Library:M101 Author Guidelines

This article is still being drafted. This means that the article is still being worked on and information may be incomplete. This template will be removed when the article is finished. If you have any concerns, please start a discussion on the talk page.

Authors, welcome to M101! The following guidelines are developed for you to create content that fits within the structure of M101. Please read the following guidelines. Should you have additional questions, add them to the Author Build Blog.

Background

M101 is a series of modules developed by you, our authors, which are made available to every community member at UBC. These modules fill a crucial educational gap at UBC, as they teach skills relating to digital literacy.

Students can take as many or as few modules as they wish. Students who complete a module will be issued an Open Badge, which can be displayed in their Mozilla backpack and their social media accounts.

M101 Badging Structure

TBD

Unit Selection

There are several ways to select a unit to develop for M101.

Technology

As your module will involve a digital tool, you might want to start your search for a topic by identifying a tool that interests you or that you have considerable knowledge or skill using. However, the unit itself needs to focus on a competency or literacy. Think beyond the tool to how it is applied. For example, you may want to write a technology unit on Photoshop but the larger competency is digital photo editing.

Digital Literacy

And because the ultimate aim of your module is to help M101 students develop a specific competency, the digital literacy framework might give you some ideas on unit selection.

Marketplace

The Marketplace is an area on the website where the UBC community can make suggestions for unit development. These suggestions may come from faculty members who would like to build a competency in their students, from the developers of M101, or from participants and authors who would like to learn more about a specific competency.

M101 Content Review

M101 is an ever changing and growing space. As digital literacies change quickly as technology grows, you may want to look at current units in M101 for potential re-writing and modification. Content may be out of date or there are areas that have emerged that need to be added. If you decide to modify a unit, review the “Editing a Unit” section of this guide.

Interest, Knowledge, Passion

We recognize that you have several areas of interest, knowledge, and skills in the digital realm. If you are passionate about a specific topic or have skill in a particular area, please use that knowledge to build units for M101.

Website Content Areas and Unit Structure

The major content areas of the website are:

• Guides
• Technology
• Case Studies
• Gallery

The website can be navigated using any of the above content areas. For example, if a participant of M101 would like to find a technology on photo editing tools (e.g. Gimp, Photoshop, etc.), they can use the Technology link. However, the participant can gain access to this information through any of the other areas as well. For example, a guide may be developed on Digital Photo Creation which will have links to the photo editing tools. This is meant to promote multiple access points to the content.

The following is a description of the website content areas and unit structure.

The content areas must be covered when developing a unit for M101.

The unit structure provides you with basic guidance on the kind of content that needs to be developed for the content area. These are suggested guidelines; however, please add your own creativity to the unit development. When you write your module, remember that the goal is to make it as accessible as possible for your reader. Each section should be 250 - 1000 words in length, and the voice you adopt should be consistent throughout. Your work should be based on considerable research. Try to present a critical analysis of the competency and tools and the context in which it is used.

Guides

Guides is the part of a unit that provides an introductions to a specific digital literacy or competency and does not contain information about a specific technology. For example, a unit on Digital Portfolios could fall into the digital literacy of “Composing for the web - creating web resources in ways appropriate to the medium/genre.”

Guides - Unit Structure

The Guide unit should contain the following: A brief outline of what the guide covers An explanation of the concept An explanation of the process, skills, and knowledge needed to achieve the concept.

For example:

Identify the competency the student will develop when taking your module. Describe how this competency links to the tool in section two. Identify prerequisites. As an optional bonus, persuade your reader this competency is relevant.

Technology

Technology is the part of the unit that describe a specific tool to enable the concept or idea presented in the guides. For example, Wordpress, Weebly, Google Sites, etc. can be used to develop a digital portfolio. There will be more than one technology that can be used to enable the concept or idea presented in the guides.

Technology - Unit Structure

Selecting the technology is up to you. You can select open or proprietary software. There will be numerous technologies that can address the competency you have selected. Provide a wide selection will help participants taking your unit to make good choices for their own needs.

The technology unit should address the following questions:

• What is the technology?
• How can the technology be used? For example, Wordpress can be used as a blog and as a content management system.
• What are the advantages or disadvantages of this technology? If necessary, compare the technology to another tool to support your argument; however, don’t use this section to illustrate another tools advantages and disadvatanges.
• How to use the technology? This section will direct participants to open education sources outside of M101 instead of developing new “how-to” guide (e.g. direct participants to Wordpress.com tutorials on Wordpress, etc.) Select 2-5 available tutorials that will enable students to acquire a basic grasp of the tool.

Case Studies - Unit Structure

The case study unit should provide an overview of the use case, provide some references to research related to the use case,

Gallery

The Gallery is the part of the unit that highlights examples of projects that show the concept and technology in action. The Gallery projects should describe the situation where these projects are used and why they are exemplary examples of the concept or technology.

