Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials that are freely available on the internet for use and for modification.
Often made available through Creative Commons licences, OER is a way of sharing knowledge and expertise by making aspects of an institution’s approach to teaching available to other academics and making the content of that teaching available to anyone with an interest in learning.
If you use your teaching materials to create Open Educational Resources, or make your teaching material available in any other way over the internet you should get permission to include any third-party copyright material. By no longer restricting access to our registered students, the CLA and other blanket licences will cease to apply, and you are unlikely to be able to rely on fair dealing exceptions.
U-Now is the University of Nottingham’s collection of open educational materials that have been openly licensed for anyone to use. The materials range from complete modules to smaller-scale learning objectives and highlight a range of teaching and learning activities from across the University.
For advice on releasing teaching materials as OER, you can contact Steve Stapleton who is the Senior Project Manager for the University’s OER initiative.
Creative Commons Licences
Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organisation that enables you to share the products of your creativity and knowledge by providing a range of simple copyright licences that determine how the public can use your work. Full information about CC licences and how to use them can be found at the Creative Commons website.
CC licences do not replace copyright but work alongside to enable you to modify the copyright terms to best suit your needs. They can be used for any work you produce including research outputs and data, teaching materials and websites.
If you would like to learn more about the different CC licenses, you can visit the Creative Commons licenses page.