Before you can confidently adopt or adapt Open Educational Resources (OER), it’s important to understand what makes a resource truly “open.” This foundational knowledge will empower you to make informed decisions about the materials you use and share in your teaching, ensuring you can take full advantage of the legal permissions and pedagogical opportunities that OER provide.

Understanding OER fundamentals isn’t just about technical definitions—it’s about recognising the practical freedoms these resources offer and how they differ from other materials you might encounter online.

Why this matters for you

When you understand what makes resources truly open, you can confidently use, adapt, and share materials without worrying about copyright restrictions. This knowledge helps you identify the best resources for your needs and avoid materials that seem open but actually have hidden limitations.

Why this matters for your students

When you choose truly open resources, your students gain permanent access to materials they can keep, share, and build upon throughout their academic and professional careers, rather than losing access when courses end.

Understanding Copyright and Creator Rights

Copyright is an important system that protects creators’ intellectual property and ensures they can benefit from their creative work. In Canada, copyright automatically applies to original works like books, articles, videos, and other educational materials, giving creators a “bundle of rights” that includes:

Reproduction Rights: The exclusive right to copy or reproduce the work in any form.

Distribution Rights: The exclusive right to sell, rent, or otherwise distribute copies.

Public Performance Rights: The exclusive right to perform or display the work publicly.

Adaptation Rights: The exclusive right to create derivative works or adaptations.

Moral Rights: The right to be credited as the creator and to protect the work’s integrity

These rights serve important purposes: they incentivise creativity by ensuring creators can control and profit from their work, they protect the integrity of original works, and they provide legal frameworks for licensing and permissions.

Copyright protection doesn’t last forever. In Canada, copyright typically expires 70 years after the creator’s death (or 70 years after publication for some works), after which the work enters the public domain. The public domain consists of works that are no longer under copyright protection and can be freely used, adapted, and shared by anyone without permission. Classic literature, historical documents, and older educational materials often fall into this category.

For educators, copyright creates both protection and complexity. While fair dealing provisions in Canadian law allow some educational use of copyrighted materials, the boundaries can be unclear, and permissions for adaptation or redistribution are typically restricted. This is where understanding open licensing becomes valuable—not as a replacement for copyright, but as a way that creators can choose to share their rights with the educational community during the copyright period.

The 5Rs of OER: Your Legal Rights to Use and Adapt Content

At the heart of OER is the idea that educators should have the legal freedom to use, adapt, and share educational materials without worrying about copyright restrictions or fair dealing limitations. These freedoms are granted through open licences, which explicitly allow you to engage in five activities—known as the 5Rs (you were introduced to the 5Rs in the previous section). Let’s explore what each of these rights means in practice and how they connect to copyright law:

Retain

The right to make, own, and control copies of the content. This means you can download and save that textbook PDF to your computer, keep it permanently, and access it whenever you need it—even if the original website goes offline or changes.

Reuse

The right to use the content in a wide range of ways without asking permission. You might use individual chapters in multiple courses, share materials with colleagues who teach similar topics, or include excerpts in conference presentations about your teaching.

Revise

The right to adapt, adjust, or modify the content to better serve your students. This could involve updating outdated examples with current events, adding local case studies that resonate with your student population, or simplifying complex language to match your students’ reading levels.

Remix

The right to combine the content with other materials to create something new. You might combine the best chapters from different textbooks, integrate your own lecture notes and assignments, or add multimedia elements like videos and interactive exercises to create a customised learning experience.

Redistribute

The right to share copies of the original or modified version with others. This means you can email materials directly to students, post them on your course website without worry, or share your improved versions with other faculty members who might benefit from your adaptations.

How the 5Rs Connect to Copyright

Notice how the 5Rs directly correspond to the bundle of copyright rights explained earlier. When creators use open licensing, they’re essentially sharing specific rights from their copyright bundle with you: the right to make copies (Retain), use the work (Reuse), create adaptations (Revise/Remix), and distribute copies (Redistribute). This is why open licensing is so powerful—it gives you explicit permission to exercise rights that are normally reserved exclusively for copyright holders.

Why These Rights Matter

These are not just suggestions—they are legal permissions granted by the resource’s open licence. This means:

• No permission needed: You don’t need to ask authors or publishers before using or adapting materials
• No copyright worries: You can confidently modify and share without fear of infringement
• Student-centred flexibility: You can adapt materials to suit your teaching goals and your students’ specific needs
• Collaborative improvement: You can build on others’ work and share your enhancements with the community

This level of freedom is what makes OER so powerful for educators. It removes the legal and logistical barriers that often come with traditional copyrighted materials, allowing you to focus on teaching and learning rather than permissions and restrictions

