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Course Materials – Frequently Asked Questions

Last reviewed September 14, 2022

FAQs

There are a lot of choices. The best option depends on factors such as the type and cost of the material. UW Libraries licensing agreements and copyright are factors for using electronic or print copies of materials.

Material Options Considerations
Book U Bookstore
  • Each student has own text
  • Cost to student
Open TextbooksSeattle | Bothell | Tacoma
  • Open textbooks are free online, cover a broad range of subjects, and are immediately available
  • Instructors are empowered to edit, revise, and remix content
  • Depending on platform/source, not all textbooks adhere to accessibility standards
Library-licensed eBooks
  • Libraries cannot license e-copies of textbooks from many publishers
  • Digital Rights Management restrictions (DRM) on e-books may include: limits on the number of concurrent users; limits on total uses; limits on copying, printing, and downloading
  • Can’t find what you need for your course in existing UW collections? Consult your subject librarian or fill out the Course Reserve Request Form.
Library Course Reserves (physical books)
  • Students share a limited number of copies of book
  • Works best for smaller classes, optional texts or classes where only a small portion of the book is used
  • Odegaard Undergraduate Library will hold Course Reserves for any level of course, and will be the default location for most 100 and 200-level courses on the Seattle campus.
  • Instructors teaching courses at the 300 level and above may choose to have their Course Reserves at a branch library. Please refer to the Course Reserve Request form to see available locations.
  • Fill out the Course Reserve Request Form to get started.
Book Chapter Canvas or other learning management systemCanvas Help
Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma | Cascadia
  • Instructors are responsible for copyright/license compliance
  • It is rare for use of more than one chapter of a book to be considered fair use.  If additional chapters are needed, please explore other options such as using the book as a textbook, putting it on course reserve or putting the chapters in a course pack
  • Instructors can request a scan of one book chapter — Course Instruction Scanning Service
Course pack
Seattle and Bothell | Tacoma
  • Copyright royalties are usually paid for book chapters in course packs
  • Students pay all fees by purchasing course pack
Library-licensed eJournal article Canvas or other learning management systemCanvas Help
Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma | Cascadia
Course pack
Seattle and Bothell | Tacoma
  • Some eJournal articles can be used royalty free in course packs, others require fees
  • Students pay all fees by purchasing course packs
Print Journal Articles Canvas or other learning management systemCanvas Help
Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma | Cascadia
Course pack
Seattle and Bothell | Tacoma
  • Copyright royalties usually need to be paid for copies of print journal articles
  • Students pay all fees by purchasing course pack
Journal article/book chapter from other sources Canvas or other learning management systemCanvas Help
Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma | Cascadia
Course pack
Seattle and Bothell | Tacoma
  • Copyright royalties usually need to be paid for copies of print journal articles
  • Students pay all fees by purchasing course pack
Media Streaming mediaSeattle | Health Sciences | Bothell | Tacoma
  • UW Libraries has licensed over 15,000 videos and 6,000,000 audio tracks for its tri-campus community
  • If you are developing a class that will incorporate streaming video, visit the Streaming Media page for resources and guidelines; Contact your subject librarian for advice on options
  • If you intend to use many feature films (i.e. popular Hollywood titles), consider asking students to subscribe to a third party streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, among others
  • Fill out the Streaming Media Request Form to get started. (For Health Sciences streaming requests, please fill out the Health Sciences Streaming Request Form.)
Library Course Reserves (physical formats)
  • Works best for smaller classes, optional materials or short selections
  • Odegaard Undergraduate Library will hold Course Reserves for any level of course, and will be the default location for most 100 and 200-level courses on the Seattle campus.
  • Instructors teaching courses at the 300 level and above may choose to have their Course Reserves at a branch library. Please refer to the Course Reserve Request form to see available locations.
CanvasCanvas Help
Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma | Cascadia
Instructor generated material CanvasCanvas Help
Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma | Cascadia
  • Excellent option for syllabi, assignments, sample tests, and so on
Student generated material CanvasCanvas Help
Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma | Cascadia
  • FERPA and copyright apply — need permission to post material

There are several good ways to provide access to course materials for your students. The best option depends on the material itself.

  • Placing print books or other physical materials on reserve at one of the UW Libraries’ reserve units works best for optional readings, small classes, or when the selections are fairly short. It does not work well when 50 students are competing for one book during a short period of time.
  • The UW Libraries licenses many electronic journals, books, and streaming media for UW affiliates. Electronic materials that have been licensed by the UW Libraries can often be used in support of courses without additional copyright permission.
  • If material is not licensed electronically, reserves use without permission from the copyright owner is generally limited to a single chapter or article. The instructor is responsible for complying with U.S. copyright law. See the UW Libraries guidelines for copyright and reserves for details.
  • Course packs work best for long readings, a large number of readings, or repeated use of non-licensed, copyrighted materials. They also provide students with a convenient, bound copy of the course materials. Students pay copyright permissions fees and photocopy costs. Create and print course packs at the Seattle and Bothell campuses. On the Tacoma campus, contact the UW Tacoma Copy/Mail Center.

  • As long as you own the copyright you can place material on your course’s Canvas site.
  • Students own the copyright for papers they write for your class. Student work may also be protected by FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) in addition to copyright law, so you must get student permission in writing before sharing their work.

If the resource provides a downloadable PDF option, you may do so and upload it yourself to Canvas. We recommend that you include a copyright disclaimer when doing so. If the license does not allow you to download the pdf for reserves, you must create a link instead.

  • The url that displays at the top of the page will work on campus only.
  • Logging in to a campus web site or portal with a UW NetID does not automatically mean that any resources a user tries to access will be proxied. To access the readings from off campus, you need to create a stable URL that forces the user through the UW Libraries proxy server.
    • To create a proxied URL, prepend: http://offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url= to the actual URL. For example, If you want to make the link for ProQuest Databases (http://www.umi.com/pqdauto) available from off-campus, the URL will look like this: http://offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url=http://www.umi.com/pqdauto.
    • More information on off-campus access

Some of the URLs in the Libraries licensed resources are not stable. Learn how to construct stable URLs

Using e-books for a class is still a developing model. Some vendors allow the Libraries to license their books for an unlimited number of concurrent readers. Others allow only one reader at a time, similar to using a print copy of a book. Students who are sharing (essentially) one copy of a book may not always have access when they want it, especially right before an exam.

How do you know the difference?

  • E-books provided by Project MUSE, JSTOR, Wiley, ClinicalKey, AccessMedicine or AccessPharmacy allow an unlimited number of concurrent readers and work nicely for classes.
  • Other vendors are more restrictive.

For more information see our guide to E-Book Collections or consult your subject librarian if you have questions about linking to an e-book from another provider.

Our Open Education team can help you to navigate materials that you can use (or create) in place of traditional textbooks. Seattle | Bothell | Tacoma

For a quick intro to open education concepts (from open textbooks/OER to open access to open pedagogy), this short video from Dr. Robin DeRosa from Plymouth State University is excellent.