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Pollak Library

Open Educational Resources and Zero-Cost Course Materials

Sharing Course Materials in Canvas

 

The Pollak Library provides all faculty access to Leganto Reading Lists via their Canvas course pages. This resources management tool gives you seamless access to the library's electronic resources and course reserves system and the ability to upload PDFs, link to external resources, or share data sets and research with students through your course canvas page.

The system is completely flexible, so faculty can change the reading list whenever they like, reuse it for future courses, and share it with others.

With Leganto instructors can: 

  • create dynamic lists of citations from a range of sources - print or electronic Library resources, streaming video, websites, textbooks, journals, and more
  • monitor student engagement through system analytics
  • promote student engagement by enabling features that allow students to recommend resources and post comments
  • easily update content and reuse elements or duplicate whole lists for other courses
  • comply with applicable copyright policies
  • fully leverage library subscriptions to enhance learning affordability
  • allow selected collaborators to edit and manage lists
Creative Commons Licenses

 

Many OER are assigned a Creative Commons License that clearly explains the permissions for how works can be used, shared, or adapted. There is a sliding scale of permissions that limits these permissions, so it's important to read the license carefully before making any changes. 

A chart comparing various Creative Commons licenses, showing their openness levels, whether they allow adaptation and redistribution, if attribution is required, if commercial use is okay, and if they override fair use.

CC BY 4.0 Aaron McCollough (adapted from a table by Anita Walz)

 

Copyright and Fair Use

 

There is a common misconception that faculty can share up to a certain percentage of a work without violating copyright. Unfortunately, this is a copyright myth

Many materials can be used in your class under the doctrine of Fair Use, but it can be a challenge to determine if you fall under that category. There are many factors to consider when determining if you can share the material with your students:

CC BY-NC 4.0 George Washington University Library

There is no standard on how much of a single source can be included in your course materials without infringing on copyright. Since there is no one-size-fits-all answer, we recommend contacting our Copyright and Policy Librarian, Anthony Davis, to start the conversation.