Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 18

Image from Benson Kua available under
a CC BY-SA 2.0 license

Another week has whizzed by and another selection of learning technology goodies has appeared before my very eyes.  In fact, it's been pretty jam packed - there was a new report out from JISC, a new feature in Google+ launched, I've seen interesting articles on course design, how to use Pinterest in education... and... well... lots of good stuff!

Right, let's get cracking with this week's Learning Technology Digest!

• First thing spotted was that JISC published a report yesterday on the Researchers of Tomorrow and it's clear that a lack of digital literacy (or perhaps digital confidence), understanding of copyright and open resources are some of the messages which come through very strongly here.  The divide between personal and academic use of technologies such as blogs, wikis, Twitter etc is also apparent and if you're after something a bit more meaty to read this week... read this.  And if you'd like to listen to a podcast from one of the report authors, then you can do that too! 
• Google also launched Google+ Events and having had a quick first look at them, this looks to be a really worthwhile development for Google+, not least the way it integrates Events with Google Calendar... giving it lots of potential, especially for institutions with Google Apps.
• Educational Technology and Mobile Learning brought out their Educators Guide to the use of Pinterest in Education which not only explains what Pinterest is (you've either had a go or heard of it somewhere along the line) but gives you some tutorials to look at, ideas for professional development as well as some things to bear in mind.  Very useful.
• From Gráinne Conole's excellent e4innovation blog was this nice article on the 7 Principles of Learning Design and is definitely worth adding to your 'technology enhanced learning bookmarks' (in my head I imagine that people have this!)
• At this time of year a lot of people are knee deep in marking... so obviously a break from marking would be welcome, right?  How about the Grading Game to take your mind of all that assessment stuff?  Fun, huh?  :o)
• Okay, back to slightly more serious stuff... there's a relatively new '7 Things' article from Educause to take a peek at.  This one is called 7 Things you should know about badges and if, like me, you struggle a bit to see the worth of digital tokens of achievement... then this briefing will at least fill you in on the background to them!
• The final thing spotted in this past week was the launch of the Live Restart functionality in the BBC's hugely popular iPlayer.  It changes watching live TV into an experience much more like that offered by Sky.  Could also make having students watch a live version of a programme just that bit more flexible than a strictly synchronous experience!

If I were you, I'd get reading that JISC report... and after that... pop your feet up... take a breather... and enjoy the weekend!

See you next Friday!

Sarah

First look: Google+ Events

Google have just launched 'Events' in Google+ and I think they have tons of potential.

So, what's a Google+ Event?  Well, it basically means that you can now schedule things like hangouts, manage invitations, set up a physical 'event' with a complimentary social online space to share photos / discussions / links etc in Google+... and best of all it links in beautifully with your Google Calendar.  You can also attach personalised video introductions - which could be a really great way to welcome a group of students to an event or provide a pre-course introduction for training purposes.  It could also be great for helping online group working... project work... arranging meetings with students... putting on hangouts for informal tutorials / Q&A sessions.



So... where to get started?

First of all... head over to Google+.

Creating an event in Google+

Then, click on the Events link you'll now see on the left hand menu.  Once you've done that... then you can either view existing events or create a new one by clicking Create Event.

Fill in the details for your event - be careful when you select the time here... it seems to be on 19:00 by default which isn't that practical for work-related stuff!  You can also add an end time too - again, a handy feature.  The best thing here is that because it's integrated with your Google Calendar, it's easy to find a time that suits you.  As an institution with Google Apps this makes it a really handy feature bringing together one of the core parts of Google Apps with Google+.

Editing your event in Google+

You can also set a theme for the event at this point - choosing one of the (very beautiful!) cinemagraph images that Google supply or choosing your own... then choose who you're going to invite.  Is it going to be 'everyone'... just people within the university domain... a particular circle... or just a couple of individuals?

One of the advanced features - but one which is particularly nice is that in event options and then advanced - you can choose to link to a YouTube video - which then embeds itself in the Event.  If you're wanting people to watch a screencast or video ahead of a hangout or face-to-face meeting then this is a great way of sharing it.

Then... just click on Invite and that's it.


Editing etc...

Delete an event via the 'Actions' dropdown menu

If you want to edit or generally manage your event then you can - at the top of events you've created, you'll see an 'Actions' dropdown menu.  Click on that and you can make the changes you need.  You can't edit an event from within your Google Calendar - but clicking on it there will link through to Google+ where you can make the changes.


