Creating a Course Site in Blackboard: Structure, Communicaiton, Consistency

Coming up with rules for designing your Blackboard course site can be tricky. Instructors use the sites for many different types of classes and for many different purposes. Regardless of the class or the purpose, using a Blackboard site successfully can be broken down into three things: 

1. STRUCTURE: Having a consistent, cohesive and intuitive structure for any course site is key for students to use the site successfully.
2. COMMUNICATION: Communicating your intentions for using a Blackboard site with your students and using Blackboard tools to communicate with students will greatly increase student satisfaction with using Blackboard.
3. CONSISTENCY: It is important to be consistent when using the Blackboard site. This includes consistency in the structure, language, tools etc. that are used throughout the semester.
   
   
   

Click on the image below view for tips on how to design a student friendly course site.

Congratulations to National Distance Learning Week Faculty Honoree Lawrence Souder!

Culture and Communication faculty member Lawrence Souder is one of twelve faculty and staff award winners during this years National Distance Learning Week. Honorees are chosen for their dedication to teaching and innovating in an online learning environment. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Lawrence the other day to hear more about his online teaching experiences. Listen to the interview or read his responses to some of the questions below.

LW: How long have you been teaching for Drexel?

LS: Since January 1999, so 14 years in a couple of weeks.

LW: How long have you been teaching online?

LS: It feels like 5 or 6 years; I'm not sure exactly.

LW: How did you get started teaching online?

LS: The C&C department approached me about putting some of the graduate courses on line.

LW: How is teaching online different from teaching in a
classroom?

LS: I've been teaching since 1972, long before personal computers and the internet. Back then I taught 8th grade among other groups, so I grew use to seeing, hearing, and even smelling my students. Online teaching feels like sensory depravation at times. I struggle to find ways of compensating for that aspect of online instruction.

LW: What do you like about teaching online?
LS: While it doesn't make up for the lack of face-to-face interaction, the technology does make my teaching efforts much more efficient. Simple objective assessments of content learning are easily automated. The more demanding and complex grading of writing projects is greatly facilitated by the basic word-processing functions of word counts, word searches, and grammar/spelling checks. And of course, all of the digital media tools allow me to create and deliver content in ways that even professional audio, graphic, and video producers could only dream of years ago. Finally, with the inexpensive availability of laptops and iPads I can reach and be reached over great distances to connect with students.

LW: What are the challenges to online teaching and how do you deal
them?

LS: My main challenge is breaking through the digital barrier that separates a person  from the words they utter. I think the technology has created a relationship with language that keeps humans disengaged from the affect that they might otherwise put into their words if they uttered them with their mouths. I think this has particular consequences for the ethical responsibilities we should feel for the truth and sincerity of our utterances. To put it bluntly, the computer makes it too easy for us to speak carelessly--to put our messages out there without regard for their impact on the audience. If we can't see or hear the reaction in a person's face to our message, why should we worry about it? My challenge is to create ways for students to send messages to me and to each other such that they are reminded of their potential impact on others. To that end I try to avoid course assignments that require only textual responses. I create discussions, for example, that use the audio boards, rather than the usual textual discussion boards. My thinking is that if  students voice their responses and hear their own voices coming back to them, they may be reminded of their ethical duties to speak truthfully and compassionately.

LW: Is your relationship different with students in a online class than in an on campus class? If yes, how so?

LS: I fear that it is more emotionally distant for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Computer-mediated courses are still by their nature limiting in the level of affect and intimacy that is possible in the conventional classroom. One thing I try to do to mitigate this aspect of online teaching is to create opportunities for my conventional and online students to mingle. When my term roster allows, I try to teach the online and the conventional sections of a course in lock-step so that I can share resources between the two groups of students. I also encourage any online students who are within commuting distance of the campus to visit my conventional classroom when possible. I did this last year with my two sections of a graduate technical editing course. One of my online students who is a captain in the US Army stationed at Fort Dix, NJ, came to visit and speak to my conventional section of the course.

LW: Any tips for students taking an online class?

LS: I best advice I have for students is to assess whether you are a self-starter or a follower. If the latter, you may find that time-management will be a real challenge in an online course.

LW: Any tips for professors teaching an online class?

LS: Keep trying new things. I'm always looking for new content to keep my illustrations current. I also tinker with the newest online toys. For example, I just started playing with Bb Learn's Collaborate, which will eventually replace Wimba Classroom. So far I think Collaborate is a vast improvement, though it requires a bit of a learning curve to discover the new ways of doing old tasks.

