2.2 The meaning of ‘open’ in open licensing

Before looking at some of the reasons you might want to use open educational resources (OERs) or adopt more ‘open’ practices, let’s pause briefly and take another closer look at the concept of ‘open’ within the context of (re)using OER. Copyright is primarily concerned with what you cannot do with material and restrictions on its use, whereas an open licence offers the possibility of reuse and remixing without having to seek the creator’s permission or needing to pay a fee for using the material.

Section 1 of the course revealed the variety of characteristics usually associated with ‘openness’ and how people define ‘open’ in different ways. Moreover, in addition to the diversity of contexts that could be described as ‘open’ there are not just open or closed practices, but many different shades of open behaviours or practice: what is described as a ‘continuum of openness’ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Section 1.3 introduced one definition that is commonly referred to when exploring the idea of ‘openness’ within the context of the use and creation of OER: the ‘5 Rs’ that David Wiley, a well-known advocate of open education, has developed (see Figure 2.1). The 5 Rs highlight the benefits and freedoms, rather than restrictions in place, on a resource with an open licence:

Figure 2.1 ‘The 5 Rs’ (Joyce Valenza, Public Domain)

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The image shows a whitescreen showing a PowerPoint slide. The slide reads (in black writing on a white background)

‘The 5Rs:

• Retain – Make and own copies
• Reuse – Use in a wide range of ways
• Revise – Adapt, modify and improve
• Remix – Combine two or more
• Redistribute – Share with others’

Each of the words ‘Retain’, ‘Reuse’, ‘Revise’ ‘Remix’ and ‘Redistribute’ are in a blue box.

On the left-hand side of the image there is a person’s left hand pointing to the word ‘Retain’.

Figure 2.1 ‘The 5 Rs’ (Joyce Valenza, Public Domain)

According to Wiley and this ‘rights’-based framework for understanding what an open licence enables you to do, if a resource fulfils all these criteria and therefore is explicit in giving you the ‘right’ to remix, retain, reuse, revise and redistribute a resource, then it can be described as an open educational resource (OER). By and large, open licences are used to convey relevant information associated with the 5Rs: this is because open licences such as Creative Commons act as a shorthand to giving permission for reuse, are widely used and easily understood.

As can be inferred from some of the Rs listed above, openness in this context also involves changes to the way you might approach or create material, or collaborate with others. For example, with an OER you are able to circulate or use copies of material without seeking the author’s permission to do so. You can also develop new material based on existing open content under the permissions granted by the original author. In both instances, because an OER should clearly state the reuse criteria, you can save time and money, as you do not need to wait for author permission to reuse a resource and you don’t need to spend time creating your own resource from scratch when someone else has already created something you can reuse or modify for your own purposes.

Creating new resources with OER might enable collaborative experimentation with colleagues, highlight the benefit of sharing resources and good practice, enable iterative improvement to resources, or even highlight social justice by opening up new opportunities for those not currently engaged in, or distanced from, formal education. One example of using open resources to engage with the wider community is Strathclyde University’s widening participation strategy, which ‘aims to remove barriers for under-represented groups to get to university’. More on how this was developed is discussed on the OEPS hub.

However, it's not just about your ‘right’ to do certain things with material that is openly licensed. Implicit in the idea of the 5Rs and in order for the ‘right’ to remix, reuse, redistribute, revise and retain to be possible, you also need to enable others to do the same (so they have the same ‘rights’ as you) by sharing back your remixed material or original content (in other words, facilitating the ‘virtuous circle’ noted earlier in Section 1.4: The practice of open educational resources).

One component of this is the licence. As described in Section 1.5 there are different types of licences giving different types of permissions for reuse. These different licences can be understood as a ‘continuum of openness’, as some are more liberal in their reuse permissions than others. Figure 2.2 below shows licences placed along a scale of ‘least free’ to ‘most free’ and correspondingly ‘not OER’ to ‘OER’ (note ‘free’ is understood as ‘libre’ within this context, see Section 1.2 for further explanation.)

If you need reminding of the licence types, check out Creative Commons. 

Figure 2.2 ‘Finding and using open educational resources (OER): implementing the Creative Commons CC BY license (slide 4)’ (Paul Stacey and Hal Plotkin, CC BY 4.0)

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The image is on a black background. At the top of the picture is the title ‘Creative Commons Open Licenses’ written in orange text. On the bottom left-hand side of the picture are the words ‘least free’, written in white text. Above this is an orange arrow pointing up towards the words ‘most free’. To the right of this and in the centre of the picture is a table of the different CC licences. From top to bottom this reads:

The symbol for Public Domain: this is a white rectangle, on the left-hand side is a white circle with a black border with the numeral ‘0’ in the centre, and on the right-hand side are the words ‘public domain’ written in white on a black background.