Deleting events?
Yup, you can do that too - again, through the 'Actions' dropdown menu on the event itself.  Just drop it down and click on 'Delete this event'.


Scheduling hangouts?

Planning a scheduled hangout is easy with
Google+ events

One of the slight bugbears with hangouts has been the inability to manage them as you'd want to any other event, i.e. set a start and finish time.  With Google+ Events, you now get that choice.

When you create your hangout, instead of going to 'Hangouts' or creating a hangout from one of the usual places, click on 'Events' and on the right hand side you'll see a link to Plan your next hangout.

Click that, then set the times etc as you would with any other event, invite your participants and that's about it.  Easy!



What notification settings are there for Events?

Managing notification settings for events

There are a few - people can get email notifications when they're invited to an event, for event reminders or if there's activity on events too.  Now, for busy events these could result in an email avalanche, so just click on the settings cog towards the top right of Google+ and adjust notifications to suit there.

Tell me about 'Party mode'
This is a little tucked away, but basically it lets you share photos etc live from your mobile device.  Currently, this is only available on Android devices but they say it's coming to iPhone etc.  There's more detail on their website, so if this sounds worth a further look... then follow that link!

And that's what I've found out about Google+ Events so far!  It would be nice if you could create events direct from your Google Calendar, but the fact that they integrate at all is a brilliant step in the right direction.

Overall, I think these are a really nice feature and will be really interested to see what people do with them!

Sarah

Turnitin and e-assessment - a quick guide

Image courtesy of University of Sheffield Asset Bank

I initially produced this Turnitin guide for part of our regular Learning Technologists' Team meeting last week. However, I think that it's worth sharing this information (essentially a quick reference guide) with the wider world... hope you find it useful!


Quick Facts...

• First released in 2002
• 60% of Institutions use it through a VLE*
• In 2012 14% of matching text sources found by Turnitin had come from social media sites*
• In 2010 The number one site for matching text sources found by Turnitin was...Wikipedia*
• Turnitin is not a plagiarism detector. An academic is. (It is a text matching service)
• Turnitin does not support second marking at present
• Turnitin does support anonymous marking
  
  

The three e’s

e-submission

What does this mean?
It means students submit their work online into Turnitin which then means:

• Students do not need to print out copies of their assignment,they are all held in the “Paper Repository”, which is Turnitin's huge database of student submissions

• The student's work is given added plagiarism protection by being held in this resource as all future submissions are checked against the current Paper Repository.
  
  

e-marking

What does this mean?
This means marking student submissions on-line through the Turnitin interface. Marking online is completed using a particular function in Turnitin called “GradeMark”. GradeMark enables the marker to use the following:

• Quickmark sets: A set of commonly used marking terms as well as creation of custom terms
• Feedback area: Allows the instructor to provide free text and more in-depth feedback as required
• Score: Instructors can return a mark on the piece of work submitted
• Rubrics: Interactive grading forms or criteria can be assigned to any assessments, these can also be made available to students
• Anonymous marking: Parameters of an assessment can be set to prevent markers from seeing student names when marking
  
  

e-feedback

What does this mean? 
The ability to give feedback to students on a piece of work online. In this case “GradeMark” is again used as a mechanism to give student feedback. This then means that:

• Feedback is more legible
• Feedback is more personal: GradeMark has an audio feedback feature
• Create feedback is easy: If using audio you just need a mic and you can record up to 3 minutes of audio.
• Students know when feedback is given - via notification on their assignment inbox
  
  

Peer review

What does this mean?
Peer Review is the evaluation of students work by other students. This is a formative exercise designed to improve the students critical thinking, reflection and self reflective skills. In Turnitin a peer review exercise can be undertaken using “PeerMark” as the method of reviewing and marking the exercise. This means that:

• The administrative side of the peer marking process is easy to set up and control
• Staff can control the number of papers to be reviewed by students and the type of criteria to be used by students when reviewing

• Staff can also comment on and grade the peer reviews
• Peer review information is clear and easy to read
  
  

Designing plagiarism out

What does this mean?
It means designing assessment in such a way that it minimises any perceived need for students to resort to unfair means to complete an assessment. Turnitin’s “Originality check” functionality can be used in a formative way to assist in designing out plagiarism. For example:

• Students can practice submission to see what their Originality Score might be. The Originality report will highlight any matching sources found.
• Interrogation of Originality Reports can highlight areas of unintentional plagiarism: Paraphrasing, summarising, incorrect referencing/citation

  
  

James

*Rowell, Gill (June 2012),“What I did with Turnitin on my holidays. Ten years of policy and practice in Turnitin use in UK Institutions”, presentation given to the ASKe Plagiarism conference 14 June 2012

My e-Learning Toolkit...

