Reusing content

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are digital materials that are made available online to be used or re-purposed for teaching, learning and research. They can include images, audio, video, animations, content modules and other digital resources.

Why use OERs rather than create your own content? There are several good reasons:

You can take existing resources (like Open Textbooks) and develop them in ways that suit your needs
You can develop high quality resources on your own or with a small team of staff
You can save time and duplication of effort
You can build on best practice by experts in your subject area
You can use resources which you may not have the software, equipment or facilities to create yourself

Copyright concerns

To guarantee you stay legal when reusing content follow these three simple steps:

Reuse only licensed content (the most common licensing scheme is Creative Commons)
Adhere to the terms of the licence
Cite the content you use
Follow our online advice on a specific question.

The law includes a number of exceptions that allow for the use of all types of copyright work for certain educational purposes. For more information please visit our copyright exceptions for education page.

When content is created copyright on it is automatically assigned under UK law. The creator doesn't need to use the copyright symbol or assert their rights as creator, the very fact that they have given the idea a fixed form means that they own the copyright. You can’t ignore copyright when reusing resources, but you can ensure you stay legal by only using licensed content.

The Creative Commons (CC) licensing movement was set up to enable creators to specify how they would like their content to be used. CC licences are legally binding and internationally recognised. CC licensed content is easy to reuse as the licence states exactly what you can and can’t do with the content. They are made up of five main components which are combined to specify how a resource can be reused:

CC = Creative Commons - Signifies a legally binding Creative Commons licence
BY = Attribution - You must cite the original source when reusing content
ND = No Derivatives - You must not alter or change the content when reusing it
SA = Share Alike - You must license your new resource under the same terms when reusing content
NC = Non-Commercial - You must not make commercial gain from your new resource when reusing content

You will normally find a number of these elements have been added together to produce a licence. Here are some common examples:

CC-BY lets you distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as you credit the creator
CC-BY-SA lets you distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as you credit the creator and license your new creations under identical terms
CC-BY-ND allows redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as the content is passed along unchanged and you credit the creator
CC-BY-NC lets you distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially, as long as you credit the creator

CC0 – Public domain licence

There is one CC licence that we have not yet mentioned. CC0, or a public domain licence, lets creators place their content in the public domain so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the work for any purpose without any restrictions. This means that you don’t need to give credit to the creators when you reuse their work and that you can alter it freely. An example of this would be the Open Clipart collection, where you can reuse items without having to even attribute the source.