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Open Educational Resources (OER): Creative Commons

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in diverse formats that are available in the public domain. This allows users to access materials freely.

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons Licenses Explained

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The University of Guelph McLaughlin Library created it.

License Types

All materials in the OER Commons are assigned a Creative Commons License. Each license has specific permissions attached. Find the complete definitions for each Creative Commons license below. 

CC-BY icon
Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content - even commercially. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). Link to CC-BY license.
CC-BY-NC icon
Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). User may not use the content for commercial purposes. Link to CC-BY-NC license
CC-BY-SA icon
Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content - even commercially. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s), and if they choose to remix/build upon the work, it must be distributed with the same license. Link to CC-BY-SA license
CC-BY-ND icon
Users are free to copy and redistribute the content - even commercially. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). The work may not be redistributed with changes. Link to CC-BY-ND license
CC-BY-NC-SA icon
Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). User may not use the content for commercial purposes. If the user chooses to remix/build upon the work, it must be distributed with the same license. Link to CC-BY-NC-SA license
CC-BY-NC-SA icon
Users are free to copy and redistribute the content. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). User may not use the content for commercial purposes. The work may not be redistributed with changes. Link to CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Source: University of Texas Libraries. (2025, July 10). Creative Commons. Retrieved on October 27, 2025, from https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/cc/home 

How to Use Creative Commons Content