Creative Commons licenses are free copyright licenses that creators can use to indicate how they'd like their work to be used. Creators can choose from a set of licenses with varying permissions, from the most open license (CC0) to the least open license (CC BY-NC-ND). The license most commonly used by educators tends to be the CC BY license (can distribute, remix, and adapt so long as you give credit).
See list and image below for the range of licenses. Click on each license name for a complete description of the terms & uses of each CC license.
Image sourced from foter.com, CC BY-SA
BY stands for attribution. It means you must provide proper attribution to the creator when reusing or editing their materials.
SA means sharealike. It means that if you reuse their information or materials you must share it using the same Creative Commons license.
ND means no derivatives. It means you cannot edit or alter their resource. You can distribute it.
NC means no commercial use. It means you cannot sell or financially profit from their information/resource.
Image sourced from foter.com, CC BY-SA
This short animation video explains the CC licenses.
Creative Commons Kiwi by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand (CC BY) license.