Legal Issues in Teaching

 

Accessibility | Cheating and Plagiarism | Copyright | FERPA

Accessibility

The Law

• Department of Justice - Section 508 Home Page - Section 508 is part of the Americans with Disablities Act
• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 - Guidelines suggested by the World Wide Web Consortium
• Illinois Web Accessibility Standards - Administrative Order directing Illinois agencies to "utilize the Illinois Web Accessibility Standards for the development of web sites, intranets, and web-based applications

Getting Help Making Your Pages Accessible

• Office for Students with Disabilities at the College of Lake County - Accessiblity help from the College of Lake County
• Illinois Center for Instructional Technology Accessibility - Accessiblity help site from the University of Illinois
• Getting Started: Making a Web Site Accessible - Accessiblity help site from the W3C
• WebAIM - Web Accessiblity in Mind - Project run by Utah State University
• Computing @UW-Madison - Accessiblity help from the University of Wisconsin

Checking Your Web Pages for Accessiblity

• A-Prompt - Downloadable program from the University of Toronto that checks the accessiblity of web pages
• Bobby - Free web portal that will check the accessiblity of a web page

Other Resouces

• Dragon Naturally Speaking - Software that converts your voice into text.
• TextAloud MP3 - Software that comverts text to the spoken word
• Media Access Generator - Software use in captioning video.

If you have Problems, Questions, or Concerns about accessibility you can contact Russ Pearson

 

Cheating and Plagiarism

Students at the College of Lake County are expected to be honest in their academic endeavors.  All acts or attempted acts of alleged academic dishonesty should be reported to the Division Dean or Director or, when deemed valid, be reported to the Vice President for Student Development for disposition under the Student Rights and Responsibilities Policy.

Faculty Guidelines for Encouraging Academic Honesty

--Located on CLC's Intranet, this document covers our Academic Integrity Standards, including Due Process, Communicating with Students about Cheating/Plagiarism, Avoiding Cheating During Tests, Preventing and Combating Plagiarism, Steps to Follow When You Suspect a Student has Cheated, and a Categorical Classification for Academic Dishonesty.  If you have additional questions related to Academic Dishonesty, contact Student Development at x2048. 

Definitions

• Cheating - intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids or an act of deceit by which a student attempts to misrepresent academic skills or knowledge; unauthorized copying.
• Fabrication - intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation such as falsifying research, inventing or exaggerating data, or listing incorrect or fictitious references.
• Academic Dishonesty - intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to violate college policies, such as tampering with grades, misrepresenting one's identity, or taking part in obtaining or distributing any part of a test or any information about the test.
• Plagiarism - the deliberate adoption or reproduction of ideas, words, phrases, statistics from books, journals, or the Internet, or statements of another person as one's own without appropriate acknowledgment, such as copying another's work, buying a paper from another student or other source, presenting someone else's opinions and theories as one's own, fabricating sources to cover up plagiarism, or working jointly on a project then submitting it as one's own.
• Unauthorized Collaboration - intentionally assisting another to commit an act of academic dishonesty, such as paying or bribing someone to acquire a test or assignment, taking a test or doing an assignment for someone else, or allowing someone to do these things for one's own benefit.

Links

• Teachopolis:  A compilation by a faculty member of ways students cheat (gathered through cheating websites)
• Anti-Plagiarism strategies:  Includes strategies of awareness, strategies of prevention, and strategies of detection. 
• Education World-Cheating in the Classroom:  How to Prevent It (and How to Handle it if it Happens). 
• Handling Academic Dishonesty (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)
• "22 Ways to Handle Technology-Enhanced Cheating." Teaching, Learning, and Technology at SUNY. June 28, 2004. State University of New York.
• Bill Taylor: "Academic Integrity: A Letter To My Students"

If you have Problems, Questions, or Concerns about plagiarism you can contact Page Wolf

 

Copyright Information

About Copyright

• Copyright and Art Issues - A look at copyright with a gearing towards art.
• Copyright Overview from Cornell University - A somewhat concise overview and explanation of copyright law.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation - An archive of articles and papers pertaining to intellectual property and copyright.
• Copyright, Intellectual Property Rights, and Licensing Issues - Links to articles and other copyright resources.
• Consortium of College and University Media Centers - Fair use guidelines for educational multimedia.
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Official website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• U.S. Copyright Office - Official website of the U.S. Copyright Office.
• ARL's Copyright Information Site - Links, news, and articles about copyright.
• Stanford's Copyright and Fair Use site - Current Legislation, original law documents, interpretations, and news.
• Software Publisher's Association - Information geared at computer software piracy and intellectual property.
• Cyberspace Law Institute - Papers and interactive forms pertaining to cyberspace laws.
• Copyright Management Center - Information about copyright and fair use issues - contains fair use checklist.

Obtaining Copyright and Copyright Permission

• Copyright Website - Information about copyright, services for aquiring copyright.
• Movie Licensing, USA - Licensing services for public schools and libraries.
• Copyright.com - Permission, author and licensee services.
• When Works Pass into Public Domain - A table of when works no longer have restrictions.
• Dissertation Services - Archive of theses, services to acquire copyright.

Teaching About Copyright

• Copyright Myths Explained - 10 copyright myths dispelled.
• Copyright Timeline - A history of copyright in the U.S.
• WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization.

For more information on copyright at CLC please see Board Policy 964.

If you have Problems, Questions, or Concerns about Copyright you can contact Connie Bakker

 

FERPA

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

• College of Lake County Self Paced FERPA Training - The College of Lake County is legally obligated to protect the privacy of its students.

If you have Problems, Questions, or Concerns about FERPA you can contact the following people:

• For Financial Aid questions contact: Patricia Williamson, Director of Financial Aid
• For Student Records contact: Karen Hlavin, Assistant Vice President, Student Development
• Office of Educational Affairs: Ali O'Brien, Assistant Director Educational Affairs Operations

 

 

ALERT:
This website provides legal information for the staff at the College of Lake County ; it does not provide legal advice.
Legal advice is tailored to the facts of your particular situation.
Only an attorney can provide legal advice.