MODULE 4: INTRODUCTION TO OPEN EDUCATIONAL

RESOURCES (OER) AND CREATIVE COMMONS

Table of Contents
MODULE 4: INTRODUCTION TO OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) AND CREATIVE COMMONS (CC) ................ 2
Module 4: Lesson 1: Open Educational Resources and Public Domain .......................................................... 3
Module 4: Lesson 2: Creative Commons: What Is It? ...................................................................................... 6
Module 4: Lesson 2a: Creative Commons: License Types ............................................................................... 8
Module 4: Lesson 2b: Creative Commons: Marking and Attribution ............................................................ 11
Module 4: Lesson 3: Finding OER, Public Domain, and Creative Commons Materials ................................. 13
Module 4: Completion of Module 4 .............................................................................................................. 15
Module 4 Glossary ......................................................................................................................................... 15

© 2021 by University of Maryland, Baltimore County. 1.4 Introduction to Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Creative
Commons for the Online Professional English Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding
provided by the U.S. government and administered by FHI 360. This work is an adaptation of Introduction to Open Educational
Resources (OERs) and Creative Commons, by FHI 360 licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. To view a 1
copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Adapted content is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Module 4: Introduction to Open Educational
Resources (OER) and Creative Commons (CC)
This module packet has every lesson and assignment you will see in the module. Module packets can be used as a
resource for participants who experience issues with internet access and/or connectivity. This means that with this
module packet, you can review all course material offline. However, you will still need to complete assignments
and activities, such as discussion posts, within Canvas. This packet is not meant to be a substitute for the online
course but should be used as a study aid and/or offline resource. Quizzes are not included in this packet, and you
can only access and complete quizzes through Canvas.

"Untitled Photo" by Aaron Burden via Unsplash is licensed under Unsplash license.

Welcome to Module 4: Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons (CC) Licensing. In this module,
you will learn about:

• Open Educational Resources, or OER, and the many types of OER that can be found online.
• How to adapt these to your classroom needs by:
o Identifying OER that can be adapted.
o Properly attributing the original creator through the use of Creative Commons, or CC licensing.

By the end of the module, you will have a basic understanding of OER and CC licensing. You will also demonstrate
proper attribution, or “marking”, of adapted materials.

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 OER Global Logo by Jonathas Mello is licensed under a CC BY 3.0 License.

Why do you need to know about intellectual property, licensing, and Open Educational Resources (OER)?

So that you can:

• Recognize usable, adaptable, and shareable resources for your classroom.

• Understand how the instructors of your professional development course adapt Open Educational Resources
(OER).
• Learn to adapt OER to fit your teaching context.

L E S S ON 1 : OP E N E D U C A T I ON A L R E S OU R C E S A N D P U B L IC
D O MA IN

"Untitled Photo" by Alvaro Serrano via Unsplash is licensed under Unsplash license.

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Open Educational Resources, or OER, are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public
domain or have been released under an open intellectual property license that permits their free use and revision
by others. OER are meant to be shared and adapted to fit the needs of different teaching contexts and
communities. They are meant to be used freely, with open access and at no cost.

When openly licensed, types of Open Educational Resources can include:

• full courses
• course materials
• modules
• educational games
• "open" textbooks
• videos
• tests
• software
• learning tools
• materials
• techniques used to support access to knowledge

What makes them “open” is the status of their intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights are legal
protections granted to the creators of intellectual property, which is a work or invention that is the result of
creativity. Creators can protect their intellectual property with legal protections such as trademarks, copyright,
and patents, to name a few. Traditional educational resources, such as textbooks, have their intellectual property
rights protected by conventional copyrights. This means that they cannot be revised or reused without explicit
permission from the creator, and many times a fee is required.

"Bookshelf filled with books at Imperial Beach" by Dakota Corbin via Unsplash is licensed under Unsplash license.

Open resources, on the other hand, can be reused and revised without explicit permission from their creator. That
is because they may have either open copyrights, or no copyrights at all. If an open

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resource has an open copyright, you must credit, or attribute, the creator whenever you revise, reuse, or
redistribute that resource. You will learn more about types of open copyright in the Creative Commons section.

