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Using Open Educational Resources (OER) and other options for Educational Materials for Saving Students Money

                    CC Licenses and the 5Rs                     5Rs of OER InfoGraphic                          

The different CC licenses allow users to take advantage of the 5Rs of OER. Each license tells the user exactly what they are allowed to do with that resource. Learn more about each CC license @ Creative Commons. 

The 5 Rs Defined

Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

OERs include a wide range of materials: assessments, assignments, books, case studies, courses, journals, primary sources, reference materials, simulations, tutorials, tests, and textbooks.

This material is based on original writing by David Wiley, which was published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition

Creative Common Licenses Explained

How To Provide Proper Attribution

Once condition of ALL CC licenses is "attribution". A proper attribution should have the following components

  • Title: 
  • Author/Creator: —with a link to their profile page
  • Source: —with a link to the original work on whatever platform
  • License: —with a link to the license deed 

An easy way to remember this is to use the Acronym TASL! 

CreativeCommons.org also provides a guide to Best Practices for Attribution

bitmoji image of female with brown hair and brown eyes holding chin and hand with eyes glancing upwardWhat is the difference between a Citation and an Attribution?

Citations and Attributions are similar in some ways, but they also serve very different purposes. The following table provides a brief overview of the differences. 

Differences between citations and attributions

Citation

Attribution
Academic and legal purposes (plagiarism and copyright infringement). Legal purposes (e.g., rules of Creative Commons licences).
The rights of the copy (meaning copyright) are NOT shared with the general public by the copyright holder. Copyright IS shared with the general public by the copyright holder by marking the work with an open-copyright licence.
Protects an author who wants to refer to a restricted work by another author. Author of an open work has given advanced permissions to use their work
Used to quote or paraphrase a limited portion of a restricted work. Used to quote (or paraphrase) all or a portion of an openly licensed work.
Can paraphrase, but cannot change work without permission. Author has give advanced permission to change work.
Many citation styles are available: APA, Chicago, MLA. Attribution statement styles are still emerging, but there are some defined best practices.
A reference list of cited resources are typically placed at the end of the book. Attribution statements are found on the same page as the resource.

Table from "Self-Publishing Guide: A Reference for writing and self-publishing an open textbook" by Lauri M. Aesoph, published for BC Campus under a CC-BY license