Guidelines for teaching

You can perform or communicate material which is covered by copyright in your class or tutorial, for free, without seeking permission. This means that you can play a film to your students, recite a poem, write text on a whiteboard, both in person and in a virtual lecture. Always attribute your sources.

For example, you can:

• read a text, play sound recordings, films and DVDs or YouTube clips
• screen free to air TV and recordings from TV, radio, or podcasts
• screen library database video resources
• provide links for students to legally uploaded videos.

Your students can perform and communicate content live in class too.

Source: Copyright Act Sec 28

The Copyright Act Sec 28 allows:

• Performance of non-musical works in class for educational purposes: you can show a film, read from a literary work or perform a play in class for educational purposes.
• Performance of musical works in class for educational purposes: you can perform or play a musical work or sound recording in class for educational purposes.

This does not allow storing content for access later (for instance you cannot make the content available on Moodle).

Recording a lecture involves different rights than communicating live to students. Best practice is to pause the recording when copyright content such as film or video is being performed or communicated, unless your content:

• is an Insubstantial portion
• is screened under Fair Dealing for the purpose of criticism or review. It must be for the purpose of the lecturer genuinely critiquing or analysing the content itself and the amount used should be fair. It is not for purpose of making content available to students.
• is Broadcast licence material such as free to air content already broadcast (not commercial on demand sites i.e. Netflix)
• links to Library database streaming content, or material freely online that is legitimate (not infringing).

Link to content as the first option - check the Library for eBooks, journal articles or streaming media, or material legitimately available online to link to. You can link to the entire item- a link is not a copyright activity and no copy is being created. To ensure the links are maintained and accessible for your students, use the Learning Resources service which checks and fixes broken links in the background weekly.

You can provide access to a limited amount of scanned text from a copyright book chapter or journal article by going through Learning Resources - this is to ensure the University can report on the use under our education licence when surveyed.

Limits on providing copies of text and graphics in Moodle

The following limits apply when providing copies of texts and graphics in Moodle as a guideline of what is considered a 'reasonable portion':

• One chapter of a print book, or 10% of pages*, whichever is greater, can be scanned and made available through Learning Resources for your class to access on Moodle.
• One article from a journal or more if on the same topic or for the same course of study.
• Anthologies -a literary or dramatic anthology can be copied if the book is not more than 15 pages. If it is more than 15, you can use a reasonable portion (ie 1 chapter or 10%)
• There are no limits on graphics or images, though good practice is to attribute their source including the licence relied upon. If the image is from a print source the image must not be available to purchase separately at an ordinary commercial price and in a reasonable time.
• Content can be copied from the internet if the content is not available commercially at an ordinary commercial price and in a reasonable time although best practice is to link to the content.

Insubstantial portions are permissible.

*The  amount is defined as "the amount of work copied or communicated does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the owner of the copyright”, which is taken to be as above.

Require more content to be made available?

Contact the library if the material you would like to share does not fit within the limits. It may be purchasable, or if it is out of print or the copyright has expired there may be other options that can be explored.

More detail

Under the statutory licence (s.113P) a limited amount of text or graphic material can be made available to your students without seeking permission. The purpose must be for educational use, and you must go through Learning Resources to register the content for University reporting purposes. You must always attribute and display the copyright warning notice, which occurs automatically in Learning Resources.

The University retains copyright in works created by staff as part of their employment. To ensure the content ownership and origin is clear add © Federation University 2023 (insert relevant year) after your name. Acknowledgement of the authorship of the content should be included, for both moral rights and future identification of the content.

i.e. Prepared by Sue Smith © Federation University 2023

There are two disability access exceptions available to assist your students to receive the educational content they need in the format accessible to them. The Disability Support office has staff who can assist with flexible material creation.

Open licenced education resources can provide an equitable source of content for students or provide material you may not otherwise be able to licence. They can often be adapted for your use. For more information see the Library Open Education Resources subject guide.

The broadcast licence (s.113P) applies to content post-broadcast on TV and radio including podcasts, and catch-up TV on a broadcaster's website. It doesn't apply to on-demand services such as Netflix.

Any item broadcast on Australian television including cable can be copied and uploaded to Moodle, and included in recorded lectures. This doesn't cover on-demand subscription services.

The Library has database packages which compile this content for ease EduTV, TVNews, ClickView , and you can request material to be recording when broadcast in the forward 2 weeks.

For more information see Fed Copyright and navigate to TV/ radio/ podcast.

The Copyright Act allows the copying of content to be communicated for the purposes of conducting or answering a question in an exam. There are no restrictions to how much content can be made available, and includes all types of material (i.e. text, images, film, music). Content must be attributed.

This applies to online and paper exams if the content is an assessable component of the course - but not for practice exams. Practice exams may be made available under another part of the Copyright Act ie Statutory Licence. The Library makes practice exams available from those deposited from the central exams.

Notices such as the example below are not required but recommended -

This material has been copied [and communicated to you] in accordance with the exam copying exception in section 200(1A) of the Copyright Act. Any further reproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice.

Further information see Copying for exams: What am I allowed to do? on Smartcopying.

Sheet music can be reproduced and made available to students under the education licence s.113P, which limits copying to 10% of the total pages. Contact the Library for alternative purchasing options.