Licensing your Resource

Choosing a CC license can be confusing at first, but the Choose a License tool can help. This tool generates a license based on which rights you want to retain and which you would like to give to users. For example, if you want to share your work and allow others to adapt it, but you do not want others to be able to sell your work, you might consider using the CC BY NC license.

Before you choose a license, keep in mind that an OER should be able to exercise all the 5 Rs of open content. Not all of the CC licenses meet this definition. Specifically, 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.

A chart showing showing the permissions granted by each of the Creative Commons licenses. All licenses allow for users to retain and reuse, but only some licenses allow for users to revise, remix, and redistribute content.
Figure 8. “Wiley’s 5Rs and Creative Commons Licensing” is by Krysta McNutt, CC-BY 4.0. Click the image to view the full size Google Drawing.

Implementing a CC License

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: otherwise, users won’t know what license you’ve chosen! No matter the format, there are some standards you can follow:

  • Make it clear
  • Make it visible
  • Provide links (to the license and the work)

Strengths and Weaknesses of each CC License

There are strengths and weaknesses to each Creative Commons license you might apply to your OER. To help you make an informed decision, a short description of each license that can be applied to OER is provided below in the cards.

You can learn more about the individual CC licenses on the Creative Commons website.

 

Key Takeaways

  • When choosing a license, consider what permissions you want to grant users of your resource. It can be helpful to think about the 5 Rs of open content: retain, reuse, revise, remix, or redistribute.
  • There are tools available to help you choose the best license for your work and to mark it clearly so others know what permissions they have.

This chapter was adapted from The OER Starter Kit by Abbey K. Elder, licensed CC BY 4.0 and The ABOER Starter Kit by Technologies in Education at the Faculty of Education, the University of Alberta, licensed CC BY 4.0.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Affordable Course Content Awards Authors Guide Copyright © 2024 by Abbey Childs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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