OER - Creative Commons

OER - Creative Commons
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1. General Search
1.1
Google
Many people start out looking for OER using Google. A general search with Google returns vast amounts of resources, most of which are not openly licensed for reuse. If you want to use Google to search for openly licensed resources we recommend you use
Google Advanced Search
. Scroll down in advanced search and set “usage rights” parameters to be “Free to use, share, or modify”. If you want content for commercial use be sure to select the appropriate option. Google search returns a vast array of openly licensed resources that may require extensive sifting to yield useful nuggets. The other search recommendations on this page are likely to yield more targeted results.
2. Photo/Image Search
Searching for photos or images?
2.1
Openverse
Openverse,
orginally incubated at CC
and now stewarded by the WordPress community, is an extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio available for free use. All Openverse content is under a
CC license
or is in the public domain.
2.2
Wikimedia Commons
2.3
Flickr
2.4
Google Images
Be sure to scroll down in advanced search and set “usage rights” parameters to be “Free to use, share, or modify”. If you want content for commercial use be sure to select the appropriate option.
2.5
Pixabay
Note that Pixabay images are public domain images you can freely use for personal and commercial use without attribution to the original author. While Pixabay can be a good way to find public domain images your search will also return proprietary professional images Pixabay offers for sale.
2.6
ClipSafari
Note that ClipSafari images are public domain images you can freely use for personal and commercial use without attribution to the original author.
2.7
The Noun Project
The Noun Project is a platform empowering the community to build a global visual language of icons and symbols that everyone can understand. Symbols and icons on The Noun Project are licensed using CC.
The sources above are online image databases. In addition to these sources there are many openly licensed electronic publications and journals with images embedded throughout that you are also free to use. Here are just a few of many examples:
2.8
Public Library of Science (PLOS)
PLOS is a non-profit publisher and advocacy organization focused on science and medicine. Every article they publish is open access. All written content and images are licensed using a CC Attribution license. Searching through PLOS journals and
collections
can yield many highly useful images including figures, tables, and graphs.
In addition to electronic publications and journals some galleries, museums and archives publish historical images online. For a great example see:
2.9
Europeana
Europeana provides access to the digital resources of Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections including paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects. Not all the works are openly licensed so be sure to check for usage rights.
3. Video Search
Searching for video? Try:
3.1
The best way to find a video that is licensed under the CC license on YouTube is to use the
CC Search
tool described above in the General Search and Photo/Image Search sections. Unfortunately YouTube does not provide a filter or advanced search capability on their home page for finding all CC-licensed videos on YouTube. However,
YouTube has a view
that enables you to see the most viewed and most reused CC-licensed videos. In addition if you are
the YouTube home page
and type in your search term followed by a comma and then “creativecommons” the videos returned are CC licensed. You can mark your videos with a CC license when uploading them to YouTube. You can also incorporate the millions of CC-licensed videos on YouTube when creating your own videos using the YouTube Video Editor. Within the YouTube Video Editor you can click on the CC tab to find content available under a CC license.
3.2
Vimeo
Vimeo lets you easily post and find CC licensed videos.
3.3
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive has a great collection of old video and movie footage. Looking for old cartoons, sports videos, ephemeral films, news footage? Check out the Internet Archive.
3.4
TED
TED is a nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. On
TED.com
, the best talks and performances from TED and partners are made available to the world, for free. More than 900 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks are subtitled in English, and many are subtitled in various languages. These videos are released under a CC BY-NC-ND license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.
4. Audio/Music Search
Searching for openly licensed audio sounds or music? Try:
4.1
Jamendo
Jamendo offers more than 350,000 free music tracks licensed under CC, all available for streaming and unlimited download without ads. It allows the public to discover thousands of artists of all genres who have chosen to distribute their music independently outside the traditional system of collecting societies. Jamendo artists can choose to join the Jamendo PRO service that allows them to sell commercial licenses of their music for professional uses, such as music synchronization for audio-visual productions or broadcasting in public spaces. You can search for music on Jamendo using the
CC Search
tool or directly on the
Jamendo
4.2
ccMixter
ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under CC where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want. Looking for music for a video, school project, game you’re developing, or podcast? Find music liberally licensed using the
dig.ccMixter
music discovery tool.
4.3
Internet Archive
In addition to video mentioned above, the
Internet Archive
has a great collection of audio. If you are searching for animal sounds, old time radio shows, sound effects and even music, the Internet Archive may have what you’re looking for.
4.4
Free Music Archive
The Free Music Archive offers free downloads under CC and other licenses. Please visit the track page to discover what you can and cannot do with each track.
4.5
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a social sound platform for people to create and share music and sounds. Recording and uploading sounds to SoundCloud lets people easily share them privately with their friends or publicly to blogs, sites and social networks. Many SoundCloud songs and sounds are licensed with CC. Visit
soundcloud.com/creativecommons
to see SoundCloud sounds and songs licensed with CC.
The search tools profiled above are for educators who are simply looking for individual media elements to use within their courses. However, an even higher value can be gained by finding Open Educational Resources (OER) that other educators have already vetted and assembled into education content such as full courses, workshops, textbooks, tests and assessments. This search section is focused on helping you find this kind of OER.
5. General Education Search
Looking to search across multiple OER initiatives? Try:
5.1 OER Commons
OER Commons
has forged alliances with over 120 major content partners to provide a single point of access through which educators and learners can search across collections to access over 30,000 items, find and provide descriptive information about each resource, and retrieve the ones they need. These resources are publicly available for all to use principally through CC licensing.
6. Recorded Lectures & Video Tutorials Search
Many institutions have recorded on-campus lectures and published them as OER licensed with CC. Short video tutorials on a particular subject are also available.
