4 How Do I Know If I Can Use and Change an OER?

Start With One Simple Question: What Is the License?

You found a resource you would like to use. Now you need to know what you are allowed to do with it.

The good news is that you do not need to memorize every Creative Commons license or become a copyright expert. You need to develop the habit of finding the license, recognizing a few important terms, and checking whether the license allows what you want to do.

Learn Four Creative Commons Terms

Creative Commons licenses are built from a small set of conditions. Once you recognize these four abbreviations, the licenses become much easier to understand.

• BY = Attribution: Give credit to the creator;
• NC = NonCommercial: Use is limited to noncommercial purposes;
• SA = ShareAlike: If you adapt the work and share your adaptation, it must be shared under the same or a compatible license; and
• ND = NoDerivatives: You may reuse and share the original work, but you may not share an adapted version.

The six main Creative Commons licenses combine these terms in different ways. You can explore all six on the Creative Commons License Guide.

What Does the License Allow Me to Do?

When you find a Creative Commons license, use the following as a quick starting point.

If you plan to adapt a resource, pay particular attention to ND. If you plan to remix multiple resources, pay particular attention to SA and license compatibility.

When in doubt, return to the Creative Commons explanation of the licenses and check the specific license before moving forward.

Attribution and Citation Are Not the Same Thing

This distinction can be confusing because both involve giving credit to other people’s work, but they serve different purposes.

Citation tells your reader where information, ideas, research, or quotations came from. You may use APA, MLA, Chicago, or another citation style appropriate to your discipline.

Attribution gives credit for an openly licensed work you are reusing or adapting and helps you meet the requirements of its open license.

A simple way to remember the information you need for attribution is TASL:

• T = Title: What is the work called?
• A = Author: Who created the work?
• S = Source: Where can the original work be found?
• L = License: What license applies to the work?

Creative Commons recommends TASL as a practical approach to attribution. You can learn more in Reusing CC-Licensed Content.

You Can Still Cite Copyrighted Sources

Creating an OER does not mean that every source you consult or reference must itself be openly licensed.

Think about how a traditional textbook discusses existing scholarship. An author might summarize the findings of a research study, explain a theory developed by another scholar, or discuss information from a copyrighted book and then cite the original source. You can do that in an OER too.

For example, you can write your own summary of the findings from a scholarly research article and cite the article using the citation practices of your discipline.

That is different from reproducing copyrighted material from the source, such as copying a photograph, figure, table, illustration, or substantial amount of text into your OER. Copyright exceptions such as fair use may sometimes apply, but a citation by itself does not give you permission to reproduce copyrighted material.

What If I Change Someone Else’s OER?

If the license allows you to share adaptations, you can change the resource to better meet the needs of your course. You should continue to credit the original creator and make it clear that you changed the work.

An adaptation statement might follow this structure:

This chapter is adapted from Title of Original Work by Author, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Changes include reorganizing the content, updating examples, and adding new material.

The exact wording can vary. The important thing is that readers can identify the original work, find its source and license, and understand that your version has been changed.

When You Find an Adaptation, Follow the Trail

Attribution is useful for more than giving credit. It can also help you discover other versions of the resource.

You may find a textbook that says it was adapted from another OER. Follow the attribution back to the original and take a look.

You might discover a trail like this:

Original OER → College A adaptation → College B adaptation → your possible adaptation

Each version may be different. One college may have reorganized the book, added examples, removed chapters, changed terminology, or added information specific to its institution or course.

An adaptation may be exactly what you need. But sometimes an adaptation has become so specific to another college or course that the original resource is actually a better starting point for your project.

Can I Combine Content From Different OER?

Often, yes. Combining content from multiple openly licensed resources into a new adapted work is commonly called remixing.

For example, you might want to use several chapters from one open textbook, a chapter from another, and an activity created by a third author.

This is one of the powerful possibilities of OER, but there is one additional question you need to ask:

Are the licenses compatible?

Two resources can each have a Creative Commons license and still have license terms that affect whether they can be remixed together and how the resulting adaptation can be licensed. ShareAlike and NoDerivatives licenses deserve particular attention when remixing.

What About Images and Other Media?

Images, illustrations, diagrams, videos, and other media have licenses too. Finding an image through a web or image search does not automatically give you permission to republish it in your OER.

One useful place to search is Wikimedia Commons, a large collection of freely reusable media.

When using Wikimedia Commons, click through to the individual file page and check the licensing information for that specific image or media file. Different files can have different licenses and attribution requirements.

As with other OER, record the creator, original source, and license when you save the image.

Remember that licensing is only one consideration when adding media to your OER. Images and other media also need to be accessible. We’ll address that in How Do I Make My OER Accessible?

Keep an Attribution Record as You Build

One of the easiest ways to make attribution manageable is to keep track of your sources as you work.

For every openly licensed resource you might incorporate, record:

• Title: What is the resource called?
• Author: Who created it?
• Source: Where can the original be found?
• License: How is it licensed?
• Changes: What did you change, if anything?

If you do this as you build, you will already have most of the information you need when it is time to prepare the attribution statements for your finished OER.

Do not wait until the end of the project to reconstruct where everything came from.

Can I Use This? A Quick Check

When you find something you want to incorporate into your OER, work through these questions:

Where Would You Like to Go Next?

Use the guide based on what you are ready to do next.