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What is Open Content?

The term “open content” describes any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like “open source”) that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

  1. Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
  2. Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
  3. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
  4. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
  5. Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

This material was created by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.

OpenStax, Lumen Learning and other creators

Open Textbook Library
The Open Textbook Library features open textbooks from many sources, including OpenStax, as well as their own original works. These open textbooks have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. They have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions; or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization. The Open Textbook Library is part of the Open Textbook Network (OTN) which was founded by the University of Minnesota and is supported by these members, including OhioLINK.

OpenStax
Supported by Rice University, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation, the Maxfield Foundation, the Bill and Stephanie Sick Fund, and the Michelson 20MM Foundation. Peer-reviewed.

MERLOT
(Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) - A program of the California State University. Peer-reviewed.

Using Open Textbooks

Modifying an Open Textbook: What you need to know

Cheryl Cuillier, Amy Hofer, Annie Johnson, Kathleen Labadorf, Karen Lauritsen, Peter Potter, Richard Saunders, Anita Walz

This is a five-step guide for faculty, and those who support faculty, who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included.

Authoring Open Textbooks

Melissa Falldin, Karen Lauritsen

This guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12. Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.

The licenses

What does the "CC" mean?

CC-BY icon

Attribution
CC BY

  • This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

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Attribution-ShareAlike
CC BY-SA

  • This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.

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Attribution-NoDerivs
CC BY-ND

  • This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

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Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC

  • This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA

  • This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND

  • This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

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Creative Commons webpage -https://creativecommons.org/licenses/