Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Open Educational Resources are generally made available under Creative Commons licences. Creative Commons licences are the global standard for openly sharing creative works.

Creative Commons licences enable creators to maintain copyright in their work while allowing others to copy, adapt and distribute it freely, or with very few restrictions. 

There are six standard Creative Commons licences, listed below in order from most to least open.

	Attribution CC-BY	Allows others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work, even commercially, provided the original creator is credited.
	Attribution Share Alike CC-BY-SA	Allows others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work, even commercially, provided the original creator is credited and the new creation is licensed under the same terms.
	Attribution No Derivatives CC-BY-ND	Allows others to redistribute the work, commercially or non-commercially, but the work must remain unchanged and the original creator credited.
	Attribution Non-Commercial CC-BY-NC	Allows others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes only. The original creator must be credited. The new work does not need to be licensed under the same terms.
	Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike CC-BY-NC-SA	Allows others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes only. The original creator must be credited and the same licence applied to the new work.
	Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives CC-BY-NC-ND	Allows others to redistribute the work for non-commercial purposes only. The work cannot be changed in any way and the original creator credited.

More information about these licences can be found on the Creative Commons website.

Creative Commons License and how it helps us share digital content (5.30 min)
by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand (CC BY 3.0)

When applied to OERs, Creative Commons licences allow five activities, known as the '5Rs':

1. Retain: permission to make, own and control copies of the resource (e.g. download and keep your own copy)

2. Revise: permission to edit, adapt and modify the resource (e.g. translate it into another language)

3. Remix: permission to combine your original or revised copy of the resource (e.g. by incorporating the content into a mash-up)

4. Reuse: permission to use your original, revised or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g. on a website or in Moodle)

5. Redistribute: permission to share copies of your original, revised or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g. post a copy online)