The Gallery will also be a space where participants will author new Gallery examples. This process will be a part of the badge structure.

Adding a Unit

Account information in M101 Develop a username and brief bio for Wordpress Wiki When do you put content in the wiki? (should all content be built in the wiki) How to create a page in the wiki? (should we provide guidance on the mechanics of using wiki or is it assumed that ETEC565M students/M101 authors will understand this) Uploading images to wiki Copyright and CC licensing How to format the content in the wiki for appropriate appearance in Wordpress? (can a template be automatically generated in wiki - Novak, Will) Headings (h2, h3) Bold, Italics HTML conventions (open in a new tab) References Image file size (related to wordpress output and appearance) Categorization conventions Categories (content areas, M101, digital literacy) Page naming conventions Course:ETEC565M/Name of the Unit/Content Area (e.g. Course:ETEC565M/Digital Portfolios/Guides, Course:ETEC565M/Digital Portfolio/Technology, etc.) Uploading content to Wordpress (is there a way this can be done automatically)

Editing a Unit

How do you choose a unit to edit/modify? Attribution to the original author? (is it fine that the history of the wiki page is enough of an attribution)

Digital Literacy Framework

Description of the web literacy framework from Mozilla

Author Build Blog

TBD

Copyright Material and M101

These guidelines are intended to help M101 authors and participants make responsible use of third-party copyrighted materials in the M101 learning environment. If you have questions about the information in these guidelines or how it applies to specific use-case scenarios, please contact the Scholarly Communications & Copyright Office (SCCO) at ubc-copyright@interchange.ubc.ca or 604-827-2006. For general copyright information, including what it covers, how long it lasts, how you get permission to use someone’s copyrighted material, and how it works internationally, please see UBC’s Copyright Basics FAQ.

The M101 learning environment is publicly available online, which means that anyone with an internet connection can access and view the content in each unit. This also means that when M101 authors and participants post content in a learning unit, they are effectively publishing that content online for a global audience.

Using copyrighted materials in the M101 environment requires more diligence, than using those same materials in a classroom or learning management system at UBC. Since the audience is not limited to registered students, the use of third-party copyrighted material is more likely to require the permission of the copyright owner(s), and the inappropriate use of such material is more likely to generate complaints. Further, many of the educational exceptions that allow classroom use of copyrighted material without permission either do not apply in the M101 environment or apply only in a limited fashion.

2. General Guidelines

• Generally, M101 authors and participants should obtain permission to use copyrighted material in learning units. The SCCO will assist with getting permission whenever possible, but it is not always possible to contact rights holders or to pay the fees requested.
• It is always preferable to hyperlink to files if possible. Providing a hyperlink is not currently believed to be the same as making a copy or distributing a work, and can be done without permission.
• Materials obtained electronically through UBC Library are generally not allowed to bepostedon public websites. Wherever possible, authors and participants should provide access to these materials through persistent links (PURLs). For more information on PURLs, please see these short video tutorials.
• There are lots of materials available for use in M101. For details, see the What Copyright Allows You to Copy section below.
• In many cases, the best decision might be to simply remove third-party copyrighted content that is not essential to the pedagogy of a learning unit, for example, purely illustrative content. Participants in open courses report that the experience is quite different than in a classroom, and the impact of purely illustrative content is reduced.
• M101 authors and participants should always provide an attribution to the original source. This acknowledgement can be made at the end of a learning unit or contribution; it need not be included directly where the work is used, if that would harm the flow of the author’s content.
• The fair dealing exception applies in M101, but there are fewer express educational exceptions to rely upon. See the final section of these guidelines for more information.

3. What Copyright Law Allows You to Copy

Despite the above restrictions, M101 authors and participants enjoy “user rights”, which are robust rights to use materials without needing to obtain the copyright owner’s permission, , including:

1. Your Own Work – Copying and distributing your own work is up to you. Please note, however, that permissions may be nonetheless required if (1) the work contains third-party copyrighted materials or (2) you’ve transferred your copyright in the work to a third party, as is often the case with published works such as books and articles.
2. Insubstantial Portions of Works – Copying quantitatively and qualitatively insubstantial amounts of a work does not require permission or payment. Examples of insubstantial use in the M101 environment would include quoting a few sentences from an article or book, or a few words from a short poem or song. If quoting more than a few sentences at a time, consider whether the amount copied is substantial (if so, the permission of the copyright owner should be sought). If in doubt, contact the SCCO.
3. Material in which Copyright Cannot Exist – Copyright does not protect facts and ideas, it only protects the particular way that an author expresses them. The novel ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is protected by copyright. The idea of a child wizard who confronts an evil wizard is not. Similarly, a textbook on geology may be protected by copyright but the facts in it (about sedimentation, magma, tectonic plates, etc.) are not.
4. Material no Longer Protected by Copyright – In Canada, a work’s copyright protection typically ends 50 years after the death of its author, regardless of the citizenship of the author or where the work was originally published. When a work’s copyright protection ends, the work is said to enter the public domain. For more information, please see UBC’s Public Domain Guide.
5. Government of Canada Works – Government of Canada material may be reproduced for personal or public non-commercial purposes unless there is a specific indication to the contrary attached to the work. Permission is required to revise, adapt or translate a work or to reproduce it for commercial distribution. Materials produced by other governments in Canada and around the world are subject to similar rules.
6. Openly Licensed Works – material covered by Creative Commons and other open, free-for-use licences can be used with minimal restrictions. Note, it is important to review the terms of the license to ensure that you comply with those minimal restrictions.
7. Hyperlinks – Providing an Internet link to a work is not generally considered to be the same as making a copy, so it does not trigger the requirement of permission or payment.

