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Distance Learning | School of Professional Studies | Northwestern University

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There is a wide variety of resources available for use in an online course. Textbooks, ebooks, journal articles, book chapters, videos, podcasts, interactive graphics, and so much more can all be used, and selecting the best ones can be daunting. These guides will help instructors navigate some of the trickier processes of finding resources for their online course.

Content Page or Document?

Many resources appear in the form of documents: Word files, PDFs, PowerPoint decks, and so on. But sometimes it's better to take the content from those documents and make them into a content page in the course. This guide will help you assess which option is best.
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Course Resources and Copyright

Copyright is a complex field, especially for educators. Content is easily available online, but what can and can't be included in a course site? This guide helps weed through the more challenging aspects of copyright to determine what materials can be reproduced and used in a course.
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How to request readings for your online course

The Northwestern Library is a rich resource of materials, and with eReserves, virtually anything in the library collection can be included in a course. This guide explains the different types of materials and how to request them for a course site.
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Library Media

In addition to books, journals, and other texts, the Northwestern Library offers streaming media services. This allows instructors to include full films or audio recordings in their online course sites. This guide introduces this process for instructors who want to take advantage of these resources.
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