What is a Creative Commons License?
Creating a transparent learning environment means showing students not just what we learn, but how we share and build upon each other’s ideas. Here is a simple, ready-to-share tutorial you can give directly to your learners.
The Student’s Guide to Creative Commons (CC BY-NC)
What is Creative Commons?
Normally, when someone creates something—like an essay, a photo, or a video—it is protected by strict copyright laws. Creative Commons (CC) is a flexible system that allows creators to say, “You can use my work, but you have to follow a few simple rules.”
It is designed to help us share knowledge freely and build a more open, collaborative community.
You might see a license written as CC BY-NC (sometimes accidentally typed as BB-NC). Here is exactly what those letters mean:
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CC (Creative Commons): The name of the organization that makes these open licenses.
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BY (Attribution): You must give the original creator credit. Think of it as saying who the work was made by.
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NC (NonCommercial): You cannot use this work to make money. It is strictly for educational, personal, or non-profit use.
The Rule: If you see a CC BY-NC label, it means you can share, copy, and even remix that work for your class projects, as long as you give the author credit and do not try to sell it.
How to Cite a CC BY-NC Work Perfectly
When you use someone else’s Creative Commons work, the golden rule for citing it is the TASL method. It ensures you are being completely transparent about where your information came from.
| Letter | Stands For | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| T | Title | What is the name of the work? |
| A | Author | Who created it? |
| S | Source | Where did you find it? (Usually a web link) |
| L | License | Which CC license did they use? |
The Simple Formula
“[Title]” by [Author] is licensed under [License]. Found at [Source link].
Example in Action
Imagine you found a great photograph of a classroom to use in a presentation. Here is how you would use the TASL method to write your citation caption:
“Students Reading” by Jane Doe is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Found at
[www.photosite.com/studentsreading](https://www.photosite.com/studentsreading).
Pro-Tip for Digital Projects: If you are making a website, digital document, or slide deck, you can keep things looking clean by using hyperlinks. You would link the Title directly to the source URL, and link the License to the official Creative Commons explanation page!
Here is the section you can add directly to the end of the tutorial. Framing this as a way for them to contribute to the broader learning community fits perfectly with making their educational journey more transparent.
How to License Your Own Work (Be the Creator!)
When you create original work—whether it is an essay, a slide deck, a podcast episode, or a graphic—you own the copyright automatically. By adding a Creative Commons license, you are actively choosing to share your knowledge with the world while keeping control over how it is used.
Applying a CC BY-NC license to your own work is completely free and requires no registration. You just need to follow three simple steps:
- Write the License Statement.
You need to explicitly tell people what license you are applying. Use this standard phrasing:
“This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.”
- Place It Where People Can See It.
The statement needs to be obvious to anyone looking at your work.
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For a document or essay: Put it in the footer or on the title page.
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For a presentation: Add it to the title slide or your final “References” slide.
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For a video or podcast: Include it in the show notes or description box.
- Link to the Official License (For Digital Work).
If your work is digital, you should hyperlink the statement so people can read the exact rules. Highlight your statement and link it to the official CC BY-NC page:[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
Example of a complete author statement:
“The Future of English Language Learning” by [Your Name] is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.
By doing this, you are protecting your work from being sold, while proudly allowing other students and educators to learn from it!
Here is the next section you can add directly to your student resources. It maintains the same transparent, step-by-step approach while covering the latest academic guidelines.
Citing AI-Generated Images (APA Style)
The Rule: AI is Software, Not an Author
Generative artificial intelligence tools, such as Midjourney and DALL-E, are computational devices that produce original visual content based on extensive training from large databases of visual and textual documents (D’Armenio et al., 2024).
Because an AI model is a machine—not a human—it cannot take legal or ethical responsibility for its creations. Therefore, APA does not consider AI an “author.” Instead, APA style requires you to treat AI image generators as software tools developed by a company.
How to Cite AI Images Perfectly
To properly cite an AI-generated image in your Reference List, you need to credit the company that built the tool and provide a description of what the tool is.
The Simple Reference List Formula:
[Developer Name]. (Year). [Name of the AI Model] (Version number) Description of the tool. [URL]
Example in Action (Reference List):
Imagine you used Midjourney to create an image of a classroom for a presentation. Here is how your reference entry should look:
Midjourney. (2024). Midjourney (Version 6) [Artificial intelligence image generator]. https://www.midjourney.com
Note: You use the year the specific version of the model was released.
In-Text Citations & Figures
When you place the AI-generated image directly into your essay or slide deck, you must include a figure note right below the image. It should describe the exact prompt you used so your readers know exactly how you directed the software.
Example Figure Note:
Note. Image generated using Midjourney (Version 6) from the prompt “an English language classroom with interactive whiteboards, photorealistic style.”
If you are just mentioning the AI tool in a paragraph (without showing the image), simply use a standard in-text citation with the developer and the year:
The visual concept was drafted using an artificial intelligence image generator (Midjourney, 2024).
References
D’Armenio, E., Deliège, A., & Dondero, M. G. (2024). Semiotics of Machinic Co-Enunciation. Signata, 15. https://doi.org/10.4000/127x4
Cited by: 23