# Welcome to SMIRK Unit
10 - Creating content

- What is Creative Commons?
- Creative Commons licences
- Common CC licences
- Guidance on creating OERs
- More guidance on creating OERs
- Publishing OERs
- Back to main index

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Creating 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.

If you create high quality original learning and teaching resources then you can choose to share them with the world by making them OERs. This involves uploading your resources to an online repository and attaching a legally binding licence to tell users what they can and cannot do with your work. Creating OERs allows you to:

- Showcase your expertise in a particular subject area.
- Share teaching resources with your peers and with the world.
- Improve the quality of the student learning experience.
- Contribute to the GCU blended learning strategy.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Creative Commons
licences

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. The next pages gives some examples.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Common CC licences

Here are some common examples of CC licences:

- ‌ 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.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Guidance on creating
OERs

GCU staff use a wide range of self-generated teaching materials to support high quality teaching, including teaching notes, hand-outs, audio, video, images, animations and others. Staff who wish to create and publish these resources as Open Educational Resources (OERs) should use the following guidance:

- GCU encourages staff to create and publish OERs to enhance the quality of the student experience, provided that the resources created are fit-for-purpose and relevant.
- Staff should clearly identify themselves as the creator(s) of an OER by adding their names to the resource and, when publishing an OER, to any associated metadata. This allows those reusing the OER to clearly attribute the creator(s).
- Staff should clearly identify their affiliation by adding it to the resource and, when publishing an OER, to any associated metadata. For example:
  John Smith, Glasgow Caledonian University.
- Staff should ensure that they are legally allowed to reuse any third party content within their OERs by complying with the terms of the licence of use on such third party content. For more information please visit our reusing content page.
- It is expected that OERs created and published by staff will normally be single units (learning objects) or small collections (such as podcast episodes or small collections of images) rather than whole courses.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# More guidance on
creating OERs

- If you are creating a whole course, such as a MOOC, then you should consult your Head of School, Department or Service as they may wish to restrict publication based on the protection of GCU’s commercial interests.
- All OERs created should where possible comply with the GCU accessibility guidance.
- It is the responsibility of staff to ensure that they have the necessary rights to publish an OER.
- GCU suggests staff publish OERs using a CC-BY Creative Commons attribution licence. Other Creative Commons licences may be used if staff feel this is necessary or appropriate for their particular resource, or to comply with the licence terms of any third party content used in the resource.
- If possible OERs should include GCU branding. Templates and advice are available from the Marketing department.

Where students produce OERs as part of their programme of study or within a staff-directed project, these guidelines should be followed and a procedure for staff checking of OERs should put in place before external publication.

Email copyright@gcu.ac.uk or call the library’s Digital Development team on 0141 273 1249 for further advice and guidance.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Publishing OERs

We recommend that all Open Educational Resources (OERs) be deposited in the University’s learning and teaching repository (currently under construction) and, if mandated or desired, an external multimedia repository.

The library is in the initial stages of building a learning and teaching repository for the GCU community designed around the key themes of storing, sharing and preserving the University’s learning and teaching output. The repository will accept OERs and any permanent learning and teaching resources created by GCU staff. OERs uploaded to the repository will be discoverable through Google and other search engines, providing the greatest possible visibility of resources. The repository is due to launch in autumn 2015. For queries please contact the library’s Digital Development team.

We recommend that written and interactive digital teaching resources also be deposited in Jorum, the national repository for Higher and Further Education OERs. To deposit an item in Jorum log in as a depositor (you will need to register the first time you deposit) and follow the on screen instructions. Help guides are available on the Jorum website.

We encourage staff to collect data on the usage of their OERs by students and external institutions for quality assurance mechanisms (such as module or programme review). Collection of this data may aid staff recognition, reward and progression. Both Jorum and the University’s new learning and teaching repository have in-built statistics functions.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.