CathyHager

Copyright Scenario: In looking at the issues to consider when designing a distance education course, you must first decide what the material you are planning on using falls under. You must decide if the material is printed, video, photograph/digital image, or multimedia. Once the course is developed and used you must take into account all emails and discussions submitted. As you develop the course you need to take into account whether the course you are developing is for a non-profit or for a profit organization. As you are develop the course you will need to be educated about the Fair Use practices, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the TEACH Act. As you look at any material you are using that is not your own, you will have to follow the guidelines in regards to its use. If your intended use does not comply with the above acts and doesn’t fall in the guidelines then you must seek copyright permission. You must contact the publisher of the publication where you found the material. If you are not able to do that you can ask the librarian for assistance. Next you may ask the Copyright Clearance Center as a potential resource for finding the owner of the material. The first step in contacting the owner of the copyrighted material is by the phone. Once that has been done they will ask for written permission that you will mail so that it can be recorded. You will outline the use of the material so that you and the owner can understand the material’s use and how much you will pay for the use of the material. An example of something you will need to seek permission to use is a photograph, videos, and pieces of multimedia. There are guidelines which permit you to use the piece for a limited amount of time and limit the use, but continual use in a course that will be used over and over require a designer does not need to get permission is when the material is in the public domain or sometimes federally produces material. Other materials that one does not need to worry about are pre-existing materials, procedures, facts, discoveries, and/or works that are not fixed in a tangible form of expression.

Michael Simonson, S. S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education. Pearson Education.