If an open resource has no copyrights at all, it is considered to be in the public domain. The public domain means
that a work or resource can be used by anyone, at any time, with no credit or attribution to the creator. The
copyright is waived, meaning the creator no longer owns the work, either because the copyright expired, or the
creator wanted it to be open and free to the public.

OER can be either open copyright, or public domain. Be sure to thoroughly check every resource you use to be sure
it is in fact an OER, and if it is public domain or has an open copyright. If it is public domain, you are free to use and
adapt it as you wish, with no attribution to the creator. If it has an open copyright, it can be used and adapted,
but must be attributed to the creator.

A good way to find OER is through the OER Commons. The Commons offers many kinds of OER, some of which are
open copyright, and some that are in the public domain. You can search for resources based on their openness, or
“Conditions of Use.”

"What is the difference between public domain and open license?" by Boyoung Chae, Ph.D., Washington State Board for Community and
Technical Colleges is licensed under CC BY 4.0

This graphic shows the differences between public domain and openly licensed resources, highlighting that:

• Copyright, or intellectual property ownership of the resource is waived in public domain. The author has given
away their rights to the work.
• Copyright, or intellectual property ownership of the resource remains in an open license. The author hasn't
given away their rights to the work, but they do allow more rights to revise and reuse their intellectual
property.

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LE S S ON 2 : C R E A T IV E C O M M O N S : W H A T I S IT ?

"Untitled Photo" by William Iven via Unsplash is licensed under CC 0.

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In the previous section you learned about Open Educational Resources, or OER, and how they are open in two
different ways. The first way is that they may have no intellectual property protection, and require no attribution.
This means that they are in the public domain.

The second way is that they can be very flexible in terms of intellectual property rights, with an open intellectual
property protection that allows other teachers and educators to use the material and adapt it as they wish, with
no cost. This type of flexible protection is called an open license. A commonly used type of open license, not only in
OER but throughout the Internet itself, is a Creative Commons (CC) license.

Creative Commons (CC) is a global nonprofit organization that promotes the sharing and reusing of creativity and
knowledge by providing free legal tools, including copyright licenses. CC has global affiliates who support and
promote CC licensing worldwide. CC licensing is a free and easy way to manage copyrights and allow materials to
be shared and reused under flexible terms. There are six (6) types of licenses that require a user to attribute, or
credit, the original creator in any adaptation.

The OPEN Program uses the CC BY 4.0 license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition for
adaptation and reuse. This means that most material you see in your course can be adapted, and then shared
freely by any participant, anywhere. You can adapt them for use in your own classroom, and you will learn how to
do this through attribution later in the module.

Some materials may be CC BY licensed, but under a different number, such as 2.0, or 3.0. This means that they
were licensed CC BY several years prior, before the CC BY 4.0 license was introduced. Although the number is
different, the legal protections offered by CC BY remain the same.

The BY license means anyone can:

• Reuse
• Revise
• Redistribute, and
• Remix any CC BY-licensed material, as long as attribution is given to the original creator.

An additional type, CC0 (zero) requires no attribution and is similar to the public domain, which you learned about
in "Open Educational Resources and Public Domain." Note that the photo at the beginning of this section is under a
CC0 license. It is attributed to its creator, but it can be used without attribution as well.

You'll learn more about CC license types in the next section.

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L E S S ON 2A : C R E A T I V E C O M M ON S : L IC E N S E T Y P E S

"Untitled Photo" by Jo Szczepanska via Unsplash is licensed under Unsplash license.

In the previous section you learned about Creative Commons (CC), which provides open copyright licensing to
anyone, free of charge. Under an open copyright, intellectual property rights are kept, but the creative content is
able to be shared, and in some cases, revised and reused by others.

