Instructors are finding that their teaching materials such as lecture slides, lecture notes, course outlines, assignments and quizzes are being posted to commercial tutoring websites such as Course Hero, Chegg, StuDocu and others. These sites encourage students to post materials for others to study from. While students are only supposed to post material that they have created or which they have permission to share, in some cases students post an instructor's material without permission; this is copyright infringement.

Generally, MRU instructors own the copyright in their teaching materials, and students must not post these materials online without the instructor’s permission. However, students own the copyright in notes they take during class, their own assignments and all other coursework they create and they are free to share these materials.

You can only submit a takedown request for material you created. Students can generally download, print, and use these materials for their personal educational use. However, students do not have the right to share these materials with other people or distribute them online without your permission.

Takedown request service

The Copyright Office can assist you in contacting these websites to request that your material be removed. Use this form to request this service. You will be asked to provide information including the course(s) the material relates to and the website(s) where you have found your material posted. The Copyright Office will submit a takedown request to the site(s) on your behalf, and notify you when the material has been removed.

Take steps to prevent your work from being uploaded to these sites:

• Inform students of your rights and their responsibilities with the Sample copyright statement for your course syllabus.
• Include a copyright statement on your slides, assignments and other teaching materials, especially if you are posting them in D2L or distributing them to students:
  • This can be as simple as "© YYYY Instructor Name. This content may not be shared, uploaded or distributed." Include this statement in the header or footer so it appears on every page, or at the bottom of every slide.
  • You can also use a more detailed statement such as "© YYYY Instructor Name. These course materials are designed for use in [course name and number] at Mount Royal University and are the intellectual property of the instructor unless otherwise stated. Except as permitted by Canada's Copyright Act, you may not distribute this work outside this course without the instructor's permission." This longer statement only needs to be included on the first page or slide.
• Reduce access to course content in D2L “Lock down” the course by setting a course end date to block student access after the course has ended
• Unpublish individual files after the course has ended so they are no longer available to students.

Further assistance

For questions about the takedown service, contact the Copyright Advisor at mrucopyright@mtroyal.ca.

For further assistance with academic misconduct issues, including case consultations, guidance on policy and procedure, and more, contact the Office of Student Community Standards at studentcommunitystandards@mtroyal.ca.