what is an academic course pack

Full Answer

What is a course pack?

If you’ve taken a college course in the last 20 years, you’ve probably used a course pack—a collection of information put together specifically for your class. Course packs can be as simple as a stapled packet or as fancy as a hardbound book with a four-color cover.

What is the history of coursepacks?

The practice of assembling coursepacks for students developed as a systematization of the practice of disseminating "handouts" for readings in class. This practice operated in parallel to the practice of libraries providing " reserves "—material pulled off shelves and "reserved" for use at the library, to ensure access for students in a class.

How do I prepare my own coursepack?

Here are some suggestions for preparing your own coursepack: Start with the publisher (not the author) of the item you want to use; direct your request to the publisher’s permissions, licensing, or clearance department. If the publisher doesn’t control the rights you need, they can probably direct you to the rights holder.

What is a coursepack “clearance”?

Most publishers grant “clearances” for coursepacks—that is, for a fee, publishers permit for their books or articles to be copied and distributed in educational contexts. Such clearances normally last for one semester or school term.

What does the course pack include?

A course pack is a collection of information assembled for instructional purposes, whether print or digital. Typical course packs include articles and excerpts from journals, books, textbooks and other copied materials. Whenever you make a copy of copyrighted material, copyright laws come into play.

How do I create a course pack?

To create a coursepack:Once logged in, navigate to My Coursepacks using the top navigation bar.Click Create Coursepack.Enter information in each of the boxes. ... Click Create Coursepack.Your coursepack is now in an Unpublished state, and should appear on the My Coursepacks page.

Is course pack one word?

course·pack n. A printed or digital collection of assigned readings, as for a college course, typically including an assortment of periodical articles or sections of longer books. [course + pack.]

How do I add a course pack to Webassign?

Add Course Pack AssignmentsOpen the Schedule page. ... At the top of the Assignments list, click. ... If needed, navigate to a different Course Pack. ... Click Add Course Pack to My Assignments. ... After the Course Pack has been added, click either Add Another Course Pack or Go to Class Schedule.

What is a course textbook?

Word forms: course books. countable noun. A course book is a textbook that students and teachers use as the basis of a course.

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What is a course pack?

An academic coursepack is a collection of materials (usually photocopied) used in the classroom, distributed either in book format or as class handouts. Coursepacks are commonly offered for sale in campus bookstores, although professors may arrange to sell them in class. Most publishers grant "clearances" for coursepacks--that is, for a fee, publishers give permission for their books or articles to be copied and distributed in educational contexts. Such clearances normally last for one semester or for one school term. After that, the instructor must seek clearance again. In addition to these paper coursepacks, some companies now assist in the assembly of electronic coursepacks used in distance learning and electronic teaching programs.

How many articles can you use in a coursepack?

It can be time-consuming to seek and obtain permission for 20 to 30 or more articles used in a coursepack. Fortunately, private clearance services will, for a fee, acquire permission and assemble coursepacks on your behalf. After the coursepacks are created and sold, the clearance service collects royalties and distributes the payments to the rights holders. As noted earlier, some clearance companies also provide clearance for non-paper electronic coursepacks used in distance learning. The two leading coursepack sources are the Copyright Clearance Center (www.copyright.com) and XanEdu (www.xanedu.com).

Is a coursepack copyrighted?

However, in 1991 a federal court ruled that a publisher's copyright was infringed when a Kinko's copy shop reprinted portions of a book in an academic coursepack. (Basic Books Inc. v. Kinko's Graphics Corp., 758 F.Supp. 1522 (S.D. N.Y. 1991).) The court said that reprinting copyrighted materials in academic coursepacks was not a fair use and that permission was required.

Can a clearance company get permission to use a course?

It's not unusual for a clearance company to be unable or unwilling to acquire permission for certain works. Here's why: Clearance companies typically enter into affiliations with academic publishers--that is, they get permission in advance to use all the material in the publisher's catalog. This avoids having to spend the time and bother of asking permission to use each individual item. This works fine so long as the material you want to use comes from publishers who have affiliated with the coursepack company. But if the material is not from one of these pre-cleared publishers, the clearance company often will not even try to get permission, or will be unable to obtain permission if they do try.

Do you need permission to copyright a coursepack?

This and similar court rulings establish the rule that you need to obtain permission before reproducing copyrighted materials for an academic coursepack. The Centre College Bookstore and copy shops still perform coursepack assembly. However, these copy shops have either affiliated with established clearance services or are prepared to obtain clearance on behalf of instructors.

What is a coursepack?

Coursepacks are printed collections of readings assembled by teachers to supplement college and university courses. The practice of assembling coursepacks for students developed as a systematization of the practice of disseminating "handouts" for readings in class.

Why are course packs important?

Primarily as a result of escalating license fees, coursepacks have become a significant expense for students, along with textbooks. Coursepacks themselves operated primarily as an efficient service for providing print copies of material.

What is a course packet?

A simple definition is that a course packet is a compilation of materials from various sources that can be used to teach students in an inexpensive manner and follows the curriculum that the instructor has personally designed . These sources might include portions of books, articles, cases, poetry, the instructor's original works, images, ...

Can a course packet be a CD-ROM?

While a course packet is normally thought of as printed and bound material, it can also take the form of a CD-Rom if that is more conducive to your course and the type of material you are using.

How to cite a course pack?

If your course pack is a compilation of previously published material, cite as described above in "Previously Published Articles or Chapters."

What is supplemental material?

Supplemental Material. Many custom textbook publishers offer supplemental materials such as CDs, DVDs, or online materials that are accessible only with the purchase of the text. Since these are essentially extensions of the course pack or text itself, it makes sense to cite them as supplemental materials:

Do you need to cite supplemental material in a textbook?

If the supplemental material is included with the textbook, it's sufficient to cite the textbook .

Do you include unpublished material in a course pack?

Instructors frequently include unpublished material in their course packs, particularly in rapidly developing areas of research. Since the only source for this material is the course pack itself, treat it as part of an anthology compiled by the instructor and published by the university. If authorship is not stated, treat it as an unauthored work. The title of the compilation is whatever is on the cover or title page—often (but not always) this consists of the course name and number, as in the first example below:

Is there a copyright exception for course packs?

v. Kinko’s Graphics Corp, 1991, and Princeton Univ. v. Michigan Document Servs., 1996) established that there is no educational exception for course packs under U.S. copyright law. See http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter7/7-a.html for a good overview of this issue.

Can you cite course packs in journal articles?

It’s increasingly common to provide all or part of the book in electronic form as well. Course packs are seldom cited in journal articles, but students are often given the assignment of writing on a specific extract from the textbook.

Why do you need to cite the course pack?

Instructing students to cite the course pack will teach them how to cite the particular version of the work they are consulting, but you might consider having your students cite the original source of the work so that they can practice documenting real-world rather than classroom sources.

Can you cite course packs more than once?

Since course packs may be cited more than one way, students should ask their instructors what to do, and instructors should indicate their preferred citation method. Below are recommendations for instructors and recommendations for students who are unable to get their instructors’ guidance.