LW: What advice would you give to someone who is developing and
teaching and online class for the first time?

LS: I have so far mentored two of my former students who have gone on to teach as adjuncts for online courses in the department. I like to think that their initiation into online instruction was made less onerous and anxious. They actually followed me around in a live online course as my teaching assistant. This experience acclimated them to the delivery system and to the teaching techniques as well. When the class ended, I encouraged them to take with them any and all resources they saw on my online course to use with their own courses.

Upcoming Instructional Design Workshops

Below is the Fall 2012 Instructional Design Workshop Schedule. Feel free to attend as many as you can even if it's just for the free food! (Although I will hope that it is for the enriching information you will receive and ideas you will share ;)). Please e-mail me the workshops that you will attend at lmm88@drexel.edu. Please bring your laptop with you if possible. I hope to see you there!

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Workshop 1 - The Fundamentals of an Online Course:
Content, Community, & Discussion

focus: course content
learning objectives: By the end of this workshop faculty will be able to:

1.     create an exercise focused on building community in an online course

2.     identify a variety of ways to present course content that engages different learning styles

3.     create, facilitate and assess robust online discussions

date: Wed., Oct. 24^th
time: 12:00-1:30
place: PSA 115

Workshop 2 - Building and Assessing Active
and Collaborative Learning

focus: course design
learning objectives: By the end of this workshop faculty will be able to:

1.     design an online collaborative project

2.     design an active learning exercise

3.     identify and develop different styles of assessments

date: Thursday, Nov. 1^st
time: 3:30-5:00

place: PSA 114

Workshop 3 - Integrating Media and Web 2.0 Tools

focus: course content
learning objectives: By the end of this workshop faculty will be able to:

1.     identify different online resources for media course content

2.     recognize how to stream videos from the library through Blackboard

3.     identify different Web 2.0 tools and describe how they could be used in a class

date: Tues., Nov. 6th

time: 12:30-2:00

place: PSA 115

Workshop 4 - A Second Look at Online Learning:
Building or Redesigning your Online Course

focus: course design
learning objectives: By the end of this workshop faculty will be able to:

1.     identify the steps to designing a course

2.     discuss major differences between face-to-face and online courses

3.     discuss the importance of presence and communication in an online environment

date: Thursday, Oct. 18th

time: 3:30-5:00
place: PSA 114

Let's Get Talking!

Now that we are a few weeks into the fall semester, it’s a good time to take a moment to think about how you can continue strong communication with your students beyond the first week or two of welcome and orientation messages. Students who feel like they have a direct line of communication with the professor and are listened to are much more engaged and excited to participate in an online class.  It is extremely important to the students to know that you are active and present in the course and that they know what your expectations are for online discussions, assignment submissions etc.  Here are a few simple tips to keep lines of communication open.

·      In the first few weeks it is critical to let the students know

o   how you have set up the site

o   how they can navigate through the content

o   how they can get technical help

There is a link to Bb tutorials for students on the login page (http://drexel.edu/irt/coursetools/toolList/learn/student/tutorials/) and once they are logged into Blackboard there is a “Tech Support” link with many different resources for students. Making sure students know about this before there is a problem can be a great time saver for both you and them if a problem ever arises.

·      As the semester progresses, continue to use the announcement feature to do weekly overviews and wrap-ups.

·      Keep you calendar up-to-date and notify students of any changes that occur.

·      Let students know how often they should post to the discussion board and be sure to participate in the discussions yourself by providing feedback, insight and guidance to the students. A good rule of thumb for you is to post a minimum of 3-4 times. Some professors prefer to respond to each studen's' post individually.

·      Be clear about how quickly you will respond to student e-mails—a response within 24 hours is a recommended best practice.

·      It is also helpful to let students know when to expect feedback from you on things like exams or written assignments.

If you have additional tips or tricks that you use in your courses please share them in the comments area!

Happy Communicating!

Adding Videos to Course Sites in Blackboard

Watch Are Memes and Internet Culture Creating a Singularity? on PBS. See more from Idea Channel.

Including different types of media in any course but especially an online course is a great way to introduce material in a non-text format. Because you lose facial expressions and the ease to demonstrate or act out an idea when your course is online, finding appropriate videos to illustrate your points can be a huge help. It can also break up the monotonty of readings and recorded lectures, and engage students with different learning styles. You can of course create your own media, but it is probably easier to start by looking at what has already been created in your subject area. “Media” can include videos, songs, podcasts, websites, games etc., but for this post I am going to focus on how to find and post free online videos into your course sites. There are many different websites that have videos aimed at a variety of topics, especially culture and communication.

