In Unit 4 of the Creative Commons Certification course, topics include using CC licensed works, choosing and applying a CC license, considerations after selecting a CC license, and remixing CC licensed works. Each section extends my understanding of what it means to create and share with Creative Commons licensing in mind. With a specific focus on what ‘no derivatives’ means, and how it limits the sharing of adaptations in open access and OER, I am now able to visualize how to use and apply the ND licensing designation. The metaphor used in this module, of creating a smoothie or a TV dinner style production helps clarify the difference between an adaptation and a collection. Thanks to Nate Angell‘s description, it’s making more sense now.

With the module discussions and quizzes completed, it was time to create and use with CC licensed materials. I decided to try producing a course trailer, a teaser, for one of the upcoming courses I teach. I searched for a creative way to present some basic information to engage students while entertaining them about media and digital literacies. After some searching, I settled on using lego mini-figures to tell a story about the course, aiming for a 60 second video clip with music and text. Collecting a variety of images from Pixabay and Unsplash was fairly easy, while the sequence of the story started to evolve, based on the images I was finding.

To fulfill the requirements of the assignment for this module, I searched Flickr for CC licensed images as well. As a result of the CC compatibility chart that was presented in this module, I was aware of the types of licensed materials I would gather. Here it became more challenging since I limited my search to only images that were CC-BY, because I wanted to license the resulting video as CC-BY, as well as make image annotations to enhance the video production. Many of the images I found were SA, NC, or ND licensed, so they were not selected for this project. As I collected images, I kept a running record that included a brief image description, T.A.S.L (title, author, source, license) information, and annotations created. I used this to create the sequenced image listing for the completed video, in order of appearance. I posted this image listing in a view-only location, and attached the link on the final video.

Locating an engaging audio track was next. Again, I limited my search on Free Music Archive to CC0 or CC-BY instrumental tracks that were just over one minute in length. Getting caught in the listening enjoyment of so many possible tracks, to make a decision, was the biggest challenge. So many to chose from!

The last task was to pull it all together, make some strategic image annotations to engage the ‘viewer’, trim each image and text feature to meet the projected time limits, create a lead-in title, list the CC-BY licensed images in the rolling credits, and produce the final video. Job accomplished! Here is the video trailer I’ve created, licensed CC-BY, 4.0:

The full listing of all images and resources can be found in the information section of the video and also linked here.

Image Attribution:

•  “33/366 – Sherlock Holmes” flickr photo by p_a_h https://flickr.com/photos/pahudson/6819454104 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license 2.0
• CC license compatibility chart from Creative Commons wiki https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Wiki/cc_license_compatibility shared under a CC BY 4.0 license