Selecting a License

A Creative Commons License should be explicit on your OER. The following, adapted from Amy Hofer, describes the process of selecting a license based on how you want others to use your work and then embedding that license in your OER so that your terms of use are clear to everyone.

Step 1: Use the Creative Commons license chooser by checking the boxes according to how you'd like your work to be used. For example, you'll need to check whether or not you'd like to allow others to adapt the work (i.e. make changes).

Step 2: Optional you can add information under "Help Others Attribute You!" so that the chooser customizes the text/ code that it generates to be specific to your project

Displaying a License

Step 3: At the end of the process you have an image and text that you can copy/paste, as well as machine-readable code that you can add to a website. Here are some ways that you can embed the license so that it's easily discoverable by others:

If you're using Pressbooks to create the OER, you can add the Creative Commons license you've selected under "Book Information"
If you're creating a PowerPoint, Word document, or PDF, embed the image and some text about the license on your object (usually in the footer);

"Title goes here" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

If you are creating an entire website, the generator will provide HTML under "Copy this code to let your visitors know!"
- This should be inserted into the page HTML - which become available through "code view" which allows you see the code that makes up your page. Near the end of the page before you see </body></html>, paste the HTML code in directly.
- Once live on the Internet, the license information will be displayed and the machines will be able to detect the license status automatically. You may edit the descriptive text to fit your needs.