Image from Nomadic Lass, available under
a CC BY-SA 2.0 license

I was thinking about this the other day - what sites or resources would I recommend to someone who was after some advice or tips to help them develop their practice in e-Learning?  After a bit of thought, I came up with the following list...

JISC - Just tons of stuff about education and the use of technology.  It's a massive site, so take a look at their Publications section first.  You can order hard copies of some of their materials and a good starting point is Supporting Academic Staff from them which gather together a lot of handy stuff.  Make sure you also check out JISC infoNet while you're at it - 

JISC Digital Media - Has loads of advice and updates about all things connected with digital media - from production to presentation, technical to legal.  It's a great resource and definitely worth looking through their advice section.  They also have some free tutorials which you might want to look at but primarily, the advice is the main resource you'd want to use.

JISC Legal - Another JISC service, this time covering legal aspects affecting technology in education.  They have a free helpdesk (as do JISC Digital Media) and if you're wanting to understand the wider implications of the use of a particular piece of technology, then this is a very valuable resource to know about.  The Copyright Law Essentials is also worth bookmarking too.

JISC TechDIS - More from JISC, this time about accessibility and assistive technologies.  Lots and lots to draw on here, but their Accessibility Essentials is very handy as are their free resources too.  They also run 'Web2Access' which if you're wondering about using web 2.0 tools in education, then that's a useful service to know about as it helps to understand the accessibility implications of those tools.

WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind is an excellent resource if you want to know more about accessibility within e-learning.  Their screen reader simulation (on the resources section) is definitely worth having a go with and the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool is another resource you might want to bookmark.

HEA - For pedagogical resources, the HEA is a good place to start, particularly looking at their EvidenceNet repository too.  Again, a massive site, but set yourself up an account there and subscribe to their newsletter as a start.

OpenLearn - Lots of openly available courses from the Open University, but of particular interest is 'Accessibility of eLearning' which is a module from their Masters in Online and Distance Education and is worth working through (takes about 15 hours).   Also 'Repurposing open educational content' is handy too.

ALT - The Association for Learning Technology's website which gives a pretty good idea of what a learning technologist is - or at least what they should be able to do if you take a look at what's involved in their CMALT certification - as well as their Research in Learning Technology (used to be ALT-J) journal to sink your teeth into.

University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) - this and Cloudworks is an absolutely fabulous resource for all things curriculum design - and ideas / sharing practices in general.  It's a site you could get lost in for hours and the links to design tools on the OULDI site is well worth spending a fair bit of time on.

Futurelab - if you're interested in innovation in teaching and learning then the work of Futurelab will be right up your street.  From current projects to resources to download and think about, this is an excellent place for tapping into trends and emerging practices.

For more general technical / technology news then...

Read Write Web - http://www.readwriteweb.com/
Mashable - http://mashable.com/
Guardian Technology - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology


... are all good starting points.


Obviously there's a fair bit of JISC-flavoured stuff on there and it's all from a pretty UK-ish perspective.  But if I wanted to try to bridge the gap between tech and teaching which is the real skill of working in e-Learning... these are the places I think I'd start looking.


What would you add?

Sarah

Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 17

Image from carboNYC available under a
CC BY 2.0 license

It feels like a really short week this week some how - despite us passing the longest day as we headed towards this Friday!  Despite that feeling, it's still been a week which had oodles of interesting bits and bobs to look at and think about.

Let's start off with a bit of tech news...

• Guess what?  Microsoft launched a competitor to the iPad* - it's called the 'Surface' (which sounds like a weird combination of Apple's 'Siri' and Facebook) and there was an interesting article in The Guardian about the Apple-ification of Microsoft which is worth a look.
• Academic publishing: The essential checklist for ebook authors isn't tech news particularly, but if you are thinking about new and different models for producing content these 5 ways to improve your content might be right up your street.
• ... and if you're wondering why ebooks are worth thinking about, then IDC Increases Media Tablet Forecast should flag that the growth of mobile computing with more tablets shipping is a trend to watch in terms of the delivery of learning on such platforms.
• 8 Resources for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism is also related to ebooks - if you're creating ebooks or encouraging your students to do so as part of their learning, then you really do have to get your head around the issue of plagiarism and think about how to prevent it (as far as possible)
• Plagiarism from CommonCraft is a nice little video (in the style of the other 'plain English' type videos they've put out in the past) and might be a good way to introduce your students to the topic
•  Meanwhile, Stanford are upping the pressure on higher education institutions worldwide with the news that they're adding a social learning component to their free online courses. When you're talking about enhancing courses with an enrolment of 400,000 students, this is learning on a really massive scale.
• Extending the learning environment from JISC came out as well and is a really fascinating publication - instead of thinking about virtual learning environments thinking about distributed learning environments as well as looking at open institutional data (a very hot topic).  The message is that students want a seamless experience and if you'd like to find out more, then head off to that publication.
• Playing at war, pestilence and death (but it's only a model - shh) was a fantastically titled article in the Times Higher Education and if you've heard of serious gaming but aren't sure how it might apply in your teaching practice, then this review of how serious games have been used at a range of instutions is a great place to start.

Oh, and I forgot to mention 'Using social media to boost student employability' and 'Teaching with Twitter' which The Guardian's Higher Education Network put out recently and which I stashed away in my bookmarks for later!

Quite a random selection of stuff I think - everything from serious games to plagiarism, ebooks and a little sprinkling of social media.  And Surface.  Already that seems to have slipped from my mind.  Whoops!

Until next week!

Sarah

* other tablet computers are available!  :o)

A Lick of Digital Paint (MOLE 2 Gets a Makeover)

As part of the summer upgrade to MOLE 2, the most immediately noticeable change will be the new visual appearance of the system. I thought it would be good to share a sneak peek of it ahead of that though - so... here we go...

2012 Home Page

While it does look pretty different from the old theme, this brand new '2012' theme might completely changes how MOLE 2 looks but doesn't change how it works.  Which basically means that you don't need to worry that all the buttons will have suddenly moved to a completely new place or that they do different things!

An Organisation

One of the things that stands out particularly for me is the fact that courses can now be grouped by their term, making it easier to manage the list. Though you have to switch this feature on to make use of it you'll see information on how to do this in MOLE 2 when the upgrade has completed.


Having worked with the new look MOLE 2 over the past few weeks, I have to say that the new interface is much cleaner and simpler.  Some elements, like the context menus, are now hidden until you hover the pointer over the item, at which point the menu appears - and this makes for a cleaner look and is the way that people are increasingly used to experiencing sites on the web. You'll also notice that there's more space now, and it gives the whole of MOLE 2 a feeling that it's fresh and in 2012.

The Course Theme Picker

Another thing worth flagging is that there is now a feature for instructors to change how a course looks, with a new course theme picker. This has a preset list of course 'themes', which apply a change to colours and backgrounds with one click. We haven't designed these themes, and you can't add your own...  but if you don't like them (and I'm not keen on some personally), you don't have to use them. The great thing about these is it's really easy to apply the theme to your course and you can change them or revert back to the default theme with one quick click of the mouse. You can still change the colours of the text and buttons in the course as well, so if you want more personalisation, that's still possible.

Overall, I think this new theme is great, and makes MOLE 2 feel much nicer to work in.

Funny what a lick of paint can do.

Danny

16 Things about Copyright

Love it or hate it, I’ve learned over the years that copyright and related issues are fundamental to pretty much everything we do in Higher Education. Although neither a lawyer or a copyright expert, here are a few items that I’ve picked up along the way.....

The effect copyright has on most people
Image by Cliph under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license 

1. Copyright law exists to protect the rights of those who produce original creative works.
These include musical compositions, literary works (including song lyrics, plays and screenplays), visual works (including photographs, paintings, drawings, maps, logos and/or trademarks, architectural designs and sculptures), films, television programmes and sound recordings. Less obvious examples include software programs and  and the kind of typesetting and graphical layout used in academic journals.

