1. Template Sections for completion:
Case Study Title:
BCcampus Case Study – OER Licensing Policy and OER Re-use
Case Study Country:
Canada – specifically British Columbia
Type of organisation
BCcampus is funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education
Address of Organisation
Vancouver -
BCcampus
200-550 Seymour Street
Vancouver. BC
V6B 3H6
Tel: 604-412-7657
Victoria -
BCcampus
120-645 Fort St.
Victoria. BC
V8W 1G2
Tel: 250-405-4000
Hyperlink to organisation
http://www.bccampus.ca/
Hyperlink to Case Study Source:
http://oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org/index.php?title=OER_stories/BCcampus
Section 1 – A brief summary of the organisation
In the Canadian province of British Columbia the BCcampus OER initiative has been
implemented in all 25 public post secondary institutions which provide about
180,000 student spaces to urban and rural students dispersed over an area which is
larger than France and Germany combined. All 25 institutions are producing OER and
the primary focus of OER development is by multi-institutional partnerships, i.e.
these partnerships involve faculty from more than one institution. However the
initiative is limited in ‘openness’ to the 25 institutions in British Columbia.
The initiative is funded by Ministry of Advanced Education. The Ministry is
committed to improving access and expanding post secondary education by adding
25,000 new student spaces by 2010, and one of the aims of BCcampus is to increase
the number of post-secondary online resources and services. BCcampus is the

2. Ministry’s web-based gateway for online learning resources and services for
providing credit-based online courses in areas of high student demand and labour
market need.
The annual Online Programe Development Fund (OPDF) provided by the Ministry Of
Advanced Education gives funding for the support on inter-institutional
collaboration. OERs developed under BCcampus are stored in the Shareable Online
Learning Resources repository.
Section 5 Policy
BCcampus OER developers have the choice of two licensing options when developing
OER:
• Creative Commons Share Alike-Attribution Canada licence or
• The BC Commons licence
These licences have three components:
• A plain English human-readable deed
• A full legal lawyer-readable licence
• An icon and script code embedded into each OER which states the terms
of the licence
However over 90% of the developers have chosen to develop OER using the BC
Commons licence. This licence restricts ‘open’ sharing to the British Columbia
province, rather than globally as is available via the Creative Commons licence. The
choice of the BC Commons licence means that the OER cannot be used by
competitors in the private post secondary sector.
• BCcampus gives the IP of OER developed through the OPDF to the original
developer and not to OPDF
• Contractual agreements are between BCcampus and the institutions
• In some cases institutional policy has IP resting with the faculty and in
others with the institution
• Intellectual property rights of OPDF resources is governed by institutional
policy where the development is occurring
• Any educator in the British Columbia public post secondary sector can use
the OER without seeking permission from the OER developer
• Faculties in other institutions can adapt OER to fit the way they teach
• Users of OER can change and improve the OER, but the changed OER
must be contributed to the repository for the benefit of all, and
attribution is given to the original OER developer
• Attribution of work helps OER developers earn the regard of their peers
• Developers can request not to be attributed if they feel changes to an
OER do not reflect their views