Pedagogical and technical issues may make online teaching a challenge but copyright concerns should not be a significant barrier.
Key points to remember:
Recording video of yourself, live-casting lectures, etc.
If it was legal to show slide images in class, it is likely legal to show them to students via live video conferencing or in recorded videos. As long as your new course video is being shared through a password-protected course website (like Moodle) and limited to the same enrolled students, the legal issues are fairly similar.
Many instructors routinely post a copy of their slides as a file for students to access after in-person course meetings. In most cases, faculty will own the copyright in or have license to use their slides. However, if you are incorporating third-party materials into your lessons, they should be in keeping with copyright guidelines or other license agreements associated with the content.
In-lecture use of audio or video
Here, the differences between online and in-person teaching can be a bit more complex. Playing audio or video of legally-obtained physical media (music or audio visual materials like DVDs or CDs, for example) during an in-person class session is 100% permitted under Section 29.5 of the Copyright Act. However, that exemption doesn't necessarily cover playing the same media online.
If you can limit audio and video use for your course to relatively brief clips, you may be able to include those in lecture recordings or live-casts under the copyright provision called fair dealing. At Bishop’s University we follow fair dealing guidelines that allow you to use up to 10% of a copyrighted work to be distributed to your students. For media use longer than brief clips, you may need to have students independently access the content outside of your lecture videos. Some further options are outlined below.
Course readings and other resources
Librarians can help you with putting resources online such as the Library’s licensed resources and available ebooks.
If you want to share additional materials with students or if you want students to share more resources with each other in an online discussion board, please keep in mind the guidelines below:
It's always easiest to link!
Linking to publicly available online content such as news websites and existing online videos is rarely a copyright issue. It is better not to link to content that looks like it may be infringing copyright. For example, a private individual’s YouTube video of the entire "Black Panther" movie would not be recommended. However, someone's 2-minute video discussing pivotal scenes from the movie may be considered fair dealing.
Linking to subscription content through the Bishop's Library is also a great option. Much of the Library's licensed content will have DOIs, PURLs, or other "permalink" or "persistent link" options, all of which should work for off-campus users. Consult the Library's Persistent Links guide, or contact the Library directly for assistance.
Sharing copies and scanning
Making copies of new materials for students such as downloading/uploading files or scanning from physical documents, can present some copyright issues which are the same whether you are teaching in-person or online. It's recommended not to make copies of entire works; however, copying portions of works to share with students may be considered fair dealing.
At Bishop's, faculty and instructors are encouraged to read and apply the Copibec and fair dealing guidelines when they would like to make copies for students.
Fair dealing is an exception in the Copyright Act that allows you to share and use copyright-protected works for educational purposes. Online teaching offers an opportunity to make use of fair dealing to provide students access to educational materials.
You are allowed to post short excerpts of copyright-protected works to Moodle. A short excerpt means:
Basically, you want to avoid posting a substantial part of a work.
If you want to post a chapter or up to 10% of a course textbook, fair dealing will definitely allow you to do so. Fair dealing looks at each individual item, rather than aggregate use, so fair dealing will allow you to use 10% of a course textbook, a journal article, and a poem from an anthology for your students.
There are other exceptions in the Copyright Act that allow you to display and perform copyright-protected works in the classroom. The Library is available to help faculty understand the relevant issues. If you need to make more copyrighted material available to students than fair dealing allows the Library can assist you in making these determinations.
Remember that the Library has a large collection of online journals and ebooks that support online learning. Your Librarians can also help!
An alternative way to find course materials is to use free online teaching resources. Please cite your sources.
Sharing audiovisual material like films and audio files is more complex. But remember you can still link to legally posted online content (from YouTube, etc.). The Library has licensed audiovisual materials that you may link to (e.g. Curio.ca, NFB Campus, Theatre in Video, Criterion). Please consult the Library's Public Performance Rights page for more details.
Standard commercial streaming options like Netflix, Crave, or Disney Plus that students may also subscribe to can be an option – though some students may not have access to these services.
Ownership of online course resources
As per section 14.00 Copyrights/Intellectual Property of the Faculty Collective Agreement, Bishop's University faculty members own the copyright of their academic works, including instructional content. Please refer to the Collective Agreement for Faculty for more details.
University policies also affirm that students own the copyright in their own coursework.
This resource has been adapted for Bishop's University from material prepared by the Copyright Office, University of Minnesota. All content on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. We would like to acknowledge some contribution of adaptation language from University of Toronto document Online Instruction: Copyright considerations.
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