Academic Integrity

Project II: Academic Integrity Pamphlet
EDU-585-XF254 Law/Ethics/Digital Citizenship 20DA06

PROFESSOR KAREN OLSON, (M.A)
Roslyn Martin
Submission I: 09/29/2020



Table of Contents
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND THE ONLINE EDUCATION PROGRAM

What is Copyright Law? 1
What is Fair Use? 1
2
Guideline One 2
Guideline Two 3
Guideline Three 3
Guideline Four 3
Guideline Five 4
Academic Integrity 4
Best practices to maintain academic integrity relative to Copyright: 5
Privacy and Security 6
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). 6
Privacy & Security Guidelines for Online Education Programs 6
Guideline One 7
Guideline Two 8
Guideline Three 8
Guideline Four 8
Guideline Five 10
References

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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND THE ONLINE EDUCATION PROGRAM

What is Copyright Law?
U.S. copyright law, Title 17 of the United States Code, establishes broad criteria for
copyright protection of created works. Copyright law requires the work to be original, creative,
and tangible (written down or recorded) whether registered or not is with the copyright office or
U.S. Copyright Act: 1976, revision states anything published after January 1, 1978, cannot
transfer to public domain until at least 2048. Anonymous works are copyright protected until 95
years after publication (Title 17). Copyright law is important within the online education setting
because of proximity of the world’s information. It is a very simple digital process for teachers
and students to obtain papers, books, recording, images, articles, and all things original, created
and tangible and incorporated it into lessons, assignments, communications, and so on, without
taking the time to obtain permission to use. Additionally, it is a simple process to cite
copyrighted works properly, but the purpose of the work may be ignored (e.g. school magazine
created for sale as a fundraiser) and copyright infringement occur.

What is Fair Use?
Fair use is the legal phrase addressing the provisions allowing the reproduction of
copyrighted works. Fair use applies to the reproduction of a copyright owner’s work(s) without
obtaining permission from the copyright owner. Fair use also applies to use without being
required to pay the copyright owner fees or royalties for the use of their (work). Fair use initially
applied to written works; however, the plethora of digital content made available through world-
wide web and online/virtual technologies the legal rule is now being applied to the use of

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musical works, photographs, videos, and computer programs (Educational Technology Team,
n.d.).

Guideline One
Know What Qualifies as Fair Use Content
As online educators, it is imperative the we, as instructors, and our students, as users
(most frequently, minors), understand who, what, where, when, why and how to correctly utilize
content for:
• Instruction
• Presentations
• Seminars
• Virtual classes
• Periodicals
• Reports
• Assignments
This content may be “Fair use” authority for use without obtaining copyright permission
to use.

Guideline 2
Undocumented Works
It is important to know the best rule for making the decision to use content from a digital
or online resource that does not clearly state creator and copyright information. In this case,
assume the work is copyrighted and track down someone to ask permission to use it.

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Guideline 3
Citations
Learn the proper way to cite every work you use to give credit to the individual(s)
responsible for creating the work. Despite following proper citation protocol, citing the author(s)
correctly, and using quotation marks and punctuation properly does not always protect against
copyright violation (Title 17). It is important to ensure the work meets a valid “Fair use”
educational purpose.
Guideline Four
Know which works are not protected by Copyright law
Facts and works in the public domain published can be used by smeone other than the original
creator of the work if the content:
• Is a fact. (NOTE: Original, creative, tangible compilations containing facts may be protected
by copyright laws.),
• Created before December 1922 or PRIOR TO 1922,
• Created between 1923 and 1978 if no valid copyright notice,
• Created between 1923 and 1978 if copyright was not renewed.

Guideline Five
Know when a person eligible to be a copyright owner forfeits that right
There are two instances when an author can forfeit his or her right to copyright
protection. The first is when an employees of the federal government authors an original,
creative, tangible work. A federal government employee sacrifices his or her entitlement to

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copyright protection. Secondly, a copyright owner may relinquish his work public domain status,
allowing whosoever to have fair use access of the contents without risk of copyright violation.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Online education program faculty can take a leadership role as the “first line of
defense” assisting students to recognize, demonstrate, and practice academic integrity relative
to adhering to copyright laws. It is imperative that students are taught to take ownership of
their access to and use of the vast amount of content available, on the web. Online education
program students must be taught to reflect on the rights of others as they are taught to protect
themselves. They must reflect upon their response, in the very likely event, given the nature
of online education program research and document development practices, to a “fair use”
challenge to the piracy of their own creative work. It is important to recognize that the
simplicity of accessing nearly everything that has been and is in a state of being created,
within seconds, may cause one to ignore the fact that “if you did not create it, you must obtain
authorization to use it”. Students must be taught that digital proximity to content is not
synonymous with “Fair Use” of that content. It is important to follow the rule: Assume the
work is copyright protected and ask permission to use it. Special Note: Beware, citing the
author(s) correctly and using quotation marks properly does not always protect against copyright
violations (Educational Technology, n.d.; Title 17).
Best practices to maintain academic integrity relative to Copyright:
• Email the contact (copyright owner), explain that you intend to use their copyrighted
content for an assignment, lesson, or project for “criticism, comment, news reporting,

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teaching, (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” and
obtain permission to use the content specified;
• If you are using an unpublished work obtain permission from the creator, Fair use does
not apply to unpublished works. Copyright law states that unpublished works do not fall
within the fair use defense;
• Use the least amount of content, for a specifically identifiable purpose, and cite the
content correctly when obtaining that content from a copyrighted work;
• Make certain there will be absolutely no economic gain for your use of the content you
obtain from the copyrighted work and cite it correctly;
• Use facts when composing your content. Facts can be used without copyright violation
risk because facts are not protected (Copyright, 17 U.S.C. § 107).

