Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

What is the CC Certificate?

  • The CC Certificate is a rigorous 10-week online course, which requires an average of 6-10 hours of work per week.  While this course is mostly asynchronous, you will have graded materials due every week and a minimum of four optional webinars. You will have direct contact with an expert facilitator (class ratio is ~25:1), the chance to ask questions to copyright lawyers in our Q&A discussions, and you will connect with our global community members of activists, and experts. 

Why should I take the CC Certificate course?

  • The CC Certificate powers you with knowledge to better advise your colleagues and institutions on creating and engaging with openly licensed works. You will learn how to adapt and innovate on existing openly licensed materials–keeping your institution’s knowledge base relevant and up to date. You will also learn how to best support learners accessing a wider array of open knowledge resources. Finally, the Certificate equips you with skills needed to meet open licensing requirements increasingly present in government and foundation grants and contracts.

Who should take the Certificate course?

  • Currently, we offer Certificate “tracks” for (1) academic librarians, (2) educators, and (3) open culture/ GLAM professionals (galleries, libraries, archives and museums). However, the Certificate is open to everyone, from university students and entry-level professionals to experts. Participants join the course from a variety of roles in academic institutions and NGOs including: instructional designers, professors, program managers, emeritus librarians, scholarly communication librarians, data engineers, deans and directors, copyright managers, and more. We hope to offer Certificate courses for more fields in the future.

Registration

How do I register?

  • You can register for the CC Certificate here: https://certificates.creativecommons.org/about/packages/

When does registration open?

  • Registration for the year will open no later than January 1st of that year. See here https://certificates.creativecommons.org/about/packages/

Can I make a bulk purchase?

  • Yes, we can accommodate a bulk purchase. If you wish to be invoiced for your purchase, please reach out to certificates@creativecommons.org.

Do you offer discounts?

  • Creative Commons offers the following discounts to institutions enrolling large groups in the CC Certificate: 
    • 25 people (minimum): 5% discount
    • 50 people (minimum): 10% discount 
    • 75 or more people: 15% discount

Do you offer bootcamps or other virtual & in-person trainings?

Can you explain more about the Certificate course prices?

  • The Certificate price structure was built to 1) share knowledge about CC licensing and the Commons with the widest audience possible, as well as 2) cover operational costs and development, including but not limited to: hiring and paying facilitators, website maintenance, payment and registration systems, paying staff to update and verify the accuracy of new content, facilitating the growing community of Certificate graduates, scheduling, contracting and other administrative work. 

Can I get a refund?

  • If it is more than 30 days before the course start date, you can get a full refund by reaching out to certificates@creativecommons.org. If you are within 30 days of the start date, we cannot issue you a refund, but you may be able to transfer your registration to a friend or colleague, depending on the timing of your request.

Can I defer my registration to a future course?

  • If it is more than 15 days before the course start date, you may be able to defer by reaching out to certificates@creativecommons.org  If it is less than 15 days, we may not be able to accommodate this request.

I registered for the wrong course, how do I correct it?

I registered but I haven’t received any information.

  • The billing contact receives the receipt for the transaction. If you do not see it, please check your spam.
  • Two to three weeks in advance of the course start date, you will receive a welcome and logistics email (to the address you provided in registration). Approximately one week prior to the course, you will receive two emails with: (1) your course syllabus, (2) a link to self-enroll in your Canvas course, (3) an invitation to join our Slack discussion channel, and (4) an introduction to your facilitator. Once you have access to your Canvas course, you are welcome to get a head start on the reading and assignments, though there is no obligation to do so.

Course Commitment & Content

How many hours of work does the Certificate course require?

  • While each learner devotes different amounts of time to the Certificate, and coursework varies from week to week, participant surveys suggest course work takes an average of 6-10 hours per week.

This course is a lot more work than I expected and I’m no longer able to complete the coursework! Or: my circumstances have changed and I’m no longer able to complete coursework! What are my options?

  • We understand circumstances change. We wish we had more options to offer participants who can no longer complete their coursework, but here are our two: 
    • If you email us within the first week and are able to provide a contact to take your place in the course, we can transfer your registration to that contact. 
    • If you have completed the majority of course assignments with passing grades, but face a major life circumstance or health problem limiting your ability to pass the Certificate, please contact us. We will follow up with you to explore options to delay your course completion.
  • Beyond these two options above, possibilities are unfortunately limited. CC does not have the flexibility to offer refunds to participants outside of our refund period because there are immediate expenses we incur associated with the initial course reservation. Because CC is a small, nonprofit organization, we cannot operate the CC Certificate program at a financial loss. 

Are online courses asynchronous?

