I am not very original and I like to find materials on the web to ‘spice-up’ my hybrid and online courses. However, I frequently find things that are wonderful, but I am never sure as to their usability with regards to copyright and fair-use. Fortunately, there is a wealth of resources out there that are available under some very clear and user-friendly licensing. So, let me first briefly discuss Creative Commons licensing and then point you to some wonderful web sites that support either Creative Commons licensing or clearly stated licensing materials for use in your course.
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that has established some legal tools to allow content authors to share their creative works under six different licensing schemes. The schemes are outlined on the website. In the simplest of terms, all of the licenses require, as a minimum, attribution. This means you give credit to the author for the original creation. The rest of the licenses add on one or more of these attributes: NoDerivs, NonCommercial or ShareAlike. Rather than go into the detail, the site provides complete descriptions of the licenses in both a human-readable format (License Deed) or the less-friendly Legal Code. Below are a few sites where you can find some really great content licensed under CC.
The Creative Commons website also provides an integrated search tool to help with your media searches.
I think it is worthwhile to point out the disclaimer at the bottom of the page:
Please note that search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link.
With that in mind, I find it easier and perhaps a little more effective to visit some sites that are CC friendly and search directly on those sites. My go-to site for images, sounds and videos is WikiMedia Commons.
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language.
Another site, odd as it may seem, is the popular photo-sharing site, Flickr. Here you will find photos that have been specifically tagged with one of the CC licenses. Some of these are personal/amateur photos, but it does include images from institutions such as the Yale Law Library.
What about clever clipart? The Open Clip Art project solves that for you. While this is not strictly CC licensed, their terms are quite open!
Openclipart may be used for any purpose, including unlimited commercial productions, as royalty-free clipart, for schools, churches, commercial and non-commercial reasons.
Khan Academy
Of all the sites, one stands out in my mind, especially with my interest in Math and Science, and that is Khan Academy. Their material is licensed under CC – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Their primary focus remains on Math and Science, but they have started adding content in the Humanities, Economics and finance. I added one of their videos on factoring to my Math 100 course as I found the explanation much better than I could ever do. The content available defies a short description, so I would encourage you to browse and explore and see what may be available for your use.
Our online materials cover subjects ranging from math and finance to history and art. With thousands of bite-sized videos, step-by-step problems and instant data, Khan Academy provides a rich and engaging learning experience. You can earn points and badges along the way, and coach others as well.
MERLOT
MERLOT was started by the California State University system. It contains discipline-specific learning materials and learning exercises, together with associated comments. Unlike the other sites discussed already, there is not a blanket license for the content. Instead, material in MERLOT indicates on the metadata record whether the material has a cost for associated with its use or if the material is copyrighted. I have gotten really excited about a find here, only to discover there was a cost associated with it, so make sure you read the record.
MERLOT is a free and open peer reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials and faculty-developed services contributed and used by an international education community.
Other Sites of Interest
There are other really great sites out there with content that is freely available and under reasonable licensing terms. Without going into a great deal of detail, here are some more resources:
TEDEd — the TED Talks for education (licensed under CC)
(Click for a little fun — and some elementary Calculus)
MIT Video — embed codes are included for many videos. Licensing may vary.
I hope you find some useful content out there for your classes. If you know of other sites, especially with clear CC licensing, please leave a comment.