2. The person who creates the original work is normally the copyright holder.
There is one major exception to this, which is when people create such works in the course of their normal employment, in which case the copyright normally belongs one's employer. However, things can be a bit more complicated in the wacky world of HE where there is quite a degree of variation in contractual agreements at various Institutions - especially in the case of producing materials used in teaching. So in some Universities teaching materials are the copyright of your employers, and in others, employers waive their rights of ownership over these, as is often the case with academic books and publications. The copyright holder has the exclusive right to copy the work, sell it or lend it to the public, perform it in public and/or broadcast it where appropriate, and to make further changes and adaptations to the work. Anyone who does any of the above when they are not the copyright holder is committing an infringement, or an infringing activity. The copyright holder also has the moral right to be identified as the creator of the work, and for the work not to be subject to defamatory treatment.

.
3. Copyright is automatically generated when someone creates an original work of the type mentioned above.
The creator doesn’t need to apply for copyright to some external body, and neither do they have to display the copyright symbol, ©, in association with the work for it to be protected (although it might be a good idea to do so). It is effectively a property right that can be bought, sold, inherited, and rented. It is important to understand that here has to be an actual “creative work”, or physical manifestation of an idea, to be copyrighted - ideas themselves are not copyrighted. So if I have an idea for a chart-topping song, I have to actually write it down for it to become copyrighted. Copyright is also not an index of quality - so as a keen hobbyist musician, I can (and some would say usually do) go home, write and record any kind of meandering twaddle and it is still copyrighted.

4. Different kinds of copyrighted works are afforded different types of protection.
This is where the fun starts. Probably the most important of these is the duration of the copyright - i.e. for how long a work is copyrighted. It broadly goes like this:

• Literary, dramatic, artistic and musical works are protected for 70 years after the death of the author/artist/composer
• Sound recordings are protected for 50 years after the recording was made
• Television programmes are copyrighted for 50 years after they are first broadcast
• Typographical arrangements and publications are protected for 25 years after the first edition of the publication
• Film weighs in as the most complicated, as the duration of copyright here is for 70 years after the death of the last surviving member of either the directors, screenplay writers or composers of any music written especially for the film.

Once the copyright has expired, these works become part of the public domain, and can be copied, performed or published again.

6. It is important to realise that the copyright duration over a certain type of creative “artefact” can be different from the content within the artefact.
So in the case of said  musical twaddle described above,  the recording itself will be out of copyright in 50 years, but the composition will still be copyrighted for another 20 years. So if someone else decided they wanted to re-record it, or perform it in public they would still need my permission (or that of my estate), and may well have to pay some royalties. I do fully understand the magnitude of the unlikeliness contained in this latter scenario by the way.

7. Copyright law is complicated.
It’s not rocket science complicated, but it is detailed and often seemingly  inconsistent, and the variation in copyright durations above is just one example. It also often seems to lack clarity in terms of its enforcement. So whilst there are maximum fines and prison sentences set by law, there does not seem to be any clear structure or guidance as to how these should be applied. So it’s not like getting caught speeding where there are fairly clear guidelines about what penalties are applied (£60 fine and 3 points on your licence for doing 35 in a 30 zone in the outskirts of Sheffield. Allegedly). It becomes further complicated by the fact that in a great many instances where infringements end up as legal cases, it has been up to the rights holder to bring the matter to court. The rights holder appears to need to be able to for example, demonstrate that the infringement has resulted in a direct or indirect loss of income to them, and these claims can be countered by a  number of mitigating factors used by the defense. A good example of this complexity, including a range of mitigating circumstances, can be seen in a recent case where a consortium of British publishers unsuccessfully tried to sue Georgia State University (GSU) for infringements relating to upload journal article sto their Intranet. I’ve provided some links below for those wishing to see more details of the case.

8. It is not just ok to use copyrighted material in education.
This is a myth that I have heard proliferated so many times in HE that I’ve lost count. One of the issues with our widespread use of the Internet and IT based resources is that it’s so easy and so tempting just to right-click on an image (or a video clip, sound clip or chunk of text for that matter), save it to your machine and pop it into whatever PowerPoint presentation you’re currently working on for your next lecture. The fact that this lecture may take place “behind closed doors” does not make it ok. The myth is then literally proliferated as the same PowerPoint may then be uploaded onto the campus VLE, and subsequently downloaded by tens or hundreds of students. The metaphorical closed doors of a password protected VLE are still no defence.

