February 2024 Tuesday Tips

6th February 2024

Tuesday Teaching Tip: Understanding Fair Use

This tip is brought to you by librarian Patrick Newell.

In our work and studies, most of us realize that most of the content we use is digital (or gets digitized) content. For many of us who teach, as we build our classes online, we realize how much we rely on outside material for our courses. Outside of work, we share photos, videos, remixed music, and memes (both those we created as well as those found online) via text, email, web pages, and social media. A lot of our work, scholarship, teaching, and personal lives that take place online involve using materials created by other people (or companies) and sharing these materials with others.

When preparing for classes, faculty constantly make decisions about materials regarding what documents we post online, what videos (and how much) we can show in an online class, and what materials we distribute in a classroom, and each of these decisions involve copyright law. While copyright law provides copyright holders exclusive rights, it also provides a number of exceptions to these rights, including the legal right of fair use. Fair use is an essential limitation and exception to copyright, allowing the use of copyrighted materials without permission from the copyright holder under certain circumstances.

To help educate the campus community about fair use, Meriam Library joins libraries worldwide celebrating Fair Use Week (February 26-March 1, 2024) and have created some fun opportunities to learn more about copyright and how it applies to the materials we use online (and offline) daily. While fair use (and fair dealing outside of the U.S.) is employed daily by students, faculty, librarians, journalists, and all users of copyrighted material, Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week is a time to promote and discuss the opportunities presented, celebrate successful stories, and explain the doctrine.

Please consider attending one of these events to Celebrate Fair Use Week with us.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024 – 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Online Meeting – 90 minutes
Fair Use Boot Camp: How to Document Your Fair Use Argument
Please register at https://forms.gle/Jg891GrYQJREtxBo7 (opens in new window)

This workshop is focused on faculty and students who use copyrighted materials. The first 60 minutes of this workshop will provide an overview of copyright law, the public domain, authors/creators- and copyright holders-rights (and exceptions to those rights), and how to document a Fair Use argument; the final 30 minutes of the workshop will include discussing the concerns attendees bring to the class and documenting their Fair Use arguments. This online workshop will not be recorded to allow those attending to openly discuss their copyright issues.

Thursday, February 29, 2024 – 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; Online Meeting – 120 minutes
Fair Use Study Hall [Non-Drowsy Formula]
Please register at https://forms.gle/uAiXL9vp4QyL18y58 (opens in new window)

In this two-hour workshop, we will cover the same material from the Fair Use Boot Camp (above), but at a slower pace and with additional time for group work to resolve questions that arise from members of the class. This workshop will not be recorded to allow students to openly discuss their copyright issues.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.; Meriam Library’s Innovation Lab
“Seems Fair To Me” – A Copyright Game Show

Cheer on (or shout advice from the audience to) the campus community’s mystery contestants as they answer questions about Fair Use from recent legal cases. This workshop will not be recorded to protect the dignity of all involved. 05 Please consider joining us for one of these educational opportunities. We’ve attempted to make them engaging and interesting. You be the judge!

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

13th February 2024

Tuesday Teaching Tip: Help Promote Civic Engagement Ahead of the March 5th Primary!

Sent on behalf of Dr. Amy Magnus, Director of Civic Engagement (ammagnus@csuchico.edu)

The upcoming California primary is on Tuesday, March 5, 2024! Now is an important time to promote civic engagement on our campus!

Connect Civic Engagement to Your Own Disciplines and Classes 
Voting and other forms of civic engagement are cross-disciplinary! All of us are impacted by our elected leaders and issues on the ballot. As faculty, we can help students understand the impact of the election on the industries and careers they want to pursue. In this way, specific examples can help students feel connected to the upcoming election cycle (and civic engagement, more generally). 

Please Keep Equity and Inclusion in Mind as Election Season Approaches 
Please be mindful that not all members of our campus community are eligible to vote for a variety of reasons. It is imperative that we use inclusive language and practices when promoting elections and civic engagement activities. Promote civic engagement broadly; please do not assign points or extra credit for voting or performing other specific forms of civic engagement that are not accessible to all students. Please do not ask students about their voter eligibility status. If you have questions about ways to equitably encourage civic engagement, please contact Amy Magnus (ammagnus@csuchico.edu).

