Developing MOOCs

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are online courses that have been developed to reach a larger audience than registered students of the University, and may be delivered by a third-party provider. The general procedure regarding use of copyrighted material in a MOOC, particularly where that MOOC is to be delivered outside the University via a for-profit provider, is that permission must be obtained from copyright holders for all such material to be incorporated into the MOOC, and that, in general, Fair Dealing assessments will not be applied to copyrighted material to be used in MOOCs.

In exceptional circumstances, a limited exception to the general requirement that permission be obtained for all copyrighted material to be incorporated into a MOOC may be granted in cases where it has been demonstrated that:

  1. the use of the material is important to the educational mission of the MOOC;
  2. there is a compelling reason not to pursue permission from the copyright holder for the use of material; and,
  3. there is reasonable confidence that the use of the material falls within the Fair Dealing exception.

In such cases, at the request of the leader of the development team for the MOOC, each selection of material to be used without specific permission from the copyright holder will be separately reviewed by the Copyright Office to confirm that it falls within a Fair Dealing exception. In particular, any such selection must be specifically discussed in the MOOC, and the selection used must be as minimal in form and/or duration as is practical to serve the purpose. While the Copyright Office performs the Fair Dealing analysis and recommends a course of action, the final decision regarding whether Fair Dealing exceptions will be applied for selections in a MOOC will rest with the Provost & Vice-President (Academic). Where the Provost & Vice-President (Academic) determines that a Fair Dealing exception should not apply to the selection, then, unless copyright permission is otherwise obtained, that selection will not be included in the MOOC.

 

Student & Staff Guide