9. Mitigation matters.
The GSU case shows us a couple of really important things if we are in any way involved advising colleagues in the use of copyrighted materials, or run services that have copyright implications. Firstly, Universities can get taken to court, and even without being found guilty, it clearly doesn’t necessarily make for good publicity.  Perhaps more significantly is the importance of mitigating circumstances.  There are a couple of very important things Institutions should have in place that can act as mitigating factors in cases such as the above:

• A clearly visible “notice and take-down” policy - this gives those who feel they have been infringed a clear route in to the Institution to register their objection to the infringement. This should be backed up by the Institution undertaking to investigate fully and “take down” the offending material in the case of a genuine infringement.

• Clearly visible guidance and support for staff and students regarding the use of copyrighted materials in teaching and research. Ideally there should be some generic information, and also information for relevant specific services on offer - the VLE, lecture recording system, video library etc.

At a large University this can be a difficult one to crack, as often there will be different  sections within that have responsibilities for different aspects of copyright compliance - the Library and IT services are obvious candidates but it can also include student registry services, HR departments, research support services and so on, because copyright in integral to so much of academic life. We’ve attempted to approach this here at Sheffield by recently producing a copyright “hub”. This is intended to be a single central resource, which provides an overview of our copyright policy, the notice and take down policy, and “service specific” policies containing detailed advice relevant to certain areas. It is a work in progress but illustrates what we are trying to do - provide a one-stop-shop which is both highly visible externally, and of genuine use internally.

What is your Institution doing about copyright guidance? If you take nothing else away from this article, do at least ask this question.

10. It’s not all gloom and doom.
We are in fact relatively lucky that as educators, the legislation does enable us to do certain things that would otherwise be infringing activities, and these are known as exceptions. Rather than list them all here, I’ve included some links below that give more detail and explanation. In summary they allow the use of copyrighted materials for examination purposes, criticism and review, support for disabilities, private study and a few others. But do be aware - they are quite tightly constrained, often don’t take digital copying techniques into account, and most certainly are not just a carte blanche for ignoring the rules.

We also benefit from various licensing agreements in education. A license basically makes it legal for you to do something that would otherwise be illegal, and in the case of copyright, these exist as contractual agreements between educational institutions and rights holders such as publishers and broadcasters. Two of the most used licenses (certainly in HE) are

• The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) - this licenses the copying of printed material for use in HE, allowing the production of “course packs” and photocopying materials. It also allows the scanning.digitisation of images from books which can be used in lecture presentations or the VLE.

• The Eduational Recording Agency (ERA) - this allows the use of recorded television and radio programmes to be used and copied within educational establishments.

Do please be aware that there are of course conditions governing their use and a few “gotchas” to watch out for - for example the ERA license doesn’t cover the use of Open University programmes, even though these are generally broadcast via the BBC, whose programmes are included in the license. Make sure you understand these terms and conditions if you intend to use these materials.

The Arbor Low henge and stone circle.

Copyright Graham McElearney 2012

11. Creative Commons does not mean copyright free. Nor does Royalty free.
The Creative Commons licensing scheme has caused a minor revolution over the last few years, as it allows an easy route for thousands of creative people to get their work circulated and distributed online, whilst still retaining some copyright protection. And that’s the point - it is still a copyright licensing scheme. It also makes it much easier for people to use this work and give it an audience it otherwise may not have had, but do please remember that at a very minimum, such work must be attributed - i.e the creator must be acknowledged in the manner which they specify.  There are a number of sources for locating Creative Commons and other royalty free images - Sarah Horrigan has recently written an excellent guide to these in a recent posting on this blog - 5 Great Sources of Creative Commons Images.


12. Individuals have rights too - and this includes students.
It’s not all about protecting the commercial concerns of big players who are feeling threatened by the fact that their somewhat  - let’s just say in a totally value judgement free way - “rewarding” business models are being eroded by new technologies. Despite our employers owning the copyright in any work that we do. we as individuals have some rights too. An example of these are Performers’ Rights. Performer's rights give performers the right to control the distribution of recordings made of them, and this is often interpreted to include the giving of lectures within educational Institutions. The consent of any performer also needs to be obtained before they are actually recorded, as well as being needed to host them online. This means if for example you are offering a lecture recording service, that you will need your lecturers' consent to record and re-distribute their lectures.

It is also important to remember that students have Intellectual Property in the work they create as part of their courses. This has implications for what terms and conditions our students sign up for when they register with us. It is now fairly broadly acknowledged that just getting them to sign everything over to their university or college is a rather outdated approach, and allegedly one that would not now stand up in court. I don’t know the full background to this but do know that a number of institutions, including ours here at Sheffield, have recently updated registration policies to reflect this.


