4.4 What licence should I choose?

Earlier sections of the course covered some considerations and issues that might arise when thinking about whether to openly license your material. As seen earlier, some institutions and organisations advocate the licensing of materials as CC-BY to facilitate reuse or have developed clear guidelines on intellectual property (IP) and copyright, which may or may not stipulate use of a specific licence. More generally, licensing some material on restrictive open licences such as the non-derivative (ND) CC licence means that people can reuse the material ‘as is’ but not remix it. Similarly, a non-commercial (NC) licence means that the resource should not be reused within a commercial/for-profit context. However this arguably inhibits some types of reuse (see Section 2.2 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ).

Described image
Figure 4.6 ‘Copyright license choice’ (opensource.com, https://www.flickr.com/ photos/ opensourceway/ 4371001458/, CC BY SA 2.0)

The last section briefly looked at some of the concerns you might have regarding openly licensing your material and where to go for advice on your questions and concerns. However, once you are happy to openly license your resource, the next stage is to choose the most appropriate licence. The section ‘The right license for the job’ from the Get CC Savvy course on Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) guides you through the main considerations. The course also includes the Creative Commons step-by-step chart to guide you through what you need to consider when choosing an open licence. Section 4.6 also includes advice on best practice when licensing specific types of resource (e.g. images, videos).

Activity 4C

Earlier in the course you thought about the type of OER you might look for and what kind of licence would enable you to reuse a resource most effectively for your context.

Now it’s time to think about how you would license the kinds of resources you might create and share. Use the table in your reflective log to describe your resource idea, your chosen licence and explain why you chose this licence (e.g. what restrictions – if any – does this put on the material’s reuse potential?). Don’t worry if you’re not sure how you will make your resource available yet; Section 4.3 of the course looks at ways you can share your material with others.

Table 3 Choosing a CC licence
Resource descriptionHow will you attribute and licence your resource?What are your reasons for choosing this licence?How will you make your resource available?Further information (e.g. URL)

If you’re not too sure where to start, take look at the Creative Commons licence chooser to help you decide on the right licence for you.

4.3 What do I need to consider when creating or remixing an OER?

4.5 How can I share my resources with others?