The Search

First, we must start by finding and selecting appropriate, copyright free material to embed in your course site. Here are some links to get you started:

Refseek.com
Taken from their website: “RefSeek's guide to the 25 best online resources for finding free educational videos. With the exception of BrainPOP and Cosmeo, all listed sites offer their extensive video libraries for free and without registration”

A couple sites in the collection that I think are especially worth looking though are PBS and TED.

NBC Learn
NBC has created a collection of digitized stories from their archives and have made some of the collection free. The complete collection requires a subscription but you can do a 30-day trial. The OLT is currently looking for feedback about NBC Learn so if you do decide to do the trial it would be great to contact the OLT to let them know what you think. (olt@drexel.edu)

Adding Videos in Blackboard

There are a few different ways you can add videos to Blackboard each varying slightly with how the video is displayed. If you have several videos you may want to create a folder to hold the videos or embed all of the videos on a single page item (option 3).

Option 1: Create a hyperlink to the video as a stand-alone item:

1. Highlight and copy the entire URL of the website with the video.
• If your video opens in its own window with no URL, Right-click on the thumbnail and choose "Copy Link Location," "Copy link address," or "Copy shortcut," depending on your browser. You will have to do this with NBC Learn, for example.
• Some sights may have a URL link that you can copy just below the video. (This is not the “Embed” link, as is discussed below).
2. In Learn, with Edit Mode on, navigate to a content area.

3. Hover over "Build Content" and click "Web Link."

4. Give the link a meaningful name and paste the location information into the URL field.

5. Click "Submit."
   

Option 2: Create a hyperlink within a specified area in Bb, i.e. an item (page), a discussion forum, an assignment etc.

1. Highlight and copy the entire URL of the website with the video.
• If your video opens in its own window with no URL, Right-click on the thumbnail and choose "Copy Link Location," "Copy link address," or "Copy shortcut," depending on your browser. You will have to do this with NBC Learn, for example.
• Some sights may have a URL link that you can copy just below the video. (This is not the “Embed” link, as is discussed below).
2. In Learn, with Edit Mode on, hover over "Build Content" and click "Item" to create an Item. To create an Assignment, hover over "Assessments" and click "Assignment."

3. Enter a title in the Name field and appropriate descriptive text in the textbox.

4. Select one or several keywords to hyperlink in the textbox.

5. Click the Hyperlink icon (looks like a globe) and insert the location information in the URL field.

6. Click "Submit."

 

Option 3: Embed the video within a specifies area in Bb, i.e. an item (page), a discussion forum, an assignment etc. This means that rather than linking out to the video, the video will play right on the page in Blackboard.

1. If the video has an option to embed, you should see the word “embed” just below the video itself.
2. Click on “embed” and copy the html code that you get- usually it will appear in a text box field.
3. In the text box in your item (or discussion board etc.) area in Bb, click on the “< >” area in the tool bar to switch into the html view
4. Paste the code that you copied into the text window
5. Click on “< >” again to switch back to normal mode
6. Click “Submit”

Please let me know if you have any questions about this process or are not sure how to organize your videos. The OLT can also offer additional Blackboard support if you are having any trouble adding your videos. (olt@drexel.edu)

Additional Resource

In addition to using free video resources, the library has a large collection of videos that I encourage you to take a look at, as well as a way to allow you to stream your personal videos for a single course. Here is a link to the blog post published earlier this year with all of that information: Streaming Copyright Protected Media in Courses

Writing Measurable Behavioral Learning Outcomes

...say that five times fast.

"Writing measurable behavioral learning outcomes" is actually much harder to say than it is to do. Learning outcomes help you as the instructor clarify exactly what it is that you want students to be able to do, and helps the students understand what you expect them to be able to do by the end of a certain time frame, e.g. a class, a unit, a term, or the completion of a degree. As instructors, you work at the course and unit level of learning outcomes, so that is what we will focus on here. 

Course Learning Outcomes
The successful completion of your course's learning outcomes should align with your programs broader set of learning outcomes. Every course has a set of Learning Outcomes that have been sent to Middle States for accreditation, so if you are not familiar with your course learning outcomes, ask your program director. There should be about 5-7 course outcomes that are broad enough to cover the entire term's worth of content. A course outcome might look something like “Students will demonstrate correct writing skills”, and one corresponding unit outcome could be “Students will write sentences that demonstrate correct usage of commas, semicolons, and periods”.

