Using External Resources
When designing content for NMSI, use materials that are open educational resources (OER). These are resources that are in the public domain or have creative commons licenses. This means that they have few or no ownership rights and can be easily remixed, revised, and redistributed.
Approved Licenses for NMSI Content:
- Public domain: you can use these materials however you want – commercially and non-commercially
- CC BY: you can use these materials however you want – commercially and non-commercially - if you provide attribution
You should also complete the External Resource Tracking form for every external resource you use in the content you create.
Providing Proper Attribution
To make sure materials are correctly attributed, include the following details and make sure they are clearly displayed by the relevant resource (ideally directly underneath):
- Title: The title of the resource
- Author: The name of the creator
- Source: The URL where the resource is hosted
- License: The type of license it's available under
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is one of the main sources for finding openly licensed materials. There are different types of Creative Commons licenses. The following graphic shows what they are in relation to their restrictions. When creating content for NMSI, you may use content that is labeled public domain (CC0) or CC BY.