  • While there are specific due dates for (1) discussions, (2) assignments and (3) the final project, our 10-week online courses are asynchronous. We offer optional, synchronous webinars for participants, hosted at different times to accommodate as many time zones as possible. All webinar recordings are shared afterward, and you would be welcome to submit any questions in advance of a webinar you could not join. 

What are the differences between the courses?

  • All courses provide an overview of the global copyright system, and offer in depth tutorials on CC licenses, how to apply them, and how to re-use other CC licensed works. Beyond these fundamentals, there are select differences between the courses, which occur mostly in Unit 5. 
  • The CC Certificate for Educators Unit 5 focuses more on open pedagogy, where the CC Certificate for Librarians focuses slightly more on open access. The CC Certificate for Open Culture/ GLAM focuses on opening access to cultural heritage, including considerations around open licensing digitization projects, Rights Statements, Traditional Knowledge Labels, working with the public domain, and more.
  • Also, the audiences taking each of the courses vary considerably. The Librarians courses tend to draw a group of academic librarians from higher education institutions, where the Educators courses draws a wider audience (higher education, primary education, administrators, NGO representatives, lawyers, instructional designers, etc). The predominant audience for the Open Culture/ GLAM courses are professionals from galleries, libraries, archives and museums.
  • We’ve made all reading content openly licensed and available for anyone to use, so you are welcome to explore any of the course readings in advance here: https://certificates.creativecommons.org/about/certificate-resources-cc-by/ . CC Certificate quizzes are CC BY licensed in the Canvas learning platform’s “commons.”

What other CC Certificate tracks will you offer?

  • Creative Commons currently has Certificates for Educators, Academic Librarians, and Open Culture (GLAM). We aim to meet the growing demand for open licensing certification across different fields. 

What do I get with the Certificate?

  • Creative Commons offers a digital badge that recognizes specialization in open licensing and the Commons, and the ability to help others understand and implement open licenses. Those who receive CC Certificates will be highlighted on the CC website, and will join a network of CC-Certified colleagues. 

Does everyone participating in the course get a certificate?

  • The CC Certificate is highly rigorous and time-intensive. Only participants who earn a 90% or higher on the assessments will be CC Certified. If you receive less than 90% on any assessment, you will have an opportunity to re-submit for a higher grade. We want all learners to become experts and get CC Certified.

Can I represent Creative Commons once I am CC Certified?

  • No. The Certificate only signifies that you have expertise in open licensing. While we welcome you to join and engage with the CC Global Network, you are not authorized to represent or speak on behalf of Creative Commons.

What if I have “work for hire” status? How does that affect my ability to CC license work created for the course? 

  • A component of this course will be to create copyrightable digital works (i.e. “Assignments”). If you are unsure who owns the copyright for works you will produce in this course (you or your organization, or a combination of), we advise inquiring about copyright ownership with your organization, if applicable. Here are two examples of open licensing statements your organization might approve.

“[Title of work] is licensed by [Employer X], under [CC license Y].”  

Or

“[Title of work], by [your name] is licensed [CC license Y] in as far as they are enabled under the terms of their employment at [Name of Job/ Employer]. “

Digital Badges

What’s a digital badge? 

How do I access my badge?

  • The email you receive from Badgr will include a link to download your badge, which people tend to share in email signatures, on LinkedIn or other platforms. The email also includes a link to create an account on Badgr, where you can add additional badges you collect, if desired. It’s not necessary to create an account on Badgr to view your badge or download it. 

What email address will the link to my badge be sent to?

  • The email address at which you’re reading this message right now.

What if I don’t receive an email from Badgr?

  • If you still don’t have an email from Badgr within three weeks of the course end date, make sure to check your junk or spam mail folder. If this doesn’t resolve the issue email certificates@creativecommons.org to let us know you didn’t receive a badge. We will recheck our records in Badgr. If your email on record with us is an institutional / organizational email, it may also be necessary for you to check with your IT team to ask if emails from Badgr are being blocked and can be whitelisted.

Other questions?

  • You might also be interested in checking out Badgr’s support page, which includes helpful guides and FAQs: Badgr Support Homepage 

If your question isn’t addressed at that page, also by all means get in touch with us at any time at certificates@creativecommons.org

Technical Support

I can’t register, who can I contact for technical support?

I use Canvas at my own institution, will my username & password work with the Certificate course?

  • Likely not; CC’s instance of Canvas is likely different from what your organization uses so you will need to create another account, or login with an alternative link we provide with the initial Canvas course link. 

I’m having an issue logging into Canvas or Slack. Help!

  • If you have successfully logged in once before, you will need to contact Canvas Support or Slack for tech support. 
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