Why Creative Commons?

Because higher ed professionals have a long history or "sharing" good work - from assignments and syllabi to student support approaches - it seems obvious that anything that you talk about with colleagues or post online is open for use and adaptation. Creative Commons licensing is an easy and open-sourced approach to sharing your work with the wider community. It helps make clear your preferences for how you want your work to be acknowledged and/or used by others. This process communicates how others can use, change, or publish your documents, and it is widely recognized across higher ed.

If you are sharing your work in a conference presentation or posting documents or processes online, consider adding a Creative Commons attribution. Whenever possible, faculty and staff work shared to the TLC is licensed.

Logo for the Creative Commons organization

Common Licenses

Creative Commons licenses are really common - every time you see a "CC BY 2.0" or one of the following "button" images below, you are viewing an openly licensed document. Here's an example of one of the least restrictive licenses - the CC BY license allows anyone to use or remix your document as long as there is attribution - the "BY (your name)" part. So, as long as attribution is given, you are welcome to use it.

Image describing intellectual work as open for use and remix with author attribution through Creative Commons

Here's another example:

Work is as open for use and remix through Creative Commons with original author, non-commercial use and share alike

This one is a little more restrictive. It allows for sharing and remixing, but it requires attribution (BY), as well as non-commercial use only (NC), and sharing alike, or requiring any remixes of your work to also be licensed with similar attributions (SA).

There are several common CC licenses, from openly sharing with no restrictions to more limited uses. Here's the button for the most open version - anyone can use or remix your work with no restrictions.

Image to describe intellectual work as open for use and remix through Creative Commons

Licensing your work is a simple process of deciding how you want your work to be shared and then adding the correct license - usually just downloading or cutting and pasting the image into your work.

Additional Resources for Licensing

If you are new to the Creative Commons licensing world and want to learn more, there is a great overview in an open Instructure (the Canvas people) course module, including a great five-minute video explanation and some useful lists of the different kinds of licenses available.

If you want to fast-track things, you can go directly to the Creative Commons site and use the "Share You Work" tab. They ask some simple questions to help you select the license that best meets your needs, as well as help you publish your work on the web.

And - for those of you in the know - here's the Creative Commons button/icons download page.

If this is still confusing, please get in touch with me - I am happy to help you find the correct "button" of your choice.