Reviewing OER Licensing
Overview
This mini-lesson is part of the OERizona Advance Course and explores the basics of the OER Definition, the concept of open licensing and the varying Creative Commons licenses.
(Review and deepen knowledge)
Open Educational Resources (OER) was a term first officially coined at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on Open Courseware.
OER Definition:
OER are defined by UNESCO as "Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others."
Open Licensing Definition:
- Licensing refers to the terms of use that an author places on an original work they have created. Depending on where in the world the work was created and by whom, different terms of use will indicate how openly others can use, retain, share and change the creation.
- Full copyright licensing means that the creator has retained all rights and all requests to use, share or change the work must be sent to the original creator.
- Open licensing refers to when the author chooses terms of use that allow others to use, share or change the work with few restrictions. A non-profit called Creative Commons created a set of open licenses called the Creative Commons licenses that is a standardized way to explain how other users can re-use, redistribute, retain, revise and remix the work. Watch the video below to hear a bit more about Creative Commons licensing.
Creative Commons Licenses:
- The base Creative Commons license is 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.
- If the creator is releasing all rights, including attribution, the resource is entered into the Public Domain and best practice includes describing that as CC-0 (pronounced CC-Zero).
- Additional restrictions can be added to the CC BY license and sometimes the restrictions are combined.
- Share Alike (SA) - if this restriction is added, any changes to the original resource, the modified material must be given the same licensing terms as the original resource. Attribution to the original author must still be given.
- Non Commercial (NC) - if this restriction is added, only non-commercial uses of the resource are allowed. Attribution to the original author must still be given.
- No Derivatives (ND) - copying and distributing of the material can only occur in the original, unmodified form of the work. No derivatives or adaptations are allowed.
- You may see the above combined - such as CC-BY-NC-SA or CC-BY-NC-ND.
This "What are Creative Commons licenses?" video from University of Guelph McLaughlin Library walks through the main ideas of Creative Commons licenses with concrete examples.
Looking at an Example:
- The video above is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0.
- Could you repost it on your website and remove the title and attribution?
- No - the CC-BY license requires attribution.
- Could you add dubbing to overlay someone speaking the text in a different language?
- Yes! The CC-BY license allows modification as long as you give attribution to the original creator, use the same license and don't make any money from your derivative.
- Could you play the video at an event where you have charged admission and will make a commercial profit?
- No! The CC-BY-NC-SA license does not allow for commercial use.