Reