1. What Creative Commons is, and why open licensing enables OER

1.1 What Creative Commons Is and Why Open Licensing Enables OER
LOs: [1a]
Sharing educational materials across institutions, countries, and languages depends on more than goodwill. It also depends on clear legal permission. Creative Commons matters because it gives creators a simple way to share their work, and that shared permission is what makes Open Educational Resources (OER) possible.
Creative Commons is an international nonprofit organization that provides free, standardized legal tools for sharing knowledge and culture. A CC license lets a creator keep copyright while giving the public permission to use the work. This reduces the need to ask for permission each time someone wants to copy, share, or build on a resource.
Because this is the first subunit in the course, it sets the foundation for everything that follows. In later subunits, you will examine the specific license elements, the difference between CC licenses and CC0, and the rules for correct attribution. Before those details make sense, you need a clear understanding of why open licensing matters in the first place.
The source explains that Creative Commons works to make sharing in the public interest the norm, so that knowledge is accessible, discoverable, and reusable. That mission connects directly to OER. Open licensing means a resource carries legal permission for reuse, not just free access. This distinction is important: a resource can cost nothing to read and still not be OER if it does not allow reuse or adaptation.
A concrete example from the source is the definition of OER itself: teaching and learning materials become OER when they are released under an open license, such as a CC license, so they can be freely used and adapted. In other words, the key feature is not price but permission. As you read, consider how the source's distinction between free access and open licensing changes the way you identify whether a learning resource is truly OER.
Attribution
Title | Author | Source | License
Creative Commons | Creative Commons | https://creativecommons.org/mission/ | CC BY 4.0

OUTPUT LICENSE: CC0 1.0

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