Module 5: Copyright, Plagiarism, and Accessibility
Purpose of Copyright
While building an online course opens new, unlimited opportunities, it may also bring many questions about how to present materials to students within the legal parameters of copyright laws. While it may seem that copyright protects everything these days, in truth it only protects unique ways of expressing ideas after these expressions are fixed in a tangible medium. Protection only requires a minimum amount of creativity. Just as important as what it does protect is what it does not protect: copyright does not protect the facts included in a work or the ideas, processes or systems that may be described in a work. Anyone can use facts and ideas in a work at any time, if they have access to the work.
In cases where fair use does not apply, alternatives are suggested, for example using materials that are open access, that have open licenses, or that are in the public domain. It is also possible to purchase a license to use a work.
An Introduction to Fair Use
Just as the Copyright Act in general works by balancing interests, with some provisions providing rights to owners and some providing rights to users, fair use also balances interests: it balances the interests of copyright owners to control the use of their works so that they can take full advantage of their incentive, and the interests of the public for access to the works and the ideas in them. Fair use is often described in this regard as addressing First Amendment concerns. One can imagine that copyrights could easily be used to interfere with speaking and listening, were the exclusive rights also absolute. Fair use gives us some "breathing room." One of the best examples of this is reliance on fair use to quote from a work in order to take issue with it or criticize or otherwise comment upon it. No copyright owner can legitimately refuse to permit such use, because it is a fair use and does not require the owner's permission.
Fair use also addresses the failure of our markets, at times, to facilitate important uses of works that just do not make economic sense. For example, in many cases, the cost to locate, contact and negotiate with a copyright owner is many, many times more than the price that the owner would ultimately charge for the use of his work. When it does not make sense for the owner and buyer of rights to do business, fair use can "step in" and bridge the gap by making it legal for the buyer to make the use of the owner's work without having to carry out the uneconomic transaction. A good example of this kind of use is including a few images or short audio or audiovisual clips in an educational multimedia work for classroom use where getting permission might be practically impossible.
So, fair use supports the achievement of copyright's purpose by letting people use works, that is, letting them make copies, modify a work, distribute, display and perform works publicly, when those uses further copyright's goals, just so long as those uses do not significantly affect the copyright owner's incentive.
The Fair Use Statute: 17 U.S.C. 107
"Notwithstanding the provisions of Sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching [including multiple copies for classroom use, scholarship, or research] is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
- The nature of the copyrighted work
- The amount and substantiallity of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
- The fact that a work is unpublished will not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all of the above factors."
While this began as a judicial construct for evaluating fair uses, it is very relevant today since it is the way best estimates are made as to whether a court would agree with an assessment of whether a use is fair. The statute employs a "weighing and balancing" technique that introduces many opportunities for judgment. It is quite possible for two people to consider the same use and come to different conclusions about whether it is fair.
Additional Resources
Stanford University's Library provides excellent supplemental information about Fair Use.
You can also use this checklist
to help you determine Fair Use. And guess what - all this content is fair use!
According to the University of Texas at El Paso's Handbook of Operating Procedures (1.2.2.1) , Scholastic Dishonesty is defined as:
"Any student who commits an act of scholastic dishonesty is subject to discipline. Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts."
All suspected violations of academic integrity at The University of Texas at El Paso must be reported to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR). Please note that the student should be permitted to complete all assignments, sit for tests, and attend classes until the matter has been fully resolved. If the matter is unresolved when final course grades are due, you should record an “Incomplete” for the accused student’s grade.
Faculty Referral Form for Scholastic Dishonesty Violation
Section 508 of the American Disabilities Act
Section 508, an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, requires Federal electronic and information technology to be accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and members of the public. Although part of Section 508 relates to web pages and videos, other laws require that all materials that students access for a course be made accessible. This is true with all course materials whether used in a face-to-face class or placed in an online learning environment.
Materials Affected
These materials include MS Word documents, PowerPoint Presentations, PDF documents, etc. Placing these documents online may present challenges for students with disabilities. For example, a visually impaired student who uses a screen reader would not be able to understand the meaning of an image or diagram without a description being added to the image. Or, if you denote course information using color, e.g., "We will meet face-to-face on the days that are highlighted in blue," a student who is colorblind may not be able to locate this information.
Section 508 Standards
There are a number of areas that are covered in Section 508; however, the areas that may be of biggest concern to you are making Web pages and videos accessible. The following items may be most applicable to you:
- Videos with audio need to be captioned
- Audio files need to have text transcripts
- Images need alternative text or descriptions
- Color should not be used to convey meaning
Tips for Creating Accessible Course Content
Provide semantic structure using Headings. In Microsoft Word, they are called "styles," in PDFs, they are called "tags," and in HTML they are called "headings." Screen readers can easily scan these headings to get a sense of what a document contains.
Use true lists, columns, and tables. In Microsoft Word, you can create true lists by using the "bulleted" or "list" function in the Home tab.
For example, this is not a list:
-Apples
-Pears
-Bananas
Also, avoid using spaces, line breaks, and tabs to create the illusion of tables or columns. This will cause a screen reader to read a column from left to right, instead of vertically.
Ensure sufficient color contrast. Without enough color contrast between text and background, low-vision and color-blind students may encounter issues. Below is an example of an inaccessible versus accessible PowerPoint slide.
Add alternative text that describes images for people who use screen readers or visit web pages with images turned off. Add alternative text for all images, with two exceptions:
- The text surrounding the image conveys the meaning of the image
- The image isn't needed for understanding, such as a bullet
Accessibility and Hyperlinks
Embed Links
Embed a link within a concise string of text instead of using its URL as the link text. A screen reader user will more easily understand where an accessible link leads and will not have to listen while the reader pronounces every single character of a URL. Examples:
- Accessible: Lesson 2.6: Hyperlinks
- Not accessible: https://classroomaccess.oit.ncsu.edu/simple-wayslesson2/part-6-hyperlinks/
Create Descriptive Hyperlinks
Descriptive hyperlinks will more clearly explain what information they link to and will improve the experience of all your students. Examples:
- Descriptive: Center for Accommodations and Support Services ADA Policies
- Not descriptive: Policies
Create Concise Hyperlinks
Users can scan a concise hyperlink and quickly determine whether they want to click through and read the material it links to. Examples:
- Concise: Creating Accessible Hyperlinks
- Not concise: This page lists ways in which accessible hyperlinks can benefit screen reader users
Additional Resources
- Center for Accommodations and Support Services ADA Policies
- UTEP Captioning Policy and Procedure
- A-Checker Online is an accessibility checker that tests web pages for conformance to various accessibility guidelines.
- WAVE Accessibility Tool is a free, web-based tool that allows you to quickly and effectively evaluate the accessibility of your web content.