All created content you will see in this course is licensed, or "marked", as CC BY 4.0. This means that anything you
see that is marked CC BY 4.0 can be reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed by you in your school or
community. You can see if it's marked CC BY 4.0 by looking for this image at the bottom of the first page of any
OPEN document you see:

CC BY Button Download via Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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As you look for OER, public domain, and openly licensed content, you may see other CC licenses as well.

"Creative Commons and Proprietary Licenses" via Open Science is licensed under CC BY 4.0 .

Please consult the chart above to see if a resource is:

CC BY (By Attribution) - Any and all changes can be made to the original work, as long as the creator is attributed.
This license will be on every OPEN handout.

CC BY SA (By Attribution, Share Alike) - Any and all changes can be made to the original work, but the creator
must be attributed, and the revised work must be shared under the same license.

CC BY ND (By Attribution, No Derivatives) - Content can be used and shared, but no changes or revisions can be
made.

CC BY NC (By Attribution, Non-Commercial) - Any and all changes can be made to the original content, but the
content, and any changes to the content can't be used for commercial gain, or for selling and reselling.

CC BY NC SA (By Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike) - Any and all changes can be made to the original
content, but the original content, and any changes made to the content, can't be used for commercial gain or for
selling and reselling, and must be shared under the same license.

CC BY NC ND (By Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives) - The original content can be shared, but no
changes can be made to the original content, and it can't be sold or resold. This is the most restrictive CC license.

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Additional Licenses

There are a few additional license types that you may see throughout your professional development course.
While CC BY is the primary license used in OPEN course materials, some photos and images in the course may
have a slightly different license. Photo hosting sites such as Pixabay, Unsplash, and Pexels use their own licensing.
In the picture below, for example, the image is from the Unsplash website and licensed under the Unsplash license.

"Brown Ruler with stand" by Markus Spiske via Unsplash. is licensed under the Unsplash license.

These images are free to use or share, but it is always your responsibility to view the license to determine if there
are any restrictions.

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L E S S ON 2B : C R E A T I V E C O M M ON S : MA R K IN G A N D
A T T R IB U T I ON

"Untitled Photo" by David Paschke via Unsplash is licensed under Unsplash license.

Marking

In Creative Commons (CC) licensing, marking is the process of adding the CC license to your work, and recognizing
the licensing of other's work. In the previous section you learned about the different license types you may see on
a CC-licensed resource. When you see those licenses, you'll also see text:

© 2016 by FHI 360. Creative Commons Guidelines for the OPEN Program, sponsored by the U.S
Department of State and administered by FHI 360. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

This text, plus the license type image, completes its marking. That means it recognizes 1.) the CC license type 2.)
the content creator, in this case, FHI 360 3.) acknowledges that there might be some content that FHI 360 did not
create, with "except where noted", and 4.) it references the legal license language.

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If you mark your own content under CC BY 4.0, it could look something like this:

© (Year of creation) by (Your Name). (Title of the work). This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.

Attribution

Attribution is the system of giving credit to another creator's work and recognizing their intellectual property if
you use their work in any way. Whether or not you share the content, reuse it, or revise it, it must be attributed all
the same, unless it's marked as CC0 (zero). You might notice the photo above is attributed, but it's CC0. This is
done to not only give an example of correct attribution, but to highlight the importance of attribution, and
crediting the work of others, in American academic culture. The OPEN program expects all derived work, or work
that was shared, inspired, or produced by someone else, to have full attribution and credit to the original creator.
Attributing a work is easy. For example, if you want to revise and reuse the Creative Commons guidelines
referenced above, you would reference the original document in your marking text:

© 2016 by (Your Name). (New Title). This work is an adaptation of "Creative Commons Guidelines for
the OPEN Program," by FHI 360, licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license, and can be found here (link to its original
location on the Internet). To view a copy of the license, please click here (link to original license, if different from
CC BY 4.0). This adaptation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Attributing a photo is even easier. Note the photo above:

"Untitled Photo" by David Paschke via Unsplash is licensed under CC 0.
To create your own attribution, simply provide:

"Title of Work", by Author of Work via website where work was found is licensed under (list license, and link to
license legal information).

