and licenses available to creators. These licenses explicitly inform users of the conditions under which a work can be used.

Public Domain Image of CC Licenses
6 CC Licenses_BXTplTE.PNGPublic Domain Image of CC Licenses

Public Domain Image of CC Licenses

All Creative Commons licenses contain an attribution (BY) clause. This means that you must include a statement that gives credit to, or attributes, the creator of the work from which you have borrowed, whether it’s text, an image, a video, or other item.

Activity

Experience:

Read  the following about OER use in higher education:


Review Questions:

  1. What are open licenses?
  2. How many open licenses does Creative Commons offer?
  3. What do all Creative Commons open licenses require of users?

Resources:

A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources, the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002158/215804e.pdf


  Creative Commons Licence
This lesson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
 About Creative Commons Licenses contains material from: Open Education Handbook, by The Free Textbook Project, used under CC-BY-SA license; Module 3: Open License, by Open Washington, used under CC-BY 4.0 license; Creative Commons Licenses Explained, by Chris Follows, used under CC-BY; BC Open Textbook Adoption Guide, by Lauie Aesoph, used under CC-BY 4.0 International license; Six Licenses For Sharing Your Work, by Creative Commons, used under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain; and BC Open Textbook Adaptation Guide, by Lauri Aesoph, used under CC-BY 4.0 International license.



 




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