Creative Commons training efforts strengthen our mission to “empower individuals and communities around the world through technical, legal, and policy solutions that enable the sharing of education, culture, and science in the public interest.” In 2024, our Learning & Training team focused on: 1) piloting new partnerships, 2) expanding training options, and 3) reaching new communities.  We are pleased that our 2024 training and engagement efforts supported national governments, universities, secondary education institutions, NGOs, librarians, cultural heritage professionals, and web developers spanning almost every continent.  See below for highlights, and contact us if you would like to collaborate in 2025. 

• Piloting new partnerships:
  •  CC worked in partnership with the University of Nebraska at Omaha on “Introduction to Open Educational Resources,” our first professional development microcredential course. 
  • We partnered with Library Juice Academy to create an additional microcredential course launching in January 2025. Registration is currently open until all seats are filled. 
  • Similar to our partnership with the US Midwest Higher Education Compact (MHEC), we partnered with BCcampus to support subsidized CC Certificate training for additional higher education institutions. 
• Expanding training options: 
  • CC provided increased support for our CC Certificate program and its 1,892 alumni across 68 countries. The CC Certificate program trains advocates, educators, librarians, and cultural heritage professionals in copyright, open licensing and open practices for advocacy. This year, CC awarded 35 scholarships for Certificate courses; hosted 24 webinars covering topics such as Digitized Representation by Heritage Institutions, Accessible OER, AI, copyright, and CC licenses; and provided multiple avenues of engagement for Certificate alumni, including both formal and informal mentorship options and a monthly newsletter.
  • CC increased our customized training offerings, providing workshops, tutorials, talks and training for: the AAC&U’s Institute on OER, Africa Journals Online, CEU Press and Ukrainian Partners, California Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) program grantees, CC Rwanda, the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Ghanaian secondary school educators focused on Open Education For Climate and Environmental Sustainability, ISTE Live 2024, the Missouri’s A&OER Conference pre-conference training day, OER and Social Justice for Affordable Learning Kentucky, Utrecht University, Wikimania, in partnership with Ukrainian and Netherlands librarians, a Willoughby Institute faculty workshop at Dickinson College, and a WordPress Campus Conference Lightning Talk. See additional engagements including keynotes and moderated discussions in our CC Open Education Year in Review.
• Reaching new communities:
  •  To reach more librarians, CC collaborated with the American Library Association to provide a 4-week webinar series for ALA’s Core division, supporting librarians’ professional development. CC also hosted presentations at ALA LibLearnX and ALA Annual. 
  • To reach more communities involved in Open Science and Open Data, CC hosted trainings including: an Open Climate Data Recommendations and CC Licensing 101 workshop for Open Education week, Open Data training for the California Department  of Transportation, an open data workshop for ocean and climate researchers in partnership with Intertidal Agency, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. 
  • CC provided training for additional government audiences with a CC 101 for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Reflecting on 2024, we are grateful for the friendships and collaborations forged, and the new communities we had the pleasure of meeting. As we continue working toward the three goals in 2025, we hope to connect! If you would like to partner with CC, host a CC training for your institution, or get CC support for your community of practice, please let us know. Learn more on our website and email learning [at] creativecommons.org for more information. We’d be delighted to help you continue to grow your knowledge expertise in opening access to research, science, education, and culture.

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The Creative Commons (CC) Certificate courses are widely considered an essential resource for open access education and for increasing capacity for individuals and institutions using the CC licenses to increase open access.  

The CC Certificate program offers in-depth courses about CC licenses, open practices, and the ethos of the Commons. Courses are composed of various readings, quizzes, discussions, and practical exercises to develop learners’ open skills. Currently we offer a CC Certificate for Open Culture, a CC Certificate for Academic Librarians, and a CC Certificate for Educators. Courses are open to everyone, from university students and entry-level professionals to experts in the fields of library science, education, and cultural heritage. 

With the goal of reducing the barrier of participating in one of these essential trainings, CC is proud to have recently awarded eight scholarships. These scholarships would not be possible without your donations. We invite you to donate today so that we can continue offering these scholarships.  You may also want to consider joining our Open Infrastructure Circle so that we can increase participation in these trainings globally. 

Join us in congratulating the following scholarship recipients and keep reading to learn more about their journey in the open community: 

ABIR Mohammed Galib Hasan, Bangladesh

Galib is a PhD Researcher in Hokkaido University, Japan. His primary research areas are: Educational Technology, Open Education and Generative AI. He was a founding member of the CC Bangladesh Chapter, serving as the Education Lead since 2018. Galib also served on the program committee of CC Global Summit in 2019 and 2020.

Bukola James, Nigeria

Bukola James is a certified librarian, Wikimedian, and community coordinator for the African Wikipedian Alliance. She also serves as the co-lead for the Open Culture Platform’s Outreach Working Group and as a Sub-Saharan Liaison Officer for the Wikimedia Foundation Peer Learning Program. Additionally, Bukola is a  communications expert for the EduWiki Newsletter and a special adviser for the EduWiki User Group. She holds the position of co-team and project lead within African Wiki Women and other impactful initiatives.

Chaidir Amir, Indonesia

Chaidir is a professional librarian who has been working in libraries since 2023. He has certifications and competence in library management based on information and communication technology. He is an active member of multiple library forums and associations. Chaidir also serves as an accreditation assessor and library training facilitator.

Jes Graham, South Africa

Jes is a 28-year-old, disabled, non-binary South African who works at the University of Cape Town in open education, specifically in the development and production of open textbooks. Their driving motto for their work is to “be conscientiously creative in the pursuit of developing and sharing accessible knowledge through design.” To this end, Jes combines their skills in graphic design, Disability Studies, and editorial work and publishing to develop open educational resources (with a strong focus on multiple forms of accessibility) from a South African perspective. In their current work at the University of Cape Town, Jes has developed foundational skills in CC licensing, but aims to advance this knowledge to more deeply integrate CC licensing in their own work and support others in the local design and academic community.

John Okewole, Nigeria

John is an open education advocate working locally by encouraging colleagues to engage openness as a culture and attitude, and globally as a CC Global Network member and member of CC’s Open Education Platform). Some of his recent contributions include acting as a member of the Working Group 4 — Beyond Copyright: the Ethics of Open Sharing and serving as a co-lead of the CC Open Education Platform’s working group on the UNESCO Recommendation on OER. John is a Commonwealth Scholar who has completed an MA in Online and Distance Education at the Open University, UK and he also has a certificate in Designing and Facilitating E-Learning (Level 5) at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.

Jonas Bäckelin, Sweden

Jonas is currently the Content Manager on the Creative Commons Sverige team and the Sweden Chapter Lead. Outside of his CC work, Jonas is the solution manager and learning designer at Adda Kompetens, a part of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR). He also serves as the moderator of the Upskilling och Reskilling committee at Swedish JobTech.

Tina Kalan, Slovenija

After working in the public school system and the national library, Tina has found her place in the academic library world. Her work is very dynamic, including everything from cataloging to information literacy courses. An important part of her workload is bibliographies, and her goal is to provide support to patrons, from students to researchers, in questions related to open access, open science and research assessments.

Tri Astari, Indonesia

Tri Astari is a lecturer who creates educational content under CC licenses, driven by a strong desire to make knowledge easily accessible. In addition, she is a member of Wikimedia Indonesia.

Congratulations again to the recipients. If you are interested in the CC Certificate courses, we invite you to register for 2025

The post Meet the Recipients of the Fall 2024 CC Certificate Scholarship appeared first on Creative Commons.

In this interview, we were delighted to speak with Hanae Lrhoul, a graduate of the CC Certificate for Educators. 

Hanae works as a professor at the Information Sciences school in Rabat, Morocco. Her main research topics are related to open access, scientometrics, and data visualization. She is also an associate editor of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the CC Morocco chapter lead, and Vice President of the International Association of Francophone Libraries (AIFBD).

Q: What inspired you to take the CC Certificate for Educators?

Q: You’re a professor in the school of information science. How has what you learned in the CC Certificate course informed your work?

Q: I understand that you’re an integral part of the CC Morocco team and helped establish that chapter back in 2020/2021. Can you tell us more about the state of open access and CC licenses in Morocco?

Q: I also know you’ve done some interesting work with the government – for example, you recently told me that the Ministry of Higher Education launched the first open science project as part of the Minister’s ESRI pact.

Q: What advice do you have for folks who are new to open science or open education initiatives and are looking to get more involved?

Q: Final words?

CC Certificate Alumni Interview with Hanae Lrhoul by Shanna Hollich is licensed via CC BY 4.0.

Registering for the CC Certificate program is one way to start taking Hanae’s wonderful advice to “adopt and embrace open access.” To learn more about our upcoming courses, please visit the CC Certificate website. Or, read about how our alumni have used the Certificate course knowledge in a number of ways, including: developing a microcredential course about open educational resources, an Open Syllabus project, supporting the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science; an open access policy for a cultural heritage institution working with digitized art works; open licensed content for a bachelor of business program in Bangladesh and Masters courses in the US. You can also read alumni testimonials here.  

If you are a CC Certificate alum and would like to share your amazing work with our CC community, please reach out to us at certificates AT creativecommons DOT org.

The post CC Certificate Alumni Making a Global Impact appeared first on Creative Commons.

If the embedded timeline above is not working, the highlights are also listed below.

What’s next

In the coming months, we  look forward to co-developing a public folder of CC training materials with CC communities around the world. Stay tuned for more information and how to get involved. 

Meanwhile: would you like a CC training at your institution or community of practice? Learn more on our website and email learning [at] creativecommons.org for more information. We’d be delighted to help you continue to grow your knowledge of Creative Commons licensing and the open movement.

Timeline text

• 9 January: CC provided a short overview of OER and CC licenses as tools to support education and science in Ukraine. This was presented for Ukrainian conference “Open Knowledge in Ukrainian Universities: Open Educational Resources.” Recording available on YouTube.
• 20 January: At the 2024 ALA LibLearnX conference in January, CC presented: “3D Scanning for Cultural Heritage Institutions: Practical Skills and Considerations for Library Preservation.” In this hands-on workshop, participants learned the basics of how 3D scanning works and the importance of this technology for preserving cultural heritage and library collections. After a quick demonstration, we were able to dive into a deeper discussion about the copyright and open licensing considerations of this particular type of digital preservation.
• 26 February: CC provided a general CC licensing training for CC network colleagues in Rwanda. We thoroughly enjoy supporting CC network colleagues and are happy to provide one-hour trainings like this upon request.
• 29 February: In a keynote, titled “In Cyborg Luddite Solidarity,” we explored the challenges and promises generative AI poses for creators and open educators. From concerns around privacy, consent, bias, economic and environmental impacts, access to and control over technology further entrenching inequities, copyright, misinformation and more, generative AI remains a contentious advancement. Simultaneously, the benefits and promises witnessed in 2023 alone were awe-inspiring. AI advanced life-saving medical knowledge, enhanced educational curriculum alignment across national borders, and made creative expression more accessible to untrained creators. Using generative AI, international projects strengthened linguistic diversity online — work vital to addressing one of the major inequities of the internet. While our new landscape continues to evolve, we drew from the Luddite Movement and Cyborg Manifesto to highlight ethics from our collective pasts that may apply today.
• Between 4 and 8 March, we celebrated Open Education Week with a range of learning offerings.
• 4 March: In Affordable Learning Kentucky’s virtual OE week symposium, CC delivered a talk titled “OER and Social Justice: Are We Keeping Our Promises?” We were grateful to engage with a new audience about the OER and its potential for even greater accessibility and social justice to empower learners from all facets of society. 
• 4 March: This Licensing Q&A webinar was part of the Creative Commons Certificate courses, and was available to the public. Meredith Jacob is the CC US Public Lead and Director of the Project on Copyright and Open Licensing at the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law.
• 5 March: CC hosted a webinar focused on Wikidata, OER, and curriculum alignment in Ghana, Uruguay, and Italy, with special guests Nat Hernández Clavijo and Sailesh Patnaik. Clavijo and Patnaik shared the transformative potential of Wikidata in curriculum alignment through a review of Wikidata for Education, a project born in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana, in collaboration with UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition. The project aligned Wikipedia articles with school curricula, revolutionizing the way students access relevant information, and has since expanded to Uruguay and Italy. Recording link (English); Recording link (Español)
• 6 March: CC provided a training day in prep for Missouri’s A&OER Conference. Training days are great opportunities to ensure large groups have a baseline understanding of CC licenses, open practices, and open advocacy efforts. 
• 7 March: In celebration of Open Education Week, OE Global’s Alan Levine interviewed CC Director of Learning and Training, Jennryn Wetzler. The podcast will be available on the OEGlobal Voices podcast page.
• 8 March: This Q&A webinar included an overview of CC’s recently released Recommended Best Practices for Better Sharing of Climate Data and the CC licenses and tools that support best practices. Our recommendations are a result of collaboration between Creative Commons, government agencies, and intergovernmental organizations including ECMWF, NASA, NOAA, and the World Resources Institute. They mark a significant milestone in our ongoing effort to enhance the accessibility, sharing, and reuse of open climate data to address the climate crisis. Our goal is to share strategies that align with existing data sharing principles and pave the way for a more interconnected and accessible future for climate data. These recommendations also align with the strategies and outcomes of the Open Climate Campaign, a partnership between Creative Commons, SPARC, and EIFL.
• 12 March: This Licensing Q&A webinar with CC General Counsel Kat Walsh was part of the Creative Commons Certificate courses, and was available to the public. 
• 12 March – 2 April: CC piloted a series of webinars with ALA’s Core division about copyright, Creative Commons licensing, and the potential impact of emerging technologies on copyright and open access. Recording links are forthcoming.
• 21 March: This informational webinar was part of the Creative Commons Certificate courses, and was available to the public. Nancy Olson, Director of Distance Education and Instructional Technology at Barstow College provided practical guidance on Accessible OER.
• 5 April: CC co-presented a session at the Northeast OER Summit titled “Beyond Affordability: Collaboration, Reuse, Translation and Localization of OER in Ukraine.” Through storytelling of a recent event in 2023, Ukrainian colleagues and CC demonstrate the power of OER as a tool for cross country collaboration, connection and as support for learning communities in Ukraine. Presenters invited participants to join their collective story, exploring ways to support Ukrainian colleagues translating and localizing needed skills training amidst war.
• 17 April: Creative Commons announced the launch of “Introduction to Open Educational Resources,” our first professional development microcredential course and partnership with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, commencing on 31 May.

The post Learn More with Creative Commons: Recent Training Highlights appeared first on Creative Commons.

Creative Commons is proud to announce the launch of “Introduction to Open Educational Resources,” our first professional development microcredential course and partnership with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, commencing on 31 May.

This microcredential pilot started with one CC Certificate alumnus’s enthusiasm for open education. Craig Finlay, OER and STEM Librarian at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Libraries, took the CC Certificate course for Academic Librarians in September, 2021. Since then, he’s advocated for open education in a variety of capacities: managing UNO’s biannual campus Affordable Content Grants, which largely fund converting courses from using all traditional textbooks to using at least one open educational resource; hosting regular CC workshops for faculty on campus; and co-authoring a white paper exploring OER’s positive impact on student success. Co-creating the microcredential course offered the next step in applying his CC Certificate expertise and passion for open education. Craig was intent on bringing CC licensing expertise to more learners, seeking professional development, and UNO granted a pathway for this.

Over the course of the last several months, CC and UNO have developed the “Introduction to Open Educational Resources.” The course remixes Certificate lessons in open licensing, copyright, open education, fair use and the public domain.  Content targets the ecosystem of scholarly and academic publishing and explores growing and managing open education efforts in these domains. Learners enrolling in this 9-week course will engage asynchronously, but should expect to work five hours per week to complete course work; successful completion will result in a microcredential for non-credit and professional education. 

Beyond the course announcement, we wanted to share a few crucial elements that made this partnership successful: 

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which outlined the goal, key roles, responsibilities and timeline for our work. 
• A mutually viable financial model, which ensures this work can be sustainable for both institutions. 
• Adaptability. Because this project involved multiple stakeholders, we needed to remain flexible to meet differing needs. 
• Trust. Working together has been easy because of our basis in trust.

We share these key ingredients to this microcredential pilot because we expect the partnership can be replicated for a number of new communities. If you work at an institution and are interested in partnering with CC on a microcredential course related to CC Certificate course content, please contact certificates [at] creativecommons.org.

Note: The CC Certificate program was created as an investment in our open advocates around the world. CC built the training to strengthen the global communities’ work engaging in open movements in education, access and more recently, cultural heritage. 

CC Certificate courses develop peoples’ practical expertise in open licensing, copyright, and ways to engage in open knowledge and culture movements. The program has certified over 1700 people in 65 countries with open licensing expertise. Through open licensing course content, CC supports communities making derivatives of the course, from Masters level courses, faculty workshops, an audio recording, to nine language translations, and more. 

The post Creative Commons and University of Nebraska at Omaha Partner on a Microcredential Course appeared first on Creative Commons.

The Creative Commons Certificate program launched in 2018 to strengthen our global communities’ efforts to share open knowledge and culture. To date, we have over 1700 graduates of the Certificate program from 65 different countries. 

The program was built for iteration and adaptation.  We regularly revise and update the CC Certificate materials based on direct feedback from our community of participants, facilitators, and alumni. We make all iterations of our course openly available under a CC BY license. As a result, our community has created countless derivative trainings, faculty presentations, workshops, courses and open education, open access and open culture communication materials. Community members have also translated course reading content and made it available as open educational resources in 10 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, English, French, Italian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish, and Yoruba.

Now, we are pleased to announce the latest revision of our course content available on our Certificate Resources page, accessible and downloadable in multiple file formats.

With the 2024 course content, we hope to reach new audiences, and we invite new translation projects to help us.  Translation work could mean both updating existing translations or creating entirely new ones. If you’re interested in making the CC Certificate course content available in your own local language(s) by participating in a future translation project, please reach out to us at certificates [at] creativecommons.org for more information.

If you’re interested in a CC Certificate course, you can learn more and register for our upcoming June 2024 and September 2024 options on our website. If you are already CC Certified, we encourage you to share your experiences with your colleagues and to become an active participant in our alumni community, where you can read our alumni newsletter, learn about additional training opportunities, and participate in upcoming community projects. Contact certificates [at] creativecommons.org  if you are not already on the alumni listserv and we will add you.

We send a special thanks to the many wonderful CC staff, Certificate course facilitators, community members and volunteers who help make this work possible. We’re looking forward to continued improvements to the CC Certificate program as we explore new audiences and new opportunities to help you reach your open education goals.

The post New Revisions to CC Certificate Course Content = New Opportunities for Translations appeared first on Creative Commons.

This December, Creative Commons led a CC Certificate Bootcamp, or condensed Certificate training, for faculty and staff from 16 different California Community Colleges implementing Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) degree programs. This marked the second CC Bootcamp for California Community Colleges after the California legislature invested $115 million to expand ZTC degrees and the use of open educational resources (OER) within the statewide California community college system. ZTC degrees and increased use of OER reduce the overall cost of education and shorten the time to degree completion for students. With the average cost of course textbooks estimated at $100/student/course, ZTC degrees are crucial for students’ higher education. Further, students’ grades achieved in ZTC programs are higher than in traditional courses.