Searching for recorded lectures or video tutorials? Try:
6.1 Open Yale Courses
Open Yale Courses
(OYC) provide lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses licensed using CC. The courses span the full range of liberal arts disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences. Each course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by such other course materials as syllabi, suggested readings, and problem sets. The lectures are available as downloadable videos, and an audio-only version is also offered. In addition, searchable transcripts of each lecture are provided.
6.2 MIT
MIT has their own
MIT YouTube channel
where recorded lectures are uploaded. MIT is also well known for the
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)
initiative, a CC-licensed, web-based publication of virtually all MIT on campus course content online including lecture notes, exams, and videos. Courses with substantial video and/or audio components are listed
here
6.3 Khan Academy
The
Khan Academy
has a large library of videos covering math, biology, chemistry, physics and even the humanities, finance and history. Khan videos aren’t so much recorded lectures as short 10 minute long tutorials with an instructor narrating explanations and working things out on a board by hand on your computer screen. Check out Khan’s
library of videos
7. Open Textbook Search
Searching for open textbooks? Try:
7.1 Open Textbook Library
The costs of college is going up every year, and it’s not just tuition that weighs on student’s minds and bank accounts.
According to the College Board
, undergraduates spend an average of $1200 on textbooks annually. Faced with these costs, the academic impact is seen in classrooms across the country–many students choose to not buy a required text, take fewer courses, and some even drop or fail a course completely. Open textbooks are a solution. The
Open Textbook Library
provides a growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks. As part of their service they provide a listing of
Open Textbooks by Subject
7.2 BCcampus OpenEd
The goal of the
project
is to make higher education more accessible by reducing student cost through the use of openly licensed textbooks.
BCcampus was tasked
with co-ordination of the project because of our 10-year experience funding OER in British Columbia, Canada. Specifically, the project was asked to create a collection of open textbooks aligned with the top 40 highest-enrolled subject areas in the province.
7.3 Open Stax College
OpenStax College
is a nonprofit organization committed to improving student access to quality learning materials. OpenStax free textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed by educators to ensure they are readable, accurate, and meet the scope and sequence requirements of courses. See the free, CC BY licensed, high quality textbooks they provide
here
7.4 Siyavula
Siyavula
supports and encourages communities of teachers to work together, openly share their teaching resources and benefit from the use of technology. Siyavula has created a series of open textbooks for math and science Grades 10-12. They have also developed an online practice service, modelled on exam questions, which allows learners to practise math and science questions they may find in their tests and exams. This practice service is well integrated with the Siyavula textbooks and these resources work together to ensure learners excel in Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Learners are able to practise using their mobile phones or computers.
8. Simulation and Animation Search
8.1 PhET
PhET
provides fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for free. PhET simulations enable students to make connections between real-life phenomena and the underlying science, deepening their understanding and appreciation of the physical world. All PhET simulations are freely available from the PhET website and are easy to use and incorporate into the classroom. They are written in Java and Flash, and can be run using a standard web browser as long as Flash and Java are installed. The PhET Interactive Simulations are distributed under the CC Attribution 3.0 license and the GNU General Public License. Here’s a list of
PhET simulations
9. Modular Course Components
Searching for modular course components? Try:
9.1 Curriki
Curriki
is a leading K-12 global community for teachers, students, and parents to create, share, and find open learning resources that improve teacher effectiveness and student outcomes. Curriki has OER for Arts, Career & Technical Education, Education, Educational Technology, Health, Information & Media Literacy, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, World Languages all licensed using CC.
9.2 Merlot
MERLOT
is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT provides collections of peer reviewed online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. Most, but not all, Merlot resources are CC-licensed.
9.3 WikiEducator
WikiEducator
is a community project working collaboratively with the Free Culture Movement towards a free version of the education curriculum. Driven by the learning for development agenda WikiEducator focuses on:
building capacity in the use of Mediawiki and related free software technologies for mass-collaboration in the authoring of free content
developing free content for use in schools, polytechnics, universities, vocational education institutions and informal education settings
facilitating the establishment of community networks and collaboration with existing free content initiatives in education
fostering new technologies that will widen access, improve quality and reduce the cost associated with providing education, primarily through the use of free content
The
OERu
initiative taking place in WikiEducator is a virtual collaboration of like-minded institutions committed to creating flexible pathways for OER learners to gain formal academic credit.
9.4 Wikiversity
Wikiversity
is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. Wikiversity has thousands of learning resources licensed with CC.
10. Complete Courses
Searching for complete courses?
Have a look through these OER initiatives from around the world:
10.1 Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative
The
Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative (OLI)
is a grant-funded group at Carnegie Mellon University, offering innovative, CC-licensed, online courses to anyone who wants to learn or teach. OLI’s courses are delivered on their unique platform which uses student data to generate targeted feedback. Courses range from French language to biology, statistics, programming and more.
10.2 Open Course Library
The
Open Course Library
is a collection of expertly developed educational materials – including textbooks, syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments – in 81 high-enrollment college courses, providing faculty with a high-quality, affordable option that will cost students no more than $30 for textbooks. All materials are shared under a CC BY license unless otherwise noted. Open Course Library is an initiative of the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges.
10.3 MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)
is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT campus based course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. Courses are CC licensed.
10.4 UK Open University OpenLearn
The
UK Open University Learning Space
has
free online courses
available from introductory to postgraduate level. All courses are licensed with CC.
10.5 Saylor
Saylor.org
is a free and open collection of college level courses developed by a team of experienced college professors to fulfill the same learning objectives as traditional college courses. Courses are licensed using CC.
This is a partial listing of OER sources which we hope you find useful. We welcome additions or revisions to this listing. Send your feedback and suggestions to
info@creativecommons.org
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