Because of Orbis' role in online program management (OPM), the relevance of our commercial status is difficult to assess when curating content for our non-commercial partners. You will see many resources that stipulate they may only be used for non-commercial purposes. These terms are only an issue if the intended purpose of those resources is a learning object or other presentation that will reside under Orbis' ownership and not the partner's.
Commercial Resources
Any material (e.g., learning objects, some presentations, etc.) that is created so that it can be provided to a wide variety of partners can be viewed as under Orbis' ownership and is therefore a commercial resource.
If you are searching for content to include in a commercial resource, ensure that the terms of use do not prohibit commercial use. This includes publisher material and other licensed content. Many licenses specifically prohibit commercial use or only permit non-commercial use.
If you are creating a learning object, the goal would be to create it in such a way that allows use by many partners without the term and use parameters of a license. So, when curating resources for a learning object, ensure that all content allows commercial use.
Non-Commercial Resources
All material that is partner-specific (e.g., course PowerPoint presentations, assignments, etc.) can be viewed as under that partner's ownership and is therefore a non-commercial resource.
Most of the educational material that you will create and use would be classified as a non-commercial resource.
Examples
Commercial
Learning objects
- Internal training material
- Content that will be used across partners
Non-Commercial
- Course assignments
- PowerPoints and other lecture material
- Active learning guides created for that course