Unit Learning Outcomes
note: for simplicity I will use the term "unit" for this section, but depending on your course it could be interchangeable with week, chapter, module etc. Just make sure that you choose one term for the entire course. 

Unit learning outcomes identify exactly what it is that you want your students to be able to do by the end of each unit and tie directly back up to the broader course-level learning outcomes. For example, if you have a unit on World War II, what do you want them to know and/or be able to do at the end of the unit? Discuss five battles? List the dates of five major battles? Explain the causes of the war? Write about the aftermath? Identify three world leaders at the time? Recognize the major countries involved? All of these terms are specific, measurable and behavioral. Clearly identifying what you want the students to do or know and when you want them to demonstrate this makes your job of measuring their knowledge much easier. It is also important to remember to write your outcomes in language that students can easily understand, so always avoid using jargon or obscure terms from your discipline. Students should easily understand what you want them to do!

In addition, all learning outcome statements should link directly to how you are assessing the students. If the students need to "discuss" something, they should be assessed using classroom discussions or online discussion boards, if the students are asked to "identify" something, you could use a standard multiple-choice test. So for example, three outcomes could be stated like: By the end of Unit 1, students will be able to 1) discuss three major battles of WWII 2) identify five world leaders at the time of WWII and 3) explain the role of the five identified leaders in the war. The degree to which your students are able to complete that task gives you direct proof of your student’s level of knowledge. 

When working with faculty to write unit learning outcomes there is just one thing that often gets in the way, and that is the vague and overused term, "understand". It would be very easy to say for a WWII learning outcome that you want the students to "understand" the causes of WWII. But what does that mean? If you catch yourself doing this take it one step further and ask how will I know that they understand? Are the going to discuss it? Are they going to write about it? Am I giving a multiple choice mid-term on it? Once you do that, it is easy to go back and replace the word "understand" with what it is that the students are doing to prove that they "understand". They are writing about the three main causes leading to WWII. They are identifying the major world leaders and their role in the development of the war. Tada...you have now written a learning outcome that is behavioral and measurable, that is, you have assigned a method for the students to show you what they know- writing, taking an exam, participating in a class discussion, and from that method you can assess the degree to which they are proficient in the task assigned.

Admittedly, it can sometimes be tricky to come up with the exact term that you want to use in your learning outcome, but luckily there are many tools created to help. Here is a link to Bloom’sTaxonomy Chart and Wheel for Writing Learning Outcomes. Blooms taxonomy breaks down the types of objectives into knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, and the wheel identifies different activities and behavioral terms for each category. Print this out and next time that you get stuck trying to figure out how you will know that your students "understand", pull this out.

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For more examples and information about writing measurable behavioral learning outcomes please view the resources below provided by Steve DiPietro, COAS Director of Outcomes and Assessment:

Guidelines to Writing Unit-Level Learning Outcomes, based on the original work of Jenny Moon [Gosling, D., & Moon, J. (2001). How to use learning outcomes and assessment criteria. London: SEEC. Guidance notes for writing unit and course aims and learning outcomes Page 3 of 16 Version 2, June 2010]

Chapter 2 of Florida State University’s Instructional Handbook
            * note: the term “objective”, used in this handbook, is interchangeable with the term “outcome”

Upcoming Faculty and Staff Development Workshop

We strongly encourage all faculty and staff to attend the Evidence Based Learning Workshop outlined below. Assessment is a critically important part of  teaching and learning and this workshop will give you plenty of tools and tips to help you develop high-level assessments in your courses. Culture and Communication faculty Cyndi Rickards and Barbara Hornum are two of the presenters, and I will be attending and will be happy to work with you on creating assessments for your courses or talk about anything that you take away from the workshop. Please don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity!

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Evidence Based Learning - Creating a Culture of Assessment at Drexel: Full-Day Workshop for All Faculty and Staff on Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Effectiveness, the Drexel Center for Academic Excellence(DCAE), the Online Learning Council (OLC), and the Office of Information Resources and Technology (IRT)

The Provost’s office, DCAE, OLC, IRAE and IRT will sponsor a full-day workshop dedicated to presenting ways to incorporate and integrate appropriate measurable assessment tools, instruments, and techniques into courses and programs. The integration of well-designed and sustainable assessment approaches is essential in increasing student engagement, improving student learning, and enhancing the academic quality of courses. This workshop is an opportunity to learn about new approaches to assessment and discuss their effectiveness and uses with colleagues. You will hear from colleagues what has worked well for them and how to integrate these best practices into your classes in time for fall term. All sessions will be held in the new Papadakis Integrated Science Building.

