News & Blog

Want to build library instruction into your online course?  The UCF Libraries have you covered! One of the easiest ways to help your students build skills related to citing sources, avoiding plagiarism, or researching topics with library resources is to integrate the library’s Obojobo Info Lit tutorials into your canvas course. 

Each tutorial takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete and allows instructors to import assessment scores directly into their Canvas gradebook.  There are twelve different modules to choose from that cover everything from the mechanics of integrating secondary sources into academic writing to evaluating sources.  For information on how to integrate the modules into your course check out our Quick Start Guide.   

If you have question or there are topics you would like covered that are not currently available, email Christina Wray at christina.wray@ucf.edu

Summer is nearly here! As faculty work to develop online courses for the summer semester, questions may arise about copyright and fair use. Common questions about online classes and copyright include:

• Can I scan a book chapter and post it in Canvas?
• Am I allowed to add a PDF journal article to Canvas that I downloaded from UCF Libraries?
• Can I link to a YouTube video?

Whether you have a question about journal articles, e-books, or streaming video, UCF Libraries is available to assist you with any copyright, fair use, or licensing questions that you have.

The Office of Scholarly Communication offers a variety of resources and services to help you navigate the complexities of copyright in your online courses. Visit the website for more information about copyright: https://library.ucf.edu/about/departments/scholarly-communication/

If you have questions about copyright and fair use for your summer courses visit UCF Libraries Guide on Academic Resources during COVID-19 Situation: https://guides.ucf.edu/covid/home. It provides excellent resources and copyright clarifications to aid you in this process.

If you have additional questions, Scholarly Communication Librarian, Sarah Norris, is available to provide general guidance to faculty and staff about copyright and transitioning their classes online. For the month of May, Sarah is providing online office hours, Tuesday & Thursday, 11:30 a.m. – Noon. You can also reach her through email or phone.

Did you know UCF Libraries has streaming video options that are searchable through our catalog?

We do! Alexander Street Press, Films on Demand, and Kanopy films are all searchable through the UCF Libraries’ catalog and can be used for online courses (or just for fun).

Alexander Street Press contains more than 80 collections filled with videos, audio tracks and playlists. The collections range from literature, black history, psychological counseling and therapy to religion, sociology and medicine. Entire films can be embedded in courses or only relevant segments. The full Alexander Street Pres video catalog search will require a UCF or OpenAthens login.

Films on Demand is a great resource that includes documentaries, TEDTalks, and even a playlist of Ken Burns series including Vietnam. Entire films can be embedded in courses or only relevant segments. The full Films on Demand catalog search will require a UCF or OpenAthens login.

Kanopy films are paid for by UCF on an on-demand, per-title basis so the selection is somewhat limited, but it includes popular films and a wide range of documentaries. Examples are Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, The Mask You Live In, Awake a Dream of Standing Rock, and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.

Please consult your subject librarian for any of these films to verify expiration dates. If you do not know your subject librarian, their contact information can be found through our subject specific list.

Streaming videos are a great way to add engaging content to online courses in a broad range of fields beyond film studies. Everyone from Sociology and LGTBQIA+ Studies to Environmental Studies and Mental Health Counseling can benefit. Luckily, UCF Libraries has many options for you. Today we are featuring Swank Digital Campus.

Swank Digital Campus offers many popular films and current releases as well as HBO documentaries and TV series for use in online courses. UCF currently has 143 Swank films licensed for use including recent releases like Bombshell (2019) and The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) to classics such as Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Greed (1924). Links for these films can be sent the same business day as the request.

If none of those great films fits your course, you can search the full Swank catalog for specific films or browse by discipline. New film requests generally have a 24-48 hour turn around time. Please note that some films and TV shows are listed as needing “additional fees & time.” These requests need special permissions for the extra cost and have a turn around time of 4-6 weeks.  

If you see anything you like, submit a request through the form on our guide.

Are you transitioning your quantitative methods or data analytics modules to a 100% remote environment, and looking for ways to incorporate some real-world data?  You may wish to consider the data and teaching resources available through IPUMS: these video tutorials, introductory webinars, and hands-on exercises are great for use with R, SAS, Stata and SPSS statistical software (as well as Excel).

Additionally, instructors who have registered with IPUMS can also create a classroom account that makes their students’ registration process far more streamlined. 

ABOUT IPUMS:

IPUMS provides government census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. Their data encompasses a broad variety of fields (global health, demographics, education, GIS, environment, time use, etc.) describing over 1.4 billion individuals.

IPUMS is a part of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation at the University of Minnesota