Hello! Take a look at this page for information about open licenses offered through Creative Commons. These licenses can be applied to teaching material. Each one provides a different level of permission for how a work can be used. For all licenses, it is important to give attribution to the original creator of a work.
This page includes some key terms that are used in the OER Community. This will help you to better understand your options when it comes to using or creating open materials.
Adopt - In the same way a faculty member "adopts" a traditional textbook, they can adopt OER. Adopting an OER means that an instructor is integrating Open Educational Materials into their courses without major changes or alteration to the work. For example, you might find a textbook through Openstax that you can select for your course, and implement immediately.
Adapt - License permitting, educators may choose to change or modify open teaching material to suit their needs. Adapting OER involves making edits to the text, images, or other components of a work to customize it. This is one of the benefits of using OER - the ability to tailor the material.
Create - To create OER is to author your own material. It is not enough to modify a preexisting OER. Rather creation involves compiling and crafting your own resource and applying an open license to your finished product.
The 5 Rs of Creative Commons Licenses
Access Services & Library Information: 508-999-8750
Main Campus Telephone: 508-999-8000 • Reference Help Line: 508-999-8678 • Contact Reference
Claire T. Carney Library • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth © 2018
285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300