You can review the full agenda at www.drexel.edu/provost/evidencebasedlearning and plan which sessions you would like to attend in advance.

Space will be limited so please click on the link below to make a reservation to participate in what will be a stimulating, informative, and productive day. I hope you will join your colleagues for what promises to be a stimulating and valuable day. We guarantee that you will leave the workshop with valuable information/tips and strategies that you can incorporate into your courses and programs this fall!

Click here to register for the August 7 Workshop on Evidence Based Learning - Creating a Culture of Assessment at Drexel.

Thank you,

Jan Biros

Senior Vice Provost for Budgeting, Planning, and Administration

Collaboration

by Liesl Wuest

Collaboration is an important part of student learning in any class but it can be challenging to figure out how to create a collaborative project online. Fortunately for us, technology is always making it easier and easier for students to collaborate at a distance. Blackboard itself has several tools that make this possible- wikis, blogs, discussion boards, Wimba Classroom- and then the web has a plethora of Web 2.0 tools to choose from like Facebook, Google Drive/Docs, Flickr, Twitter etc. (We will have other blog posts that look more closely at each of these tools, but go ahead and take a look at them now- they are all linked here!)

So don't let your virtual classroom space interfere with providing collaborative activities for your students. Review this brief tutorial to get you started with some ideas about creating group projects and don't hesitate to contact me if you are still stumped. And have fun!

Click to view the Collaboration Tutorial

JOLT: The MERLOT Journal of Online Teaching and Learning

 by Liesl Wuest

This week we would like to take the time to highlight an excellent resource for information and research on instructional technology and design: The Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT). Taken from the JOLT website:

“(JOLT) is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication addressing the scholarly use of multimedia resources in online higher education. JOLT is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. The objectives of JOLT are to:

•    Enable faculty to use technology effectively in online teaching and learning by learning from a community of researchers and scholars;

•    Enable academic programs to design and deploy academic technology to optimize online teaching and learning;

•    Build a community around the research and scholarly use of multimedia educational resources for online teaching and learning.

The journal welcomes papers on all aspects of online learning and teaching in higher education. Topics may include, but are not limited to: learning theory and the use of multimedia to improve online learning; instructional design theory and application; online learning and teaching initiatives; use of technology in online education; innovative online learning and teaching practices.

The publisher of JOLT is MERLOT, which provides a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff, and students from universities and colleges around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy”.

Periodically we will highlight articles that we think are especially useful and relevant, but we encourage everyone to bookmark the site and review it on their own from time to time.

The article we are highlighting this week is “Development, Implementation and Evaluation ofGrading Rubric for Online Discussions”, co-authored by our very own Goodwin professor Dr. Ann M. Solan and Rutgers University professor Dr. Nikolous Linardopoulos.

The paper goes through the process of developing and using a grading rubric for online discussions and evaluates its use through student feedback. It has as lot of great information about the importance of comprehensive online discussions grading rubrics and the high degree of positive feedback that they received from the students who were graded using the rubric. One student quote that I thought was particularly informative was, “ ‘I really appreciated having what was expected clearly documented at the beginning of the course. It let me know what was expected and helped me to prepare for each week. Other classes have seemed extremely arbitrary in their discussion grading and it can be very frustrating. I really enjoyed the way it was setup in this class. Thank you’ ” (Solan & Linardopoulos, 2011).

The appendix includes the original rubric they used at the start of their research (Appendix A) as well as an updated version that they modified after the first term (Appendix B). I strongly encourage you to take a look at the modified rubric and perhaps even use it to create your own discussion rubric!

In the comment area below please share any online discussion rubrics that you currently use in your online class or discuss your experience using an online discussion rubric.

References:

Solan A.M., Linardopoulos N. (2011) Development, Implementation and Evaluation of Grading Rubric for Online Discussions. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 7 (4). , 7 (4). Retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no4/linardopoulos_1211.htm

Blackboard Learn – Coming Soon

by Paul Evangelista

The long awaited change to Blackboard Learn is only two weeks away. IRT is putting the finishing touches on the system and preparing to load students into their summer courses. Now is the time to make sure you’re ready for the big day.

Here’s what you should do.

First, log in to Blackboard Learn at https://learn.dcollege.net/ and make sure your course templates have been copied over. (If you haven’t requested that your courses be copied, please contact IRT [for BBVista] or fill out the DeL form at http://www.drexel.com/BlackboardMicrosite/BbRequestForm.aspx.

