(June 2014) Fear and uncertainty about copyright law often plagues educators and sometimes prevents creative teaching. This online course from Duke University with Coursera is a professional development opportunity designed to provide a basic introduction to US copyright law and to empower teachers and librarians at all grade levels. Course participants will discover that the law is designed to help educators and librarians.
The course runs 21 July to 18 August 2014.
The three instructors for the course all began their careers as librarians, and all went to law school in order to assist their colleagues in schools, colleges and libraries better understand copyright.
Throughout the four weeks of the course the instructors will introduce specific examples of copyright questions that arise in education.
Each of the four units of the course includes five or six video lectures, in which all three of the instructors take part. The total lecture time per week is between one hour and 90 minutes. There are also targeted readings provided each week, which add about 45 minutes to one hour to the preparation time.
Throughout the class discussions will be on the United States copyright law. There will be one lecture on the international context. Participants from anywhere in the world who want to learn how U.S. law applies to education and libraries are very welcome to take the course.
More details including an introductory video are here.
