Online Course | Copyright in Higher Education

Part 1: June 6, 2018 | 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
Part 2: June 13, 2018 | 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
Part 3: June 20, 2018 | 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET

This is an introductory course focused on the topic of copyright, specifically as it applies to online academic course designs. This course will not make you an expert in copyright law, but it will give you enough background training from which to make informed decisions.

After an introduction to the principles of copyright as they apply to higher education under the laws of the United States, Canada, and international agreements, course participants will become familiar with concepts that relate directly to their specific online course design needs.

Learning Objectives:

During this course, participants will:

  • Determine when copyright does and does not apply in online environments
  • Analyze and apply fair-use criteria in order to make strong cases for the fair use of copied materials in online course environments
  • Apply license and permission models in order to go beyond the limitations of copyright law
  • Provide access to content without invoking copyright, license, or permission restrictions
  • Examine your institution’s policies regarding ownership of instructor-created content

NOTE: Participants will be asked to complete assignments in between the course segments that support the learning objectives stated below and will receive feedback and constructive critique from course facilitators on how to improve and shape their work.

Course Facilitator

Thomas Tobin Thomas Tobin, Director of Curriculum and Programming, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Thomas J. Tobin is the director of curriculum and programming at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, as well as an internationally recognized speaker and author on topics related to quality in distance education, especially copyright, evaluation of teaching practice, academic integrity, and accessibility/universal design for learning.

Tom serves on the editorial boards of eLearn Magazine, InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, the Journal of Interactive Online Learning, and the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration.

His books include Evaluating Online Teaching: Implementing Best Practices (2015), The Copyright Ninja (2017), Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education (forthcoming 2018), and Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers (forthcoming 2019).

Tom was also proud to represent the United States on a Spring 2018 Fulbright Scholar core grant, under which he helped Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary to develop its first faculty-development program.