Course Materials

All course materials are already loaded into Aspen’s learning management system, the Brightspace/Desire2Learn (D2L) platform. As mentioned earlier, Aspen faculty who are subject matter experts create the curriculum that all the faculty teach in the program. The Curriculum Department facilitates the management of the processes related to guiding the schools and faculty as they design their curriculum to meet the needs of their students and programs. The curriculum has been aligned to predetermined goals for the university and the respective degree program. Faculty can add supplemental materials, like videos, websites, and articles, but they should not remove anything since this could disrupt the larger assessment plan and curriculum map associated with that particular course.

For textbooks, many texts are available in the VitalSource website as e-texts. Faculty are expected to set-up a VitalSource account by going to educators. Faculty are required to use the e-text when available in VitalSource. However, not all textbooks are available in VitalSource so when the e-text is not available, the faculty member should contact facultyservices@aspen.edu to request an alternative option. It is recommended that faculty create their account as soon as they receive the directions attached in their welcome onboarding email as it will expedite requests for textbooks on VitalSource.

Fair Use: Because Aspen University is a for-profit entity, we are not protected by the Fair Use in Education court decisions. For that reason, we cannot direct students to view copyrighted material without first seeking permission from the copyright holder.

The court decisions have generally held that “educational purposes” are:

- noncommercial instruction or curriculum-based teaching by educators to students at nonprofit educational institutions

- planned noncommercial study or investigation directed toward making a contribution to a field of knowledge, or

- presentation of research findings at noncommercial peer conferences, workshops, or seminars.

Email acknowledgement by the copyright holder is sufficient to show their approval for use. Most commonly, they only ask for proper attribution for the use. Provide the email approval to the Dean of the school for which the course is taught. Faculty, staff and students are responsible for seeking guidance and complying with the law. Please confer with the University Librarian if you have any questions regarding this policy or review their tutorials in the Library, which is in every class.

Members of the Aspen University community who willfully disregard this policy do so at their own risk and assume any liability, which may include criminal, and/or civil penalties.

BACK