Creating OER
- Authoring Open Textbooks -- This is an Open Education Network textbook written by Melissa Falldin and Karen Lauritsen to help authors and others producing open textbooks.
- BCCampus Create Open Textbooks -- This Canadian resource provides information and tools to create your own textbook.
- MERLOT: Content Builder -- A free webpage and website development tool. Requires registering and logging in as a MERLOT member to create content. Registration is free and easy.
- M.O.S.T. Commons: Open Author -- Enables you to build and share high-quality OER with other Maryland institutions; requires creating an account.
- OER Commons: Open Author -- Enables you to build and share high-quality OER; requires creating an account.
- Rebus Community -- Supported by the Rebus Foundation of Canada, this community provides professional development and tools to help people create open textbooks, including A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students and the Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) along with a video series.
- Wikibooks -- Enables you to contribute to an existing Wikibook or start a new Wikibook
Licensing Your OER
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers a set of copyright licenses enabling creators to give people the right to freely use, share, and build upon their works.
- Creative Commons FAQs -- Provides basic information about CC licenses and often link to more detailed explanations.
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Creative Commons License Selector -- A tool that allows you to receive an already formatted HTML code. Simply answer a few questions and fill in the fields you need.
- Creative Commons Public Domain Tools -- Enable creators and copyright owners to dedicate their works to the public domain.
- Marking your work with a CC license -- Explains how to mark your work with a CC license and how to use the Creative Commons License Chooser
For a detailed legal overview of the Creative Commons licenses, see Creative Commons Licenses Legal Pitfalls: Incompatibilities and Solutions.
Creative Commons licenses
Public Domain (CC0). Allows you to waive all rights and place your works in the public domain.
Attribution (CC BY). Allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.
Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA). Allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND). Allows others to distribute your work, commercially or non-commercially, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC). Allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially. Although others must acknowledge you and use your work non-commercially, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommecial-ShareAlike (CC NC-SA). Allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND). Allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
(Adapted from creativecommons.org)