Understanding Open Licensing

Open licences—most commonly Creative Commons (CC) licences—make the 5Rs possible by clearly communicating how a resource can be used. Understanding these licences helps you choose resources that match your intended use and ensures you comply with any requirements when adapting or sharing materials.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons licences are built from four elements that combine in different ways. Understanding these elements helps you “read” any CC licence:

BY (Attribution)

Always required in all CC licences

• • You must credit the creator when you use their work
  • Applies to all 5Rs – you need attribution whether using, adapting, or sharing

SA (ShareAlike)

Reciprocity requirement

• • If you adapt the work, you must share your adaptation under the same licence
  • Ensures improvements remain open for others
  • Affects revise, remix, and redistribute activities

NC (NonCommercial)

Commercial restriction

• • Limits all 5Rs to non-commercial purposes only
  • Educational use typically qualifies as non-commercial
  • Commercial use requires separate permission from the creator

ND (NoDerivatives)

No modifications allowed

• • Eliminates revise and remix from the 5Rs
  • You can retain, reuse, and redistribute but cannot adapt or modify
  • Preserves the work’s original form

These elements combine to create six standard licences, from most open to most restrictive:

License	Icon	Description
CC BY (Attribution)		Elements: BY only Ideal for maximum flexibility and broad educational use
CC BY-SA (ShareAlike)		Elements: BY + SA Good for building collaborative knowledge bases where improvements stay open
CC BY-NC (NonCommercial)		Elements: BY + NC Useful when creators want to share openly but maintain control over commercial applications
CC BY-NC-SA (NonCommercial-ShareAlike)		Elements: BY + NC + SA Good for educational collaborations while preventing commercial exploitation
CC BY-ND (NoDerivatives)		Elements: BY + ND Best for sharing content while preserving its original form and integrity
CC BY-NC-ND (NonCommercial-NoDerivatives)		Elements: BY + NC + ND Useful for sharing content while maintaining maximum creator control

Other Forms of Open Licensing

While Creative Commons licences are the most common form of open licensing for educational resources, you’ll encounter other types of open permissions when working with government materials, platform-hosted content, and historical resources. Understanding these licences helps you recognise what you can use and how to credit different sources properly.

Government Open Licences

Many government agencies create their own open licences for publicly funded materials. Some government works (like federal laws and court decisions) are placed directly in the public domain with no restrictions, while most other government materials use open licences. Licences allow governments to maintain attribution requirements and prevent misuse while still making materials freely available for educational and other uses.

Open Government Licence – Canada

• • Allows you to copy, modify, and use government information for any purpose
  • Requires acknowledging the source
  • Similar to CC BY, but specifically for government content
  • Covers Statistics Canada datasets, government reports, and federal research
  • Example use: Using Statistics Canada data in course materials or adapting government infographics for presentations

Provincial variations

BC and other provinces have similar licences. Most allow broad reuse with attribution.

Platform-Specific Open Terms

Some platforms host openly licensed content under their own terms rather than Creative Commons licences. These platform-specific licences are created to address the particular needs and contexts of the platform while still providing broad permissions for use. When using materials from these platforms, always review the specific Terms of Use or licence agreement to understand what permissions are granted and any restrictions that apply. Platform-specific terms may be similar to Creative Commons licences in spirit but can have important differences in what’s allowed, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to read the actual terms before using materials in your courses.

Photo Platforms (Unsplash, Pexels)

Several photography platforms provide high-quality images specifically for creative and educational use without copyright barriers. Platforms like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay operate on a community model where photographers contribute their work to gain exposure and build their portfolios while making images freely available for others to use. These platforms deliberately chose permissive licensing to remove the financial and legal obstacles that often prevent educators, students, and creators from using professional-quality imagery. These community-driven platforms are particularly useful for educators seeking images without copyright concerns.

Photos are available for both educational and commercial purposes without requiring attribution, though crediting photographers is appreciated as good practice.

Educational and Historical Websites (TimeMaps, Geograph, YouTube)

These platforms often use open licensing to support specific educational or documentary missions. For example, the Timemaps Atlas of World History provides historical maps and educational content specifically designed for teaching world history, while Geograph is a community project documenting every square kilometre of Britain and Ireland through photography. By using open licences, these creators ensure their work remains freely accessible for educational use and can be built upon by others over time. YouTube is unique in offering content creators a choice between standard copyright and Creative Commons licensing, so you’ll find both types of content on the platform.

Always check specific licence information before using content from these platforms.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Websites (Coursera, edX)

Online learning platforms like Coursera and edX provide infrastructure for institutions to offer courses to global audiences, but the openness of content varies significantly. While some courses are openly licensed under Creative Commons and can be reused and adapted for educational purposes, others maintain traditional copyright restrictions that limit use to personal viewing. The licensing choice depends on individual course creators and institutional policies. Some platforms may allow classroom use while restricting broader distribution or adaptation.

When considering using content from these platforms, always review the specific license terms for each course, as educational reuse rights vary considerably.

