Embedded Files
Failing to adhere to copyright law can have serious repercussions for a university. The importance of correct citation cannot be underestimated. We are currently preparing for the new GDPR regulations, so I continue to attend organisational training sessions; I have previously attended sessions on copyright for learning materials. When starting as an Instructional Designer I also found the JISC guide on copyright law very useful.
All four members of the Module Development Team mentioned in section 1a are responsible for copyright checks on the modules they are developing. I have attached my personal checklist when reviewing module content each semester, which includes these considerations:
- Is all material cited/referenced correctly?
- Do copyright coversheets (obtained as part of our licencing agreement with the Copyright Licensing Agency) need updating?
- If we have a direct link to a PDF, this must change to a link to the page the PDF can be downloaded from.
Excerpt from my module pre-development checklist
In this section I focus on copyright for images and video, as my learning materials make heavy use of these. References are checked and standardised by the in-house editorial team, but I occasionally need to explain to academics that we can’t just take an image from Google Image Search, or a video from Youtube, and use it in learning material without proper citation. As a result I have needed to familiarise myself with copyright law and citation practices. I have participated in MOOCs on open educational resources and am familiar with Creative Commons citation as evidenced below.
Images
Images
I use three sources for images in my work at UCEM: an in-house image library, paid stock sites, and free stock sites. As a first port of call, I browse our in-house image library which includes photos taken by staff members as well as previously purchased images which can be used royalty-free. All images retain their original iStock filename to ensure they can be traced. If I cannot find a suitable image, I check free stock image sites such as Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay, and also Flickr if I search for images licenced under Creative Commons. If I still cannot find an image, I will use our chosen paid stock image site, iStock.
I have produced template code for use when including a Creative Commons image as part of the code snippets I have produced for the department.
At present, the department rarely sources images under Creative Commons licences. I have done this for some of my courses and I've encouraged others to do the same. As long as we follow proper citation conventions, there is a vast selection of content out there, and not just images. I would like to make more use of Creative Commons for sourcing graphics such as vector art.
Template code for adding Creative Commons images
Video
Video
In addition, many resources make reference to videos, which are often found on Youtube. If I spot a video which is marked as ready for upload to the VLE but has not been correctly referenced, I will flag it for the editorial team.
If I am designing a piece of material I will always record where I found a video and include a full URL so the author is credited.
Here is an activity in a Surveying Technician Diploma module which involves watching a video. The video is referenced under the Harvard system.
Referenced Youtube video
I attended a workshop on video production and green screen filming in February 2017 which covered licencing issues for sourcing audio and video clips to use in your own video projects. To date I have not needed to source Creative Commons material to create videos, but I am aware that Youtube’s search function allows you to search by Creative Commons licences. Youtube will detect any copyrighted music used and stop the uploader from making money from the video.
Youtube also has an ‘Audio library’ area for members which contains audio which can be used freely. There are sometimes licence restrictions – for example, a clip might not be available for use in particular countries. Overall, though, I think it will be a useful resource for creating A/V content in future and I intend to explore it further.
Evidence of video training workshop
Google Sites
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