Skip to Main Content

North Metropolitan TAFE: Reusable content: Finding and Using CC and OER Resources

Search Creative Commons (CC)


Image by Creative Commons under CC BY 4.0 licence

Open Educational Resources (OERs)

View the Video on Why Open Education Matters:

What are Open Educational Resources (OERs)?
OER are teaching and learning materials that are freely available for everyone to use.
 
What licences are Open Educational Resources available under?
OER resources are licenced under Creative Commons (CC) licences. The great thing is that all CC licences allow works to be used for educational purposes. As a result, lecturers can freely copy, share and sometimes modify and remix a CC work without having to seek permission from the creator.

Why is it preferable for lecturers to use Open Educational Resources?
The current copyright licences and free use exceptions for educational use by lecturers are expensive, restrictive and complicated. Lecturers downloading, saving, printing or emailing pages from the internet will attract fees payable under the education statutory licence. 

Where can I find Open Educational Resources?
There is an abundance of OER materials open for everyone to use and available on the Internet. However, the key is knowing where to find such materials. 

View the Video on How to Search OER Commons:

See below for more information on Open Educational Resources :

Multidisciplinary Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Clip On What Are Creative Commons Licenses?

Search Tools For Finding Creative Commons Images

Search for CC images using these search tools:

Websites For Finding Creative Commons (CC) Images

Use CC licenced images wherever possible as they are free and easy to use. Listed below are CC licenced image repositories:​

Where To Find Creative Commons Licensed Music

Where to Find Creative Commons Licensed Videos

Finding Creative Commons (CC) Images on Google

How to find CC Images using Google Images: 

1. Type in your search term / keywords into the Google Images search bar.
2. Once the results are displayed, click on Tools (under the search bar, middle of the screen)
3. Click on the drop-down menu under Usage Rights.
4. Choose Creative Commons licenses.
5. Click on the image you want.
6. Click on the License details (below the image)

How To Attribute Creative Commons Licensed Materials

"CC licences require that users of the material attribute the creator. This means you always have to acknowledge the creator of the CC material you are using, as well as provide any relevant copyright information" (Smartcopying, n.d.)

When attributing a CC image you should:

  • Credit the creator.
  • Provide the title of the work.
  • Provide the URL where the original work is hosted.
  • Indicate the type of licence the work is under and provide the link to the licence.
  • Keep intact any copyright notice associated with the work. 

OR another way to remember when attributing CC - licenced material is through this acronym:

TASL

Title - Provide the title of the image.
Author / Creator - Credit the creator or photographer with a link to their page (if applicable)
Source - If the resource was obtained online, hyperlink the title to the URL of the original source where the image is hosted.
Licence - Indicate the type of CC licence it is available under and hyperlink to the licence terms.

(Smartcopying, n.d.)

"You can list the licence name in full, use the abbreviated form of the licence or use either the normal or compact licence buttons" (Smartcopying, n.d.)

Below are the examples on how you can use the CC licence name:

In full for example Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence

The abbreviated form for example CC BY 2.0
or the licence button 

       Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) image by creative commons

Examples Of Three Creative Commons Licenced Images & Attributions