When you are attributing another creator's work, it's best to provide as much information as possible, such as the
name of the author, and the location where it was found. If you do not know the author, or the author's name is
provided (for example, for content found on Wikipedia), you may simply credit it to "Wikipedia."

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L E S S ON 3 : F I N D IN G OE R , P U B L I C D O MA I N , A N D C R E A T I V E
C O M M ON S M A T E R I A L S

There are many organizations and institutions that are dedicated to making Creative Commons-licensed materials
openly available, and searchable by license type. Please consider using one of the following search engines or
directories if you are looking for resources and content that you can use in your OPEN assignments, or in your
classroom.

Materials
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature
across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. The Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online
academic journals and books, conference papers, theses and dissertations, preprints, abstracts, technical reports,
and other scholarly literature, including court opinions and patents. Please note that all material is not
independently verified with regards to licensing, so ensure material is CC BY licensed before using.

MERLOT
MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services
contributed and used by an international education community. Please note that all material is user-submitted and
not independently verified with regards to licensing, so ensure material is CC BY licensed before using.

OER Commons
The OER Commons is a digital public library and collaboration platform, offering a comprehensive infrastructure
for curriculum experts and instructors of all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their
adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Please note that all material is user-
submitted and not independently verified with regards to licensing, so ensure material is CC BY licensed before
using.

Search at Creative Commons

Creative Commons offers access to various search engines that are populated with CC-licensed material. Please
note that all material is user-submitted and not independently verified with regards to licensing, so ensure
material is CC BY licensed before using.

Multimedia
Flickr Commons
Flickr Commons, in partnership with the U.S. Library of Congress, exists to increase access to publicly-held
photography collections, and to provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge for
sharing with the general public. All material is CC licensed, and you can specifically search for photos which are in
the public domain, U.S. Government works, with all copyright waived (CC 0), and licensed CC BY (select
“Commercial and Mods Allowed” when searching).

Unsplash
Unsplash provides high-quality photos that are all CC 0-licensed. They can be used, revised, and adapted without
any attribution to the original creator.

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Pixabay
Pixabay is another site for sharing copyright-free images and videos. All contents are CC0-licensed, which makes
them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist.

Vimeo’s Creative Commons

Vimeo allows you to search for content by license type; the hyperlink above leads directly to Vimeo’s CC BY-
licensed material. Please note that all material is user-submitted and may not be independently verified with
regards to licensing, so ensure material is CC BY licensed before using.

YouTube
YouTube will allow you to search for content that is CC-licensed. Please note that this will sort for all CC content,
not just CC BY. Please ensure videos are CC BY-licensed before using.

Creative Commons Affinity Groups

If you are interested in learning more about Creative Commons and open licensing, you may go to Creative
Commons' Affiliate Network page. The CC Affiliate Network is comprised of legal experts and other professionals
around the world who are associated with Creative Commons, working to build and help maintain communities of
CC license users. You can find a full list of our Affiliate teams and links to their individual pages here.

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Completion of Module 4

Congratulations! You have just completed Module 4: Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons
Licensing.

Module 4 Glossary

Attribute: To give credit to the original creator of something you use.

Attribution: The system of giving credit to another creator’s work, and recognizing their intellectual property if you
use their work in any way. This is similar to a citation.

Creative Commons (CC): A global nonprofit organization that promotes the sharing and reusing of creativity and
knowledge through the provision of free legal tools, including copyright licenses.

Intellectual property rights (IPR): Legal protections granted to the creators of intellectual property such as books,
journal articles, songs, works of art, presentations, etc.

Marking: In Creative Commons (CC) licensing, the process of adding the CC license to your work, and recognizing
the licensing of other’s work.

Open Educational Resources (OER): Teaching or learning materials which can be legally shared (usually licensed
under Creative Commons copyright), and are free and accessible to the public.

Public domain: When a work or resource has no copyrights at all and can therefore be used by anyone, at any
time, with no credit or attribution to the creator.

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