Thinking about the resources you currently use, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this freely available to all students?
2. Can students keep a copy of this resource forever?
3. Does the class have the legal rights to fix errors, update old or inaccurate content, improve the work, and share it with other educators around the world?
4. Can students contribute to and improve our learning resources as part of their course work?

If the answer to these questions is “No” – you’re likely working with learning resources that don’t provide the legal permissions you and your students need to do what you want to do.

(“5.3 Finding, Evaluating, and Adapting Resources” by Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0)

Finding CC-Licensed Works

There are more than two billion CC-licensed works on the web. How do you find what might be useful to you?

There are several different ways to go about discovering CC-licensed works. Search engines can help you search across the web, or you can target particular platforms or sites. When you find a work to reuse, the most important thing to do is provide proper attribution.

When you are seeking CC-licensed works you may want to reuse, there are a few strategies to keep in mind.  Some search tools only scratch the surface of what is actually in the commons.  Many platforms (such as OER Commons) that enable CC-licensing of works shared on their sites also have their own search filters to find CC content.

If there is a particular type of content you are looking for, you may be able to narrow down particular sources to explore. Wikipedia offers a fairly comprehensive listing of many major sources of CC material across various domains.

You can also search for works under a particular CC license or tool:

1. Example of works organized by CC license on Flickr
2. Examples of works placed into the Public Domain using

(“4.3 Finding and Reusing CC-Licensed Works by Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0)

Finding OER

It’s important to recognize that only some things online are OER. Some works labeled as “open” may not be legally allowed to exercise the 5 Rs. The discovery of resources is a primary barrier for educators using OER. However, there are ways to recognize what is genuinely OER and what might precisely fit your needs.

Numerous websites, such as Wikimedia Commons, host large collections of OER,  and some universities host their own OER repositories and services. A good first step in finding OER is to do a general OER search using Google Advanced Search and filter your results by “Usage Rights” (pull-down menu at the bottom of the screen). See Google’s post on how to use the tool effectively.

In addition to sharing your OER on your website or blog, there are hundreds of online platforms on which you can share your openly licensed content. Creative Commons maintains a directory of some of the most popular platforms used by educators organized by content type (photos, video, audio, textbooks, courses, etc.). You can also find OER on these platforms.

Open educators and librarians often ask each other for help when looking for OER on open edu listservs. Here are a few you might want to join:

1. CC Open Education Platform (invitation): Please tell us who you are and why you would like to join.
2. OER Forum
3. International OER Advocacy
4. OER Discuss
5. Open Knowledge Open Edu
6. Open Edu SIG
7. Wikimedia Education
8. US OER Advocacy
9. SPARC OE Forum
10. Educause Openness
11. SPARC Europe
12. ENCORE+ Network

In addition, Open Washington has collected resources by category with the intent of making the search process more efficient and effective. Check out their OER Resource Repository.  Hover over a resource tile for additional information about the resource.

Evaluating OER 

Just as you would with any other resources, OER need to be evaluated before use. Educators who are new to OER may have concerns about quality because OER are available for free and may have been remixed by other educators. The process of using and evaluating OER is not that different from evaluating traditional all-rights-reserved copyright resources. Whether education materials are openly licensed or closed, you are the best judge of quality because you know what your learners need and what your curriculum demands.

Educators and librarians assess the quality and suitability of learning resources. JISC provides a list of criteria for assessment of quality:

1. Accuracy
2. Reputation of author/institution
3. Standard of technical production
4. Accessibility
5. Fitness for purpose

It is important to emphasize that OER are not “low quality” because they are free.  As the SPARC OER Mythbusting Guide points out: OER publishers have worked to ensure the quality of their resources. Many open textbooks are created within rigorous editorial and peer-review guidelines, and many OER repositories allow faculty to review (and see others’ reviews of) the material. There is also a growing body of evidence that demonstrates that OER can be both free of cost and high quality—and more importantly, support positive student learning outcomes.

(“5.3 Finding, Evaluating, and Adapting Resources” by Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0)

Open Textbooks Review Criteria

Comprehensiveness

The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary.

Content Accuracy

Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity

Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.

Clarity

The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used.

Consistency

The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity

The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course (i.e., enormous blocks of text without subheadings should be avoided). The text should not be overly self-referential, and should be easily reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.

Organization/Structure/Flow

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion.

Interface

The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader.

Grammatical Errors

The text contains no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance

The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It should make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

This rubric was developed by BCcampus. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Reusing CC-licensed Work

If you find a CC-licensed work that you would like to simply reuse, remember to provide attribution.  All CC-licenses require attribution to the creator.  Since CC0 is a public domain dedication tool, it does not require attribution. However, citing the source is usually considered best practice even when not legally required.

The elements of attribution are simple, though generally speaking, the more information you can provide, the better. People like to understand where CC licensed works come from, and creators like to know their names will remain attached to their works. If an author has provided extensive information in their attribution notice, retain it where possible.

The best practice for attribution is applying the “TASL” approach.

T = Title

A = Author

S = Source

L = License

The attribution requirements in the CC licenses are purposefully designed to be fairly flexible to account for the many ways content is used. A filmmaker will have different options for giving credit than a scientist publishing an academic paper. Explore this page about Best Practices for Attribution on the CC wiki. Among the options listed, think about how you would prefer to be attributed for your own work.

The other main consideration when copying works (as opposed to remixing) is the NonCommercial restriction. If the work you are using is published with one of the three CC licenses that includes the NC element, then you need to ensure you are not using it for a commercial purpose.

Remember, you can always reach out to the creator if you want to request extra permission beyond what the license allows.

“4.3 Finding and Reusing CC-Licensed Works” by Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0