Please see below for relevant election-related information you can use and/or circulate to your students throughout the next several weeks:

• Ballots are already on their way to registered voters. Anyone can track their ballot using BallotTrax(opens in new window).
• Access the California’s Official Voter Information Guide(opens in new window).
• Register to vote(opens in new window) no later than Tuesday, February 20, 2024.
• Learn more about same-day voter registration / conditional voter registration(opens in new window).
• Voters can return their completed ballot via U.S. mail, Voter Assistance Center, or at any secure ballot drop box(opens in new window):  
  • If you choose to return your completed ballot by mail (no postage required), ensure your ballot is mailed/postmarked on or before Tuesday, March 5 (Election Day).
  • Chico State will have a 4-day Voter Assistance Center (VAC)(opens in new window) on campus from Saturday, March 2 – Tuesday, March 5.
    • Location: BMU 203
    • Hours of operation:
      • March 2 – March 4, 9am – 5pm
      • March 5, 7am – 8pm
  • Chico State also has a secure ballot drop box located on campus.
    • Location: Outside of the BMU on W. 2^nd and Chestnut
    • Available Monday, February 5 – Monday, March 4
      • 24 hours a day
    • Available Tuesday, March 5 (Election Day)
      • Closes at 8pm

Amy M. Magnus, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, California State University, Chico
Director of Civic Engagement, California State University, Chico

We acknowledge and are mindful that Chico State stands on lands that were originally occupied by the first people of this area, the Mechoopda, and we recognize their distinctive spiritual relationship with this land, the flora, the fauna, and the waters that run through campus. We are humbled that our campus resides upon sacred lands that since time immemorial have sustained the Mechoopda people and continue to do so today. 

Finally a pair of reminders from FDEV. Applications(opens in new window) to the equity minded pedagogy FLC run by the Chancellor’s Office are due on 2/21. Lastly, just a reminder that we have an institutional membership to the NCFDD which allows you to access their resources at no charge. 

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

20th February 2024

Tuesday Teaching Tip: Small Changes: Big Results

We are a month into Spring and the time for adjustments or changes may seem to have passed. It is not too late to make a small change that could make a big difference for your students. I often return to the Small Change Series(opens in new window) from James Lang during these moments because it is such a pragmatic guide to making adjustments during the semester (you only need a free Chronicle account to access these). In this tip I want to recommend an excerpt from his short essay on the last five minutes of class(opens in new window) (library link(opens in new window)) where instead of cramming in another example or theory you could try out a connection exercise. 

Closing connections. If we want students to obtain mastery and expertise in our subjects, they need to be capable of making their own connections(opens in new window) between what they are learning and the world around them — current events, campus debates, personal experiences. The last five minutes of class represent an ideal opportunity for students to use the course material from that day and brainstorm some new connections.

Finish the last class of the week five minutes early, and tell students that they can leave when they have identified five ways in which the day’s material appears in contexts outside of the classroom. You’ll be amazed at how quickly they can come up with examples when this activity stands between them and the dining hall.

I liked this suggestion because it promotes student activity and a solution to something we sometimes struggle with–helping students see themselves in the work we are doing. 

Finally, just a reminder that we are still soliciting feedback on our summer programming through tonight at 11:59pm. Please help us better understand your needs by filling out this brief survey(opens in new window).

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

27th February 2024

Tuesday Teaching Tip: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants 

Faculty Development is here for you with programming, workshops, stunning insights (okay, not so much on that one, but once in a while), and today with direct professional development funding. We are thrilled to offer faculty the opportunity to apply for a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant. Most of the time this takes the form of conference travel or a material purchase related to teaching and learning. Developing a track for my research involving teaching and learning has been essential to my own development as a professor and has made me a better teacher.

We are offering funding of up to $1,000 per person and we will support as many folks as we can. The money will be transferred to your home department and must be spent or encumbered by June 30th, which is the end of the fiscal year. Please work with your chair and administrative support team. Unfortunately, we are not able to cover expenses that have already been processed. To apply, fill out the Google application form(opens in new window) by March 5th at 11:59 p.m. You need to be logged into Google for this particular form to process. We know this is a tight turnaround, but we want to give folks as much time as we can to spend the funding.

Finally, a brief reminder that we are offering a beginners guide to AI workshop on March 8th from 12-1:30 p.m. in MLIB 045 and on Zoom(opens in new window).

If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.