This section of the Copyright and Fair Use guide discusses using copyrighted works in the classroom. This includes course materials such as course reserves, showing films in class, and alternatives to traditional copyrighted works to use in your teaching.
In this digital age, copyright and fair use have become increasingly complex. In truth, the copyright law has not kept pace with the incredible advancements in technology that take place at an increasingly rapid rate.
Below we have some helpful tips if you are trying to share an article with your class.
The Teach (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization) Act, like Fair Use, is an exemption to copyright to afford educators rights to use copyrighted works regardless of rights designations.
You are exempt from copyright considerations if you use the materials in accordance with the TEACH Act or Section 110(2) of the Copyright Code. Here is an explanation of this part of the law. There is also a checklist available to help you identify whether a use is sanctioned under the TEACH Act.
Contact scholarlycommunications@tamucc.edu for more assistance with the Teach Act.
If you have an article we do not have access to but that you still wish to use, you can provide the article to your students through Bell Library, using the Course Library plug-in in Canvas. The library will attempt to purchase copyright permission on your behalf, and we will pay the fee up to a certain amount. If the fee exceeds the library's cap, your department can make up the remaining cost, or you may have to find new material to use.
As creative works, motion pictures and other video media are protected by copyright. In order to publicly display these works, you must have the proper license for public performance. If you would like to show a video on campus outside of a class activity, you must secure a public performance license for the video content in question.
One exception to this is if the video media is being shown in a classroom or as part of a learning activity related to a face-to-face or online class. You may show an entire film as part of a classroom activity. Another exception is Fair Use. Email scholarlycommunications@tamucc.edu if you have any questions.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium -- digital or otherwise -- that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Follow the link below to learn more!
SPARC defines open access this way:
Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles combined with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment.
Explore the links below to learn more.