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LSC-HOUSTON NORTH Library Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources (OER)

OER vs Open Access

  • OPEN ACCESS: OA items are online, free to access, and free to read, BUT carry traditional copyright restrictions per the original copyright holder.

What does this mean? You can use item in teaching, research, and learning, BUT no variations of the material can be reproduced without permission from the copyright holder.

  • OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER): OER, a type of OA, are teaching, learning, and research resources that, through permissions granted by the copyright holder, allow others to use, distribute, keep, or make changes to them.

What does this mean? You can adopt or adapt open educational resources according to the original item's content license. The openness of Creative Commons licenses vary, so pay close attention to what permissions each individual item provides.

The 5 Rs

The 5R permissions are what make OER different from material which is copyrighted under traditional, all-rights-reserved copyright. ​

Another way to frame this is that "open" in Open Educational Resources doesn’t simply equate to being "free"; in fact, it can more accurately be described as:​

open = free + license/permissions (the 5Rs)

Why Open Education Matters - Videos

Why Open Education Matters from Blink Tower on Vimeo.

The 5 Rs

The terms "open content" and "open educational resources" describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like "open source") that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities. The 5Rs are shorthand way of remembering the activities typically permitted by Creative Commons licenses:

  • Retain = Keep the work forever
  • Reuse = Use the work for your own purpose
  • Revise = Adapt, modify, or translate the work
  • Remix = Combine the work with another resource to make a new work
  • Redistribute = Share the work with others

More About OER

Creative Commons Visually

This work is a derivative of The Ultimate Guide by footer.com​. Adapted, copied and communicated under (CC BY 4.0)

CC License Options

About CC Licenses

Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, “What can I do with this work?” 

The Creative Commons License Options

There are six different license types, listed from most to least permissive here:

  CC BY: This license allows 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.

CC BY includes the following elements:
BY  – Credit must be given to the creator

 

  CC BY-SA: This license allows 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 you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.

CC BY-SA includes the following elements:
BY  – Credit must be given to the creator
SA  – Adaptations must be shared under the same terms

 

  CC BY-NC: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. 

CC-BY-NC includes the following elements:
BY  – Credit must be given to the creator
NC  – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted

 

  CC BY-NC-SA: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. 

CC BY-NC-SA includes the following elements:
BY  – Credit must be given to the creator
NC  – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
SA  – Adaptations must be shared under the same terms

 

  CC BY-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. 

CC BY-ND includes the following elements:
BY  – Credit must be given to the creator
ND  – No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted

 

  CC BY-NC-ND: This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. 

CC BY-NC-ND includes the following elements:
BY  – Credit must be given to the creator
NC  – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
ND  – No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted

 

The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 

  CC0 (aka CC Zero) is a public dedication tool, which allows creators to give up their copyright and put their works into the worldwide public domain. CC0 allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, with no conditions.

 

CONSIDERATIONS

Choosing a License 

The six licenses and the public domain dedication tool give creators a range of options. The best way to decide which is appropriate for you is to think about why you want to share your work, and how you hope others will use that work. 

For help, try the Creative Commons License Chooser.

Before Licensing

Before you apply a CC license or CC0 to your work, there are some important things to consider: 

The licenses and CC0 cannot be revoked. This means once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright, even if you later stop distributing it.

You must own or control copyright in the work. Only the copyright holder or someone with express permission from the copyright holder can apply a CC license or CC0 to a copyrighted work. If you created a work in the scope of your job, you may not be the holder of the copyright. 

FAIR USE & OER

LSC-CyFair Library OER Information Sessions

OPENing the Mind to Open Educational Resources | Registration | Slides

  • Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 2pm-3pm (LRNC 131)
  • Friday, October 20, 2023, 2pm-3pm (Zoom)
  • Asynchronous offering coming soon!

OER Tutorials & Training

Creative Commons Certificates

Creative Commons Certificate

 

The Certificate program offers in-depth courses about CC licenses, open practices and the ethos of the Commons. Courses are composed of readings, quizzes, discussions, and practical exercises to develop learners’ open skills, providing personalized engagement with expert facilitators and copyright lawyers in the field, and offers a 1:25 (max) ratio of facilitators to course participants. Courses are open to everyone, from university students and entry-level professionals to experts in the fields of library science, education, and cultural heritage. 

Currently certificates offered:

  • CC Certificate for Educators
  • CC Certificate for Academic Librarians
  • CC Certificate for GLAM

 

CC Certificate for Educators & CC Certificate for Librarians

The Educators and Academic Librarians courses are quite similar, though they differ in the final unit of content, as well as the community discussions.

  • Academic librarians will develop comprehensive knowledge in open education and open access. They will also gain access to a global community of librarians working on similar open access goals.
  • Educators will develop comprehensive knowledge of open education including open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy. They will also gain access to a global community of educators working toward similar open education goals.
CC Certificate for GLAM

The CC Certificate for GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) is a professional development training for institutions or community groups engaged in cultural or documentary heritage. As more GLAMs adapt to increasingly online audiences and users, they often seek Creative Commons legal tools, expertise and community support. Cultural heritage institutions share a common goal with Creative Commons: to make knowledge and culture globally accessible.

  • In the CC Certificate for GLAM, community members will develop capacity in opening access to cultural heritage. They will develop a deeper understanding of open licensing and copyright considerations with digitization projects, Rights Statements, Traditional Knowledge Labels, working with the public domain, and more.
  • CC Certificate for GLAM participants will also gain access to a global community of professionals and activists working toward similar cultural and policy changes in their own cultural heritage institutions.

 

Open & Affordable Repositories

Favorites

Additional Repositories

Open & Affordable Metafinders

OER Evaluation Rubrics

 

OER Evaluation Handbook

What are Creative Commons Licenses?

Creating OER and Combining Licenses

Part One:

Part Two: