OER Remix or Just a Collection? Practical Examples from the Classroom

Any­one who works with OER will sooner or later face the ques­tion: When is a work actu­ally a “true” remix—and when is it merely a col­lec­tion of mate­ri­als placed side by side? This is pre­cisely what deter­mines whether third-party CC mate­ri­als can be excluded from one’s own license or whether the orig­i­nal CC licenses gov­ern the entire work.

Remix vs. Compilation: The Key Question

From Cre­ative Com­mons’ per­spec­tive, two sce­nar­ios can be dis­tin­guished:

- Col­lec­tion: Var­i­ous works are pre­sented side by side with­out being merged into a sin­gle new work. The indi­vid­ual works remain tech­ni­cally and legally dis­tinct and retain their own licenses.

- Remix/Adaptation: Con­tent is com­bined, edited, and reor­ga­nized in such a way that a new, cohe­sive work is cre­ated in which the orig­i­nal mate­ri­als can no longer be eas­ily “extracted.” The orig­i­nal CC licenses then apply to the new work.

A very prac­ti­cal exam ques­tion is:

- Are the third-party mate­ri­als tech­ni­cally and legally sep­a­ra­ble and clearly iden­ti­fi­able as such? → If so, the work is more likely to be a com­pi­la­tion, and exclu­sion is pos­si­ble.

- Or are they insep­a­ra­bly inte­grated into a work (a remix in the strict sense)? → In that case, the respec­tive orig­i­nal licenses apply; it is prac­ti­cally impos­si­ble to “sep­a­rate” them from the licens­ing frame­work.

Let’s look at some exam­ples from the field of edu­ca­tion regard­ing com­pi­la­tion and remix­ing:

1. CC materials can be separated (collection) → Can be excluded

In these cases, CC mate­ri­als are used, but they are pre­sented more as “side-by-side” ele­ments. They remain rec­og­niz­able as inde­pen­dent works and can also be dis­trib­uted sep­a­rately from a tech­ni­cal stand­point.

a) LMS course as a collection of various CC resources

A course is cre­ated in Moo­dle, ILIAS, or Can­vas:

- Unit 1: Linked CC BY script from Project A

- Unit 2: Embed­ded CC BY-NC video from Uni­ver­sity B

- Unit 3: H5P exer­cise (CC BY-SA) by Project C

Your own course mate­ri­als are licensed under CC BY. Third-party OER mate­ri­als are excluded, for exam­ple: “Unless oth­er­wise noted, the course mate­ri­als are licensed under CC BY 4.0; linked or embed­ded CC mate­ri­als retain their own licenses.”

b) Reader/collection of materials containing unmodified CC articles

A doc­u­ment is cre­ated con­tain­ing ten unmod­i­fied CC licenses (CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-SA, etc.):

- A pref­ace is writ­ten, a table of con­tents is cre­ated, and the order is orga­nized.

- The arti­cles them­selves are repro­duced unchanged and each is accom­pa­nied by the orig­i­nal license infor­ma­tion.

Legally speak­ing, this is an anthol­ogy. The CC BY license applies only to the fore­word, table of con­tents, and the selec­tion and arrange­ment of the arti­cles; the arti­cles them­selves remain under their respec­tive CC licenses.

c) OER website with separate CC modules

A course web­site con­tains ten mod­ules:

- Mod­ules 1, 3, and 5 were devel­oped in-house (CC BY).

- Mod­ule 2 is repro­duced ver­ba­tim from an OER licensed under CC BY-SA.

- Mod­ule 4 is taken from an OER licensed under CC BY-NC.

Each mod­ule is a sep­a­rate sub­page with clear licens­ing infor­ma­tion (e.g., in the footer or mod­ule header). Your own mod­ules can be licensed under CC BY; third-party mod­ules retain their orig­i­nal CC license. In this sense, the web­site is a col­lec­tion of mod­ules, not a com­plete remix adap­ta­tion of all con­tent.

d) Multiple CC works on a single presentation slide

A slide is cre­ated using:

- your own text,

- an inserted CC image (unchanged).

If the image has not been cre­atively edited (only resized or repo­si­tioned), it is con­sid­ered a sim­ple com­pi­la­tion. The image remains a sep­a­rate work with its own CC license. This can be indi­cated as fol­lows: “Pre­sen­ta­tion con­tent (text, lay­out) under CC BY 4.0; embed­ded images: see cap­tions (sep­a­rate CC licenses).”

It’s only when the image is cre­atively edited and blended with other ele­ments to form some­thing new that you enter the realm of remix­ing.

e) Course presentation with CC slide sets inserted as-is

A col­lec­tion of slides is being cre­ated:

- Slides 1–9 were cre­ated in-house (CC BY)

- Slides 10–15 are taken directly from a CC BY-SA pre­sen­ta­tion with­out any changes

- Slides 16–20 from a CC BY pre­sen­ta­tion by another uni­ver­sity.

No changes are made to the exter­nal slides, but they are iden­ti­fied as clearly defined blocks (“Slides 10–15: from OER XY, CC BY-SA 4.0”). Legally, this can still be con­sid­ered a col­lec­tion of slide sets.

f) Online course with separate downloadable OER files

The fol­low­ing are avail­able in the course sec­tion:

- your own script (CC BY),

- a third-party work­sheet (CC BY-NC-SA),

- a third-party pre­sen­ta­tion (CC BY-SA).

All three mate­ri­als are down­load­able as sep­a­rate files, each with its own license infor­ma­tion. The script can be CC BY-licensed, the other files remain under their respec­tive CC licenses; together they form a col­lec­tion, not an inte­grated remix.

2. CC materials inseparably remixed → no longer separable

In a true remix, sev­eral CC works are com­bined in such a way that a new, uni­fied work is cre­ated in which the orig­i­nal sources can no longer be eas­ily iso­lated. In this case, the orig­i­nal licenses deter­mine the license options for the entire work. It is no longer pos­si­ble to exclude indi­vid­ual mate­ri­als.

a) New textbook chapter from several CC texts

A chap­ter is cre­ated:

- Sec­tions are taken from a CC BY text, a CC BY-SA text or a CC BY-NC text.

- The lan­guage is adapted, tran­si­tions are writ­ten, own exam­ples are added and every­thing is reor­ga­nized.

At the end there is a con­tin­u­ous text in which the reader can no longer tell which pas­sage comes from which source. This is an adaptation/remix of sev­eral CC sources. The con­di­tions of the strictest license involved (e.g. SA or NC) apply to the chap­ter as a whole.

b) A combined graphic from several CC diagrams

A new info­graphic is cre­ated:

- Three CC dia­grams (process graph­ics, time­lines) serve as a start­ing point.

- An image edit­ing pro­gram is used to move ele­ments, change col­ors, add your own icons and com­bine every­thing into a sin­gle new image.

The new graphic is an adap­ta­tion of mul­ti­ple CC works. The orig­i­nal CC licenses apply to the entire image; this is a clas­sic remix.

c) Video remix from several CC videos

An instruc­tional video is cre­ated:

- Sequences are cut out of three CC videos (e.g. exper­i­ment, inter­view, ani­ma­tion).

- These clips are mixed, a voice-over track is super­im­posed and CC-licensed images and icons are added.

Result: a uni­form video as one file. This is a remix in the nar­rower sense — the indi­vid­ual CC sources are merged into the new com­po­si­tion. The license con­di­tions of the strictest license (espe­cially with SA, NC) deter­mine under which CC license the entire video may be pub­lished.

d) H5P interactive book with integrated CC texts and images

An H5P “Inter­ac­tive Book” is being built:

- Text sec­tions from CC BY and CC BY-SA OER are copied in and par­tially rewrit­ten.

- CC images and quiz ques­tions from other OER will be added.

- The end result is a con­tin­u­ous learn­ing path in a sin­gle H5P file.

The result is a remix of the OER used. The con­tent is tech­ni­cally mixed and can no longer be mean­ing­fully sep­a­rated.

e) Standardized set of slides as “best of” various CC presentations

Sev­eral CC pre­sen­ta­tions (e.g. BY, BY-SA, CC0) are opened:

- Indi­vid­ual slides or con­tent are copied into a new pre­sen­ta­tion.

- Texts are changed, graph­ics adapted, the design har­mo­nized and own slides added.

The end result is a set of slides designed through­out, which stu­dents per­ceive as a sin­gle new work.

Conclusion

For prac­ti­cal teach­ing and OER pro­duc­tion, it is worth ask­ing con­scious ques­tions about every com­bi­na­tion of mate­ri­als:

Is the third-party con­tent technically/legally sep­a­ra­ble, clearly labeled and also sep­a­rately reusable? Or is a uni­form new work cre­ated in which the orig­i­nal mate­ri­als are inte­grated?

For courses, pre­sen­ta­tions and H5P con­tent in par­tic­u­lar, it helps to think about this dis­tinc­tion at an early stage — then license traps can be avoided and the edu­ca­tional mate­ri­als can be delib­er­ately designed in such a way that they remain as open and reusable as pos­si­ble.