PRIVACY & SECURITY
Common Sense Education (n.d.) explains the importance of adults (teachers, parents, and
school stakeholders) and students, participating in online instruction, to know whom they can
trust and interact with while online. All individuals must be aware of what information,
especially personal information, is being captured, store, retained, shared, and utilized, with and
without legal permission. There may be filters, security programs, and privacy settings the assist
with blocking risk issues, but they do not eliminate all risks. Due to the world-wide accessibility
potential of the online setting, students should learn how and be required to create strong
passwords, demonstrate responsible digital citizenship and protect their private information.
Starting in elementary school, students must be taught, at school and home, how to evaluate at a
website's privacy policy with their families, no how to obtain safety and suitability of website for

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children and youth, and obtain adult caregiver permission before creating accounts or
downloading files. Youth must be taught to learn and utilize step by step methods for identifying
scams, limiting the information given to online companies, evaluating and reviewing apps and
websites with adult caregiver prior to accessing and downloading. Privacy and security requires
that adults and students implement strategies essential to practice Internet privacy and safety,
good digital citizenship behaviors at all times.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA is legislative requirement
designed to assist schools and educational service providers to implement useful privacy and
security measures. The Act took effect in April 2000. The primary goal of COPPA, according to
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is to place the control of sharing data from students under
age 13 in the hands of their parents.
Following are six guidelines that operators of commercial websites, including online
education platforms, should follow to protect the privacy of all users (administration, faculty,
staff, students, parents and related stakeholders. Following is a list of guidelines designed to
protect the privacy, safety, and security of online education program website and virtual
platforms including procedures to adhere to COPPA compliance requirements:
Privacy & Security Guidelines for Online Education Programs
Guideline One
Considerations for ensuring third-party web resources compliance
Ensure that third-party web resources post a clear and detailed privacy policy that states
the names and addresses of the website operators, the type of information collected from

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children, the way such information will be used, and an indication of whether the information
collected is disclosed to other parties.

Ensure that a link to the third-party privacy policy is posted in a visible place on every
page where personal information is collected, and it should clearly imply that the use of the site
is conditioned upon the acceptance of the privacy policy (Common Sense Education, n.d.;
COPPA, 2000, Education World, 2010).

Guideline Two
Evaluation and certification of online education program’s current policies and
resources to ensure compliance with local, state, federal, and COPPA privacy and security.
• Online educators review and understand the definition of privacy as follows: “[Privacy]:
the collective understanding of a social situation's boundaries and how to operate within
those boundaries to ensure educator and online education program control over every student
online experience;
• Understand and apply guidance for monitoring and supporting students during online
experience;
• Know, adhere to, and update, when necessary, media use policies;
• Develop, educate, adhere to, and when necessary, update digital media code of conduct;
• Develop, educate, adhere to, and when necessary, update rules regarding
student engagement (Common Sense Education, n.d.; COPPA, 2000, Educatioon World,
2010).

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Guideline Three
Evaluate, re-evaluate and conduct a security audit before making content available to
students participating within the online setting
• Be thoughtful about social boundaries in the digital world;
• Have plan for monitoring and supervising students;
• Educate and monitor students to respect policies, procedures and boundaries;
• Monitor and frequently change and update privacy settings on chat, email, and
assignment digital platforms;
• Control the audience for what you or your students share online (Common Sense
Education, n.d.; COPPA, 2000, Education World, 2010).

Guideline Four
Establish procedures to ensure online user (especially students) privacy is protected before

making recordings of a classroom or lesson available to students or parents.
In the online setting, policies and procedures must exist and be followed when evaluating and

approving students’ and parents’ access to online and virtual recordings. Security protocols and
restricted access must be required to students and parents’ access to a specific recording and only
for classes and content the student is authorized to view (Common Sense Education, n.d.;
COPPA, 2000, Educational Technology Team, n.d.; Education World, 2010).

Guideline Five
Due to the online, world-wide web pathway as the only means of access to the online
education platform, safeguards must be maintained to ensure that students’ privacy is protected

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• Written contract or legal agreement;
• Clarify whether the data collected belongs to the school/district or the provider
• Describe each party’s responsibilities in the event of a data breach
• Specify the information to be collected (e.g., forms, logs, cookies, tracking pixels, etc.).
• Specify the purposes for which the provider may use student information, and bind the
provider to only those approved uses (Common Sense Education, n.d.; COPPA, 2000,
Educational Technology Team, n.d.: Education World, 2010).

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References
Common Sense Education (n.d.), Privacy & Security, Common Sense Media, San Francisco,

CA. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-
citizenship/privacy-and-security
COPPA, Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule. ("COPPA"). Retrieved from
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-
proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule
Educational Technology Team (n.d.) Copyright & Fair Use, Houston ISD
https://www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/TX01001591/Centricity/domain/16245/finding%20
publisher%20content/pss/Module%205%20Copy%20Right.html
Educational Technology Team (n.d.). Social Media, COPPA, FERPA, & CIPA, Houston ISD
https://www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/TX01001591/Centricity/domain/16245/finding%20
publisher%20content/pss/Module%206%20Social%20Media.html
Education World (2010) Copyrights and Copying Wrongs, Part 1 of a Series on Copyright and
Fair Use https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280a.shtml
Education World (2010) Copyright Law and New Technologies, Colchester, CT
https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280c.shtml
Epic, (n.d.). Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Electronic Privacy Information
enter Epic.org, https://epic.org/privacy/kids/#Act KQED Teach, (n.d.) Media Academy f
or Educators. https://teach.kqed.org/course/safety-and-privacy-in-participatory-culture
Purdue Online Writing Lab (n.d.). Strategies for Fair Use. Purdue University. Purdue, Il.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/using_research/strategies_for_fair_ u
se.html

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