Public Domain and “No Rights Reserved”

While not all public domain materials involve licensing, understanding the public domain is important when working with open content. Some materials are freely available either because creators have used legal tools to waive their rights (like CC0) or because copyright protection no longer applies. These materials can be used freely without any permissions or restrictions, making them particularly valuable for education.

CC0 (Creative Commons Zero)

• • Creators voluntarily waive all copyright rights using this legal tool
  • Places work in the public domain to the fullest extent possible
  • No attribution required, though often appreciated
  • Used by creators who want maximum freedom for others to use their work.

Expired Copyright

• • Works where copyright has expired (typically 70 years after the creator’s death in Canada)
  • Enables the use of primary sources essential for historical and literary research
  • Digital archives like Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive provide access to collections

Government Works

• • Many government materials are in the public domain (varies by jurisdiction)
  • Federal laws, court decisions, and some government publications are freely usable
  • Check specific government licensing policies, and some agencies use open licences instead.

Working with Alternative Licences

Quick verification:

• Look for explicit licence information with the material
• Check the “Terms of Use” pages
• Document where you found the licence information

Attribution tip: Even when not legally required, acknowledge sources as good scholarly practice (creator, source, licence type, date accessed).

With this broader understanding of open licensing, it’s important to distinguish between resources that are “free as in beer” (cost nothing but give you no additional rights) and those that are “free as in speech” (give you the freedom to use, modify, and share). Truly open resources provide both—they cost nothing AND give you legal freedoms to adapt and redistribute.

Distinguishing Open from Free and Publicly Available

Not all free resources are open, and not all online resources are usable for educational adaptation. Educational resources exist along a spectrum of permissions.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

• Available at no cost with explicit permissions for all 5Rs
• Can be downloaded, modified, and reshared legally and openly
• Clear licensing (usually Creative Commons) removes uncertainty
• Example: A CC BY-licensed textbook from BCcampus

Free Resources with Educational Permissions

• Available at no cost with some educational use rights
• May allow classroom sharing but restrict modification or redistribution
• Often covered by fair dealing, but permissions may be unclear
• Example: Free articles from some academic publishers, educational videos with classroom use permissions

Publicly Available Resources

• Accessible online but with standard copyright protection
• Fair dealing may allow some educational use (copying, classroom sharing)
• Modification and redistribution typically require permission
• May disappear or change without notice
• Example: News articles, most YouTube videos, government websites

Restricted/Commercial Resources:

• May require payment, registration, or institutional access
• Limited to specific uses outlined in licence agreements
• Educational use may be permitted, but with significant restrictions
• Example: Academic journal articles, commercial textbooks, subscription databases

What This Means for Educators

The further you move from true OER, the more uncertainty and restrictions you encounter. While fair dealing allows some educational use of copyrighted materials, OER provide explicit permissions that eliminate guesswork and enable the full range of educational adaptation and sharing that enhances teaching and learning.

Common Concerns and Clarifications

Faculty often have legitimate questions about open licensing and the implications of using OER. These concerns reflect thoughtful consideration of professional responsibilities and the sustainability of educational content creation:

“Open licensing hurts creators by giving away their work for free.”
This concern assumes that traditional academic publishing provides significant financial compensation to creators, which is rarely the case. Most academic authors—including textbook authors—receive little to no payment from traditional publishers. Journal article authors typically receive nothing, and textbook authors often earn minimal royalties while publishers retain most profits. Many creators choose open licensing specifically to increase the impact and reach of their work, gaining value through increased citations, broader adoption, collaborative improvements, and alignment with institutional or funder requirements. Open licensing can actually benefit creators’ careers more than traditional publishing models that limit access and reuse.

“Open licensing means I’m giving up my intellectual property rights forever.”
This is a common concern that reflects how confusing licensing can seem at first glance. When you apply an open licence like Creative Commons to your work, you actually retain full ownership of your copyright—you’re simply granting specific permissions to others while keeping all your rights as the creator. You can continue to use your work however you want, license it differently for other purposes (like commercial use), and you maintain your moral rights to be credited as the author. Think of it like renting out a room in your house—you’re giving someone permission to use that space under specific conditions, but you still own the house. Open licensing is about sharing permissions, not transferring ownership.

“What if someone posted something with the wrong licence, or the creator later changes the licence?”
While licensing errors can occur, they’re relatively rare on established OER platforms that have verification processes. Reputable repositories like BCcampus OpenEd and OER Commons review licensing before accepting resources. More importantly, once a work is released under an open licence, that licence cannot be revoked for copies that have already been distributed under those terms. This is why the “retain” right is so valuable—downloading and keeping copies protects you from future availability changes or licensing disputes. If you have concerns about a specific resource, you can contact the platform or look for additional verification from the original creator. This actually makes OER more legally stable than many freely accessible copyrighted materials that can disappear without notice.

Reflective Activity