The CC Certificate program provides training and tools for ZTC program faculty and staff to legally and effectively implement the open licensing requirements of California’s historic investment in education. After learning about copyright basics, fair use, the public domain, and CC licensing, participants brainstormed and initiated some great ways to support ZTC program faculty and student needs. Examples of participant work include using generative AI to create “Creative Commons Bots,” tools to help others learn about licensing, and test their own knowledge with quiz questions; creating a grants guide for OER funding; drafting a potential strategic plan for OER/ ZTC work (work in progress), and remixing previous courses or resources to address ZTC communications and learning needs for localized audiences (works in progress). See what participants are saying below.

“This is one of the best professional development experiences I’ve had in years”

“Thank you so much for sharing wonderful resources and CC practices. I will share this knowledge with my colleagues”

“You’ve nailed the condensed week workshop. So much fun, and creating work groups was really beneficial”

We are proud to support California Community Colleges’ collaboration as they strengthen their foundations for open education. CC is grateful to the Michelson 20MM Foundation for generously funding this bootcamp at San Bernardino Valley College. Special thanks also go to the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges for their liaison work, expertise and support, to San Bernardino Valley College for hosting the event, and to Fresno Pacific University for providing professional development credits to faculty.

If you’re interested in advancing open education efforts in your own institution, Creative Commons offers an array of learning, training, and consulting opportunities to support our global community in developing open licensing expertise and a deeper understanding of recommended practices for better sharing. Visit the CC Training & Consulting page to learn more about our training services, workshops, lectures, and CC Certificate courses. Register for our next CC Certificate online courses, starting 29 January.

The post More California Community Colleges Get CC Certified! appeared first on Creative Commons.

As we end 2023, we want to showcase the incredible work of CC community members to translate the CC Certificate content. Thanks to 21 volunteers this year and numerous volunteers in the past, the reading content of our CC Certificate training is now available in 10 languages. This makes our fundamental open licensing and open advocacy training more accessible to over one billion people in their native languages. 

The CC Certificate program offers in-depth courses about copyright, CC licenses, open practices and the ethos of our global, shared commons. CC Certificate courses target (1) Academic Librarians, (2) Educators and (3) Open Culture advocates, but are open to everyone. Learn more about the CC Certificate and other professional learning opportunities, then register for a Certificate course today. If you are a CC Certificate graduate and would like to translate course content in 2024, please contact certificate administrators on the alumni listserv. 

Slovak

The Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information contacted CC in 2022, noting the need for CC Certificate content in Slovak. Thanks to Gabriela Fišová, Judita Takačová, Jakub Klech, and Barbora Bieliková, who translated content earlier this year, the Centre now has a complete translation. 

Download the Slovak translation files, view them on the CC Certificate translations webpage, or on Zenodo. 

Bengali

Bangladesh Open University (BOU) faculty, Sadia Afroze Sultana and Mostafa Azad Kamal, translated the CC Certificate content to make open licensing training more accessible to the 184+ million Bengali-speakers worldwide. Sadia is a CC Certificate alumna and facilitator; Mostafa is the CC Bangladesh Chapter Representative and also a CC Certificate alumnus. CC thanks Mostafa and Sadia; CC also thanks BOU faculty Asma Akter Shelly and Ananya Laboni, and graduate students Aminul Islam Rana and Mir Khadija Tahera for reading the translated copies and providing feedback. 

Download the Bengali translation files, or view them on the CC Certificate translations webpage.

French 2.0

Building on last year’s French Translation, a community of volunteers from seven countries embarked on a two-week French translation 2.0 sprint, to increase the accessibility of the French translation for different francophone audiences. Nicolas Simon, a CC community member who provided the original French translation supported the sprint, and reviewed the final draft. Adou Jean-Constant Atta, Aman Ado, Emmanuelle Guebo Kakou, Fawaz Tairou, Karen Ferreira-Meyers, Kamel Belhamel, Nyirahabihirwe Clementine, Touré Kahou, Namon Moussa Traore, and Yao Hippolyte Bondouho added local contextual considerations such as recommended links. 

Download the French translation files, or view them on the CC Certificate translations webpage.

With these translations, the CC Certificate reading content is accessible in 10 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Slovak, Turkish, and Yoruba. The latest translations make our open licensing training more accessible than ever before and we thank open community members for making that possible. 

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