{"id":10475,"date":"2023-12-21T09:15:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T14:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/design-center\/?page_id=10475"},"modified":"2025-11-17T13:34:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T18:34:55","slug":"oer-and-fair-use-incorporating-affordable-instructional-materials-in-online-courses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/design-center\/oer-and-fair-use-incorporating-affordable-instructional-materials-in-online-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"OER and Fair Use: Incorporating Affordable Instructional Materials in Online Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online course development requires a significant amount of time and thought as faculty manage various pedagogical, technological, and institutional considerations. When effectively aligned to <\/span>learning <\/span>activities and outcomes, <\/span>additional<\/span> instructional materials can enrich a class by offering students diverse perspectives, deeper learning, more multimodal engagement, or more recent content (Jaggers et al.; H.O.M.E. Framework<\/a><\/span> Standard 1).<\/span> Instructors also seek out affordable options for their students to support their success, an effort that aligns with the Marshall for All initiative. We want faculty to feel confident that their thoughtfully chosen course materials reflect permissions guidance and fair use too, and Marshall has several resources to support those efforts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Open Educational Resources (OER) at Marshall<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Marshall has robust <\/span>OER opportunities<\/span><\/a> for faculty who are interested in finding quality OERs or attending OER workshops. According to David Wiley of <\/span>Lumen Learning<\/span><\/a> (and Marshall alum), the five primary components of OER are materials that can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed.\u00a0To help you evaluate a potential OER, try this <\/span>OER Assessment Rubric<\/span><\/a> from RCampus. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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5Rs Image by David Wiley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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If you are interested in developing your own OER, one Marshall affordable materials initiative is <\/span>Pressbooks,<\/span><\/a> an open-access publishing service. Any Marshall faculty can go into Pressbooks to create their own OER textbook tailored to their class and publish it. Don\u2019t have time for that? Pressbooks also allows faculty to curate content (including interactive videos and learning activities) from other OER textbooks, remix it, and publish as a co-author. Pressbooks is <\/span>free<\/span><\/a> to students and integrates with Blackboard Ultra, with content showing in-line like other course documents. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marshall courses that use Pressbooks or other open materials from publishers such as OpenStax, <\/span>Lumen Learning<\/span>, and OER Commons may be eligible for the <\/span>Affordable Education Materials<\/span><\/a> attribute\u2014an initiative spearheaded by the Student Government Association. Don\u2019t know where to begin? Start with Marshall\u2019s <\/span>Creating and Editing OERs<\/span><\/a> guide.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fair Use Resources at Marshall<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

For articles and instructional materials that are not clearly marked as OER, instructors have other options. Building a reading list by collecting articles from various places <\/span>can help <\/span>instructors <\/span>customize<\/span> their <\/span>course<\/span>.<\/span> Another worthy benefit of posting the readings in a course? It saves students money. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, just because these materials are intended for educational purposes does not mean they are always in the clear for <\/span>fair use<\/span><\/a>. Determining fair use is case-by-case and not a straightforward process. Before distributing an article or book chapter for students, <\/span>instructors need to not only make sure their use of the material meets <\/span><\/b>all four<\/span><\/strong> factors (related to the purpose, nature, amount, and market impact of the work used), but also recognize that this characterization is subjective and contextual<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tools for educators, such as the <\/span>Fair Use Checklist<\/span><\/a>, can help instructors determine whether or not a text favors fair use and document their analysis in good faith. However, this process may still not produce clear answers. According to the <\/span>US Copyright Office Fair Use Index<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThere is no formula to ensure that a predetermined percentage or amount of a work\u2014or specific number of words, lines, pages, copies\u2014may be used without permission.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Practices for posting affordable online course materials<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

While instructors should apply an abundance of caution when determining fair use, the good news is that Marshall University Libraries provide a vast selection of instructional materials that faculty can freely use in their courses.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To help you follow best practices for posting an article, book chapter, or story in your Blackboard course, try our <\/span>flow chart<\/strong>:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Use a Marshall Libraries permalink<\/span><\/b>: If you wish to post an article to your course at no cost to your students, a best practice is to <\/span>link directly to the content<\/span><\/strong> in Marshall University Library databases using the permalink, as well as the article citation and a link to <\/span>Marshall Library\u2019s Summon Search<\/span><\/a>. Replacing an article PDF with all three of these elements (permalink + citation + library search information) not only protects your use of the article, but it also allows the library to track journal and database clicks. If students only have a PDF or scanned copy of the article, then the library can\u2019t collect usage statistics — the analytics used to determine subscription renewals. It is also good practice to check these links each semester to ensure the library still has access to the work.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Link directly to Open Access content<\/span><\/b>: If Marshall University Library does not have the article, check to see if it is <\/span>Open Access<\/span><\/a> on the web by the owner of the text. Again, it is better to include both the citation and the link rather than uploading a PDF. For <\/span>YouTube videos<\/span><\/a>, check to make sure they were uploaded (made openly available) by the copyright owner. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Consult with a Marshall librarian:<\/span><\/b> If the text is not available in the library or open access, <\/span>consult with a Marshall librarian<\/span> to explore other options. <\/span>Library Partners<\/span><\/a> can help faculty replace article PDFs with permalinks and citations, find comparable alternatives, or look into other solutions, such as course reserves. Faculty teaching online courses can contact their Distance Learning Library Partner for support.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Using affordable course materials is a worthwhile, if not always a clear, endeavor. Whether you have questions about how to make sure your assigned articles are covered under fair use, how to get training on using OER,\u00a0or how to create and publish your own OER content, we can connect you to the right resources.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Marshall University Resources<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n