MOOCs, short courses & micro-credentials

Courses at the University that are limited to our (internal) students may be able to rely on the educational statutory licence in the Copyright Act 1968 for reuse of content (see the tab above). However, as students enrolled in MOOCs, micro-credentials, or short/certificate courses generally do not have access to the University's authenticated Course Readings system, this exception in the Act should not be applied due to its reporting requirements. You will therefore need to rely on open-licensed materials and/or 'free' resources, link to online content, or seek permission from the copyright owner/s.

Best practice

  • Link to open / publicly-accessible material wherever possible (or embed for YouTube/etc. ). Be careful not to link to, or embed, infringing content.
  • Use of Creative Commons-licensed materials and 'free' resources can make it easier to populate learning materials for short courses.
  • Before using any of your own publications (articles, chapters, etc.), in a short course , check your publishing agreement to ensure  that you have the ability to do so, and whether a particular version is required (e.g., author manuscript).
  • Keep detailed notes of where you sourced material from – this will help with attribution, licensing/reuse statements, and/or any permissions needed. Our Copyright Checker spreadsheet can assist with this.
  • Allow plenty of time to request permissions – while some approvals can be relatively quick, others can take months.
  • Make sure to follow any directions or conditions set out in the permissions/licensing you identify or receive.
  • For assistance with permissions or understanding open or educational licensing contact Copyright and Scholarly Publishing.

To learn more, access the MOOCs and Short courses copyright guide (PDF).