13. Students need to be educated about copyright.
I believe that it’s really important that we teach our students about the importance of understanding and respecting copyright. There’s an emergent body of literature about the importance of teaching students about information and digital literacy, and copyright should really be a component of this. My colleague Pete Mella has also recently written about this and has a rather splendid presentation that he uses, in his recent article Presentation: copyrightsafe media production.  I like to think of it in terms of responsible digital citizenship - an attribute which will be increasingly important for reasons of employability if nothing else.. In a world where the avoidance of plagiarism and the importance of correct citation and referencing academic works is so important, why should a similar respect for digital artefacts be any different?

14. Copyright implications of using third-party services.
It is worth remembering too that if you use third-party web services, signing up to using these may well have copyright implications. It doesn’t mean don’t ever use them, or that the implications of these conditions are terribly horrific, but do be aware of them. In some cases they may be a legal formality which is essential for the services to actually function, which is the conclusion that many commentators reached whilst critiquing the much  discussed changes in Google’s terms and conditions - so for example - you basically have to give Google or Dropbox the right to copy your data around, otherwise how would a document you stared in one place magically appear in another? In other cases such as Facebook, you may wish to be a bit more cautious,as when you use this service you are granting them a (non-exclusive) license to your materials - important if those materials happen to be copyrighted to your employers. So don’t panic when you  see these conditions but be aware of them.

15. It can get even more complicated.
None of the above is helped in anyway whatsoever when we get into technologies such as lecture recording. There’s a bit of a double whammy here, because what may be legal to do in a face to face classroom situation, may not be legal to record and redistribute. So for a final hypothetical but very possible scenario: Imagine I’m giving a lecture about the significance of the marvelous Arbor Low stone circle in the Peak District as part of an undergraduate archaeology module here in Sheffield, based on ideas I formulated when doing my PhD. So I’ve got some pictures that I took in my own time, and put them into a PowerPoint using a University computer in work time. I also use an excerpt from a BBC documentary about Stonehenge for comparison which was recorded under the ERA license. I have the lecture recorded using myEcho (our lecture recording service) and want to make it available via MOLE, our campus based VLE. Let’s just throw one more spanner into the hypothetical works - I’ve just got a new job somewhere else, based on my research on stone circles, and that’s what they want me to teach next semester.........

Anybody care to sort this one out and post the answer into the comments box.......?

16. And finally....there are changes on the horizon.
Most of the UK copyright law is enshrined in the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act. We had our first Internet browsers here at Sheffield in 1993, and had our first installation of a VLE in about 1997. So guess what - current  regulations are no longer work in our current digital age. We have a real problem in that we’re told to embrace the knowledge economy by teaching increasing numbers of students using new technologies, but are doing it with hands that ere tied by outmoded constraints.  The problem has been acknowledged, and hopefully outcomes of initiatives such as the Hargreaves Report may help us to harness these amazing new technologies that enables a truly enriching experience for our future students.  

Acknowledgements and further information

The road to copyright enlightenment is not an easy one, and I know I still have a way to travel. Much of what I’ve gleaned over the last few years has been greatly assited by a number of colleagues, most importantly Claire Scott from the University of Sheffield’s Library, and Jacquie Kelly form JISCLegal. Any mistakes or omissions are all mine not theirs.


Further information about copyright law

The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 in its raw form (see sections 32 to 36A for information about exemptions that may apply in education) :
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/cdpact1988.pdf

Some more easily digestible explanations about copyright law from the UK Copyright Service
Copyright law - http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law
Using the work of others - http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p27_work_of_others
Top Ten Copyright Myths - http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/copyright_myths

Information about Educational Licenses

The University of Sheffield Library’s information about licenses:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/services/copylicences


Further Information about the Georgia State University case:

From the IPKat:
http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/getting-dizzy-over-fair-use-in-higher.html
From the Duke University Libraries blog:
http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2012/05/12/the-gsu-decision-not-an-easy-road-for-anyone/


Copyright guidelines for lecture recording:

From the University of Sheffield’s myEcho service:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/cics/myecho/copyrightguidelines
Downloadable consent form and copyright guidance (Creative Commons licensed to The University of Sheffield)
http://repository.alt.ac.uk/819/

Graham