Click through your courses and make sure all of the content copied correctly. Then make any changes you want to make before the summer term. When the actual courses are created for the summer, you will be able to copy all of the content into the new sections from these migrated courses.

IRT will start to load students into the system on June 11th. Students will not be able to see specific courses, but they will be able to access the orientation and tutorials about the new system.

To make the transition as smooth as possible, I will be available to assist you by answering any last minute questions about setting up your courses. You can reach me at 856-367-1703 and by e-mail at pe22@drexel.edu.

Introduction to Liesl Wuest, Instructional Designer

Hi, I am Liesl Wuest and I am really happy to be joining the Culture and Communication Department as your Instructional Designer! I have been working in Instructional Design and higher education since 2006 and before that I worked in both education and graphic design. I have a degree in Graphic Design from the University of Notre Dame and a graduate degree in Instructional Technology from Lehigh University.

Although I am new to the department I am not new to Drexel. From 2006-2008 I was an Instructional Designer at Drexel e-Learning so I may have even worked with some of you before! From 2008-2011 I worked as an Instructional Technology Specialist at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA, just outside of Boston. Mount Ida is a smaller school and there I was responsible for developing all online and hybrid courses with faculty, training faculty in instructional design and technology, and running the course management system. While there, I also had the opportunity to teach a freshman seminar course which I really enjoyed. In the summer of 2011 I moved back to the Philadelphia area and have been working part time with Drexel e-Learning since September. In March I presented at the e-Learning 2.0 conference hosted by Drexel on Developing an LMS (Learning Management System) Site for face-to-face courses and I have also made a few presentations on the use of Web 2.0 tools in online courses.

As an Instructional Designer, I really enjoy working closely with faculty, content experts and program directors to design and develop online courses. I use my background in education, instructional technology, course development and graphic/web design to develop engaging learning materials, activities, and assessments that meet the learning objectives of the course. I am very excited to meet all of you and collaborate with you to enrich the learning experience of all of our students. I am currently working in Rob D’Ovidio’s office in PSA 203 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so please stop by and say hello! I can also be reached Monday-Friday at lmm88@drexel.edu and have reserved Thursday from 11-12 as drop in or virtual office hours. To meet virtually, please use my Adobe Connect Meeting Room linked here.

Streaming Multimedia in Courses

Faculty at Drexel are using an increasing number of video and multimedia materials in their online and face-to-face courses. In order to support and facilitate the use of these materials by faculty and students, Drexel University Libraries can provide digitized videos and DVDs through the online reserves service. Faculty who are assigning video content in a course may request that the library make this content available on the University’s rich media server, so that enrolled students -- either on campus or at a distance -- may view and review the required materials at any time during the term. This content is only available to enrolled students and is password protected. Students may access this content through the libraries’ course reserve system or, preferably, through the appropriate course management software.

Only materials owned by the library or the faculty may be provided via the online reserves service. If the library does not own a particular video or DVD, we will attempt to acquire the title, within the limits of our budget and our collection development policies. If the material is the faculty member’s own product and the faculty member holds the copyright, the library will accept a copy for the collection for the term it is being used.

Since the digitizing process takes considerable time, we ask that faculty make their requests as early as possible, using the Online Reserves Service form.

Drexel University Libraries provide this service in accordance with U.S. Copyright Law. The libraries consider each request on a case-by-case basis and look to the four factors of the Fair Use provisions for guidance. Some requests may not meet the definition of fair use; in those cases, the library can assist faculty members as they seek to obtain the required permissions and/or licenses.

The Libraries and the Office of the General Counsel have been reviewing our Reserves procedures to confirm that continuing, appropriate attention is given to intellectual property rights.  We anticipate some changes to our process, and library staff will be prepared to assist faculty with any questions.  Processing times for new items may take longer, so please submit reserve requests as soon as possible.  The Libraries have identified and are actively pursuing technology that can streamline the process and speed processing time in light of the updated procedures.

As part of the Libraries review of intellectual property rights for course reserves, all e-reserves and streaming videos will be de-activated effective September 6^th.   All e-reserve and streaming video reactivation requests will need to be re-submitted online in order to be ready for the Fall 2011 term.  You can reactivate your items by using Online Reserves Service form.  

Deirdre Childs

Head of Access Services

Drexel University Libraries

P | 215-895-6785

F | 215-895-2070

dap27@drexel.edu