The symbol for CC BY: this is a rectangle with the top half in grey and the bottom half in black; on the left-hand side is a white circle with a black border with the letters ‘CC’ in the centre, and on the right-hand side the symbol comprising a circle with a stick figure of a person in the middle of the circle, with ‘BY’ written underneath it.

The symbol for CC BY-SA: this is a rectangle with the top half in grey and the bottom half in black; on the left-hand side is a white circle with a black border with the letters ‘CC’ in the centre, and on the right-hand side the symbol comprising a circle with a stick figure of a person in the middle of the circle, with ‘BY’ underneath it; and to the right of this symbol, the symbol comprising a circle with a circular arrow in the middle pointing anticlockwise, with ‘SA’ written underneath it.

The symbol for CC BY-NC: this is a rectangle with the top half in grey and the bottom half in black; on the left-hand side is a white circle with a black border with the letters ‘CC’ in the centre, and on the right-hand side the symbol comprising a circle with a stick figure of a person in the middle of the circle, with ‘BY’ underneath it; and to the right of this symbol, the symbol comprising a circle with a dollar sign in the middle and a strikethrough from top-left to bottom-right of the circle, with ‘NC’ written underneath it.

The symbol for CC BY-NC-SA: this is a rectangle with the top half in grey and the bottom half in black;, on the left-hand side is a white circle with a black border with the letters ‘CC’ in the centre, and on the right-hand side the symbol comprising a circle with a stick figure of a person in the middle of the circle, with ‘BY’ underneath it; and to the right of this symbol, the symbol comprising a circle with a dollar sign in the middle and a strikethrough from top-left to bottom-right of the circle, with ‘NC’ written underneath it; and to the right of this symbol, the symbol comprising a circle with a circular arrow in the middle pointing anticlockwise, with ‘SA’ written underneath it.

The symbol for CC BY-ND: this is a rectangle with the top half in grey and the bottom half in black; on the left-hand side is a white circle with a black border with the letters ‘CC’ in the centre, and on the right-hand side the symbol comprising a circle with a stick figure of a person in the middle of the circle, with ‘BY’ underneath it; and to the right of this symbol, the symbol comprising a circle with the equals symbol in the middle, with ‘ND’ written underneath it.

The symbol for CC BY-NC-ND: this is a rectangle with the top half in grey and the bottom half in black; on the left-hand side is a white circle with a black border with the letters ‘CC’ in the centre, and on the right-hand side the symbol comprising a circle with a stick figure of a person in the middle of the circle, with ‘BY’ underneath it; and to the right of this symbol, the symbol comprising a circle with a dollar sign in the middle and a strikethrough from top-left to bottom-right of the circle, with ‘NC’ written underneath it; and to the right of this symbol, the symbol comprising of a circle with the equals symbol in the middle, with ‘ND’ written underneath it.

To the right of the table there is a red two-way arrow beside the symbols for ‘CC BY-NC-ND’ and ‘CC BY-ND’, to the right of this is the phrase ‘Not OER’. Above the red two-way arrow and beside the symbols for ‘CC BY-NC-SA’, ‘CC BY-NC’, ‘CC BY-SA’, ‘CC BY’, ‘Public domain’ there is a green two-way arrow, and to the right of this is the phrase ‘OER’.

Figure 2.2 ‘Finding and using open educational resources (OER): implementing the Creative Commons CC BY license (slide 4)’ (Paul Stacey ...

As you can see from Figure 2.2, there are some Creative Commons licensed resources that are not considered to be OER and are described as the ‘least free’ of the open licences (the CC-BY-ND and CC-BY-SA-NC licences). This is because these licences include ‘ND’ or the ‘no-derivatives’ instruction. In other words, when using the resource it can only be used ‘as is’ and not modified in any way. This prohibits any adjustment, changes or building on the resource, either so that it reflects better your own context(s) or to combine it with other OER or materials you have created. Therefore, the ND licence fails to fulfil the ‘revise’ and ‘remix’ criteria of Wiley’s 5Rs.

There are arguments for and against using different types of Creative Commons licences, in particular the NC or ‘non-commercial’ licence. In the instance of NC-licensed materials, some people argue that prohibiting commercial use of resources can stifle innovation. US educator and co-author of the open textbook Introductory Statistics, Barbara Illowsky, explains why their textbook is CC-BY:

A more in-depth exploration of the NC licence is also available here.

Many national or international organisations that support the use of openly licensed materials argue for the use of the CC-BY licence; for example the Wellcome Trust, as this type of licence gives ‘much greater use – and therefore impact – of the research we fund and the content we produce.’

Later in the course you will look at developing your own resources and return to look at David Wiley’s 5Rs to help you understand what you need to do to enable others to easily find, use, remix and adapt resources you choose to share.