Copyright for Faculty at Mohawk College

Open Educational Resources, or OER, are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost. Unlike fixed, copyrighted materials, OER have been authored and created with the intention of retain few, if any, ownership rights.

In general, you are able to download a resource, edit in some way and re-post it as a remixed work. OER typically have a Creative Commons license which indicates how the material can be used.

An OER can be a Textbook, Tutorial, Video, Quiz or Syllabus

Visit our Open Education Research Guide for more information

Both Open Access and Creative Commons are web-based sites that provide access and use of materials without requiring permission for use.  

Open Access provides access to peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed scholarly materials.  Readers can view, download and copy. The Terms of Use is set by the creator and can range from partial to unrestricted access. The user is expected to review these terms and follow them accordingly.

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that enables creators to share their materials through a set of copyright licenses. There are standardized licenses that give the public permission to share and use works based on the rights the creator has chosen.  Rights vary from some rights reserved to all rights reserved.  The user must read the accompanying license to know how the material can be used.