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Open Educational Resources (OER): Creative Commons and OER

This guide provides information and resources for faculty who are interested in exploring opportunities for using textbooks and learning materials published through non-commercial sources in their (physical or virtual) classrooms.

Creative Commons: What Is It?

Creativ Commons logo

Creative Commons is a worldwide nonprofit organization that supports the open sharing of intellectual content. Here's what they say about themselves:

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a globally-accessible public commons of knowledge and culture. We make it easier for people to share their creative and academic work, as well as to access and build upon the work of others. By helping people and organizations share knowledge and creativity, we aim to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world.

~ about Creative Commons

Creative Commons makes it possible for anyone who creates intellectual content to make their own determinations about what others may do with their creative works. Without creative commons licensing, the use and distribution of open educational resources would be infinitely more difficult.

Creative Commons Licenses

Licenses

The following are all six Creative Commons licenses; their symbols, their names, their abbreviations, and explanations of their permissions.

Six Creative Commons licenses and their symbols
CC BY ICON

Attribution

CC BY
 
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
CC BY icon

Attribution – ShareAlike

CC BY-SA
 
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 is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
CC BY ND icon

Attribution – NoDerivs

CC BY-ND
 
This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
CC BY NC icon

Attribution – NonCommercial

CC BY-NC

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.
CC BY NC SA icon

Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike

CC BY-NC-SA

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.
CC BY NC ND icon

Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs

CC BY-NC-ND

This license is the most restrictive of our 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.

Components

Components of a CC license and their symbols
CC attribution icon

Attribution

All CC licenses require that those who use a work in any way must give credit to its creator in the way requested by that person, but not in a way that suggests the creator endorses the user or their use. If one would like to use a work without crediting the creator, they must first get permission to do so.
CC share alike icon

ShareAlike

You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.
CC No Derivatives icon

NoDerivs

You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.
CC Noncommercial Use Only icon

NonCommercial

You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivs) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first.

Creative Commons: Licenses, published by the University Libraries of the University of Oklahoma, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

Creative Commons icon    CC BY ICON

Creative Commons Licenses Compared

Infographic ranks CC licenses according to the freedom they give to users from most to least. With public domain representing the most freedom, at the top of the diagram, the ranking, in descending order is: CC By, CC BY SA, CC BY NC, CC BY NC SA. These are the four licenses that are considered to be OER. Below that are the more restrictive licenses, not considered to be OER: CC BY ND and CC BY NC ND. Not represented in the diagram would be the most restrictive type of license - standard copyright, with all rights reserved. For explanations of the various types of licenses, view the box on Creative Commons licenses.

Green, C. 2017. Open Licensing and Open Education Licensing Policy. In: Jhangiani, R S and Biswas-Diener, R. (eds.) Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science. Pp. 29–41. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.c. License: CC-BY 4.0

Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons Licenses Explained

Licensing Resources for Beginners

Attributing OER Resources

Key Elements

  • Title
  • Author
  • Source
  • License

If you modify an object, it gets more complicated, but not to worry. Creative Commons provides good examples when you get to that stage.

Public Domain vs. Open License vs. All Rights Reserved

Credits

This guide was developed by Leslie Murtha, Robert Mast, Amanda Carey, Janet Hauge, and Mike Sargente, Atlantic Cape Community College Libraries.
Published June 2020.