4. Seeking Permission

If third-party copyrighted material is integral to the point of the learning unit or contribution, the use is not permitted by the Copyright Act, and replacing the material with an openly licensed or public domain substitute is not an option, then seeking permission will be necessary. This can be done by you, or you may enlist the SCCO’s assistance.

Please note that obtaining permission can take some time, and is not always possible: in many cases, the copyright owner is unresponsive or unlocatable, or requests an unreasonable fee in return for permission. These obstacles are even more pronounced in the context of M101, as many creators and publishers are unfamiliar with open online learning environments and unsure of how to handle related permission requests.

For these reasons, we recommend giving yourself a lot of time, and if enlisting the SCCO’s assistance, you should submit your permission requests at least 10 weeks in advance. In the event that permission cannot be obtained, the SCCO is available to assist with finding alternatives.

If you anticipate needing to seek permission for excerpts from published books or articles, then please note:

• Where the instructor is also the author of the work being distributed, the publisher is more likely to grant permission.
• Whenever possible, a recommendation to purchase the book from which an excerpt is taken, and a link through which students can make such a purchase, will also encourage the publisher to grant permission.

5. Fair Dealing in M101

Introduction

• Fair dealing is nuanced and context-dependent. The following sections provide information about fair dealing with respect to certain content, but understand that they are by no means definitive. If you have questions about whether a particular use-case scenario would qualify as fair dealing, please review the UBC Copyright Guidelines and, for a summary of your obligations as UBC faculty and staff members, the Copyright Requirements and Fair Dealing Requirements.

• UBC’s Fair Dealing Requirements apply only to the use of copyrighted material in closed educational environments such as physical classrooms and UBC’s learning management systems, and therefore cannot be relied upon in the M101 environment.

• Fair dealing does not apply where a license governs the use of the work and that licence does not permit use pursuant to the fair dealing exception. This is the case with some of the electronic resources obtained through the UBC Library, and with online materials obtained from websites with terms of use or similar legal notices that restrict fair dealing.

Images

• When the use of illustrations, graphs and figures is integral to the point of the lesson, and the picture or figure is subjected to sustained commentary and critical assessment, the case for fair dealing is strong. If such selected material comes from diverse sources and is not too numerous, permission may not be necessary.

• In many cases, a licensed substitute (such as a picture carrying a Creative Commons license) or an image in the public domain can be found for those pictures that depict a specific subject but where a particular picture of that subject is not required. The SCCO can assist with locating such substitutes.

• When the purpose of the picture is merely to break up the text in PowerPoint slides or illustrate them, these images can often be removed in order to reduce the burden of clearing copyright without harming the experience of an online, asynchronous course.

Audio/Video Materials

• Use of musical or sound recordings should be evaluated carefully and on a case-by-case basis. As with images, if the recording is subjected to sustained commentary and critical assessment, the case for fair dealing is strong.

• It is always preferable to hyperlink to an audio or video file if one is available on the web. In those cases, students would be directed to follow the link, and then return to the learning unit. This is especially appropriate when the entirety of a work must be seen or heard before the unit will continue. Incorporating significant amounts of a musical or sound recording into a learning unit increases the chances that the course will generate a complaint from the copyright owner.

• If linking is not practical and audio or video files must be provided directly, then the files used should never be longer than is needed to make the pedagogical point. Moreover, discussion of what the participants are seeing or hearing should be intermingled with the audio or video files wherever possible.

• When a substantial clip of audio or video, which will not be intermingled with discussion, is incorporated into the lecture, rather than linked to, permission should be sought.

Endnotes

1. The term “third-party copyrighted materials” refers to any copyrighted works that you do not own the copyright to (note, this includes work you have authored but have assigned copyright to a publisher).
2. Adapted with permission from Kevin L. Smith’s Copyright in Coursera: Guidelines for using copyrighted material in Coursera MOOCs (2012).
3. Adapted with permission from the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ CAUT Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Material (2013).

Licensing of M101

All authors creating content for M101 are creating it under the a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless you explicitly state otherwise in writing. This license states that all users are allowed to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

However, if your material is used the following must occur:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

For the full Terms of Use for M101, go to XXXXX.