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Open Educational Resources: Creative Commons

OER are freely available resources for teaching and learning. This guide is an introduction to where to find them, how to evaluate them, and how to create them.

Creative Commons Benefits

Benefits for . . .

Creators

  • Specify exactly how you will allow the work to be used.
  • Do not give up copyright.
  • Work becomes more widely known

Users

  • Do not have to seek permission to use
    • As long as you stick to what the license allows
  • Do not have to weigh fair use factors
    • Can be complicated to determine
  • Do not have to pay a licensing fee
  • Do not have to worry about being sued
    • As long as you stick to what the license allows

Learn More

Browser Plug-in

To help you find materials that have Creative Commons licenses, you can add this browser plug-in to Chrome, Firefox, or Opera.

What you can do with a creative commons license

Creative Commons License
Explaining Creative Commons Licenses by Laura Pope Robbins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.