Outside of wanting to share a good thing with my audience, I bring him up to introduce the concept of intellectual property: why is this still a thing?
Over the decades as an instructional designer, I have lead workshops, modeled (well, mostly), cajoled and even harangued knowledge experts about intellectual property rights and digital media. Now, these are individuals who know every jot and tittle of APA formatting, and would never dream of not citing a reference. Yet, some remained blissfully ignorant of attending to copyright issues regarding digital information and media.
This was thirty years ago, and its still an issue. A "thing," if you will. Thirty years ago, there was clip art and a paucity (by today's standards) of images on the Web. Enough to get in trouble with. Now, there is Pandora's box of media and information to appropriate.
There is the issue of fair use, and the common misunderstanding that fair use covers any content used in a classroom. The follow is typical of conversations I've had regarding fair use:
Me: What media are you going to use in your (psychology) class?
SME: Oh, I'm going to show the movie, A Beautiful Mind.
Me: The whole movie?
SME: I'm using it in the classroom, so it's fair use. Oh, and I'm videotaping the class, since I will be commenting on the film. But it's still fair use.
Well, perhaps, .Fair use is a complex and somewhat subjective combination of purpose, the amount of a resource is being used, the importance of the amount that is being used, etc. Fair use does not automatically cover an entire film being shown in a college classroom.
The use of content in an online class is another issue.
There is plenty of information about how to avoid copyright infringement. Google has its tool for filtering images by usage rights. Creative Commons licensing has made easy to recognize what needs to be done to meet licensing requirement. Open Washington has its Attribution Generator. There are sites where images are highly likely to be usable, such as Flickr, Pixabay, and Wikimedia. Many college/university librarians are highly trained in intellectual copyright issues. (And a tip of the hat to the librarians at Tallahassee Community College for helping us keep out of trouble while finding great resources!)
So, why is this still a thing?
Could be ignorance. Could be that its just one more thing to do, when course development may be taking up the last bit of energy that is left.
Dr. Dennen points out the ambiguity of created material. It is sometimes not easy to determine the intellectual ownership of material, especially that which has evolved as a result of coursework.
For some, there may be a streak of (perhaps unconscious) defiance. If "the system" is going to take my information, then I should be able to take this image. While this individual doesn't get the difference between "content" and "data," that individual is correct that his/her data is being taken, with no permission asked.
Part of the problem is the relative unlikelihood of getting caught. This raises a challenge to instructional designers everywhere! We are in the position to educate our SMEs, managers, graphic artists et al. in fair use and copyright matters. Don't let an uncited images get put into a course! Don't let an unreferenced URL go onto an Articulate Storyline screen. Unravel, understand and uphold the standard!
References:
Dennen, V. 2017. Ownership of Digital Course Artifacts: Who Can Access and Use Your Words, Images, Sounds and Clicks. Quarterly Review of Distance Education 17(4) Accessed at https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/eric/docview/1891317757/fulltextPDF/F65829A8C0034699PQ/1?accountid=4840..
Reyman, J. 2013. User Data on the Social Web: Authorship, Agency, and Appropriation. College English. 17(5). Downloaded from https://canvas.fsu.edu/courses/89214/pages/week-5-readings.
Image: Oliver at the 2016 Montclair Film Festival
File is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic icense.
Attributed to Neil Grabowsky / Montclair Film Festival
I faced a similar issue at work. Recently, I was asked to update one of the company's elearning courses and we wanted to include some content related to Unconscious Bias. Well, there are a lot of great studies online and on Youtube that visually explain how unconscious bias works. At first, it seems simple to just include the link in the training, without doing anything else. But, I knew ethically I needed to give attribution to the author. The challenge is where do the citations go? Should there be a separate screen dedicated to References or can a citation go at the bottom of the screen? How do you add a citation that blends with the overall design of the course. I believe that if a References slide is included in the template from the very beginning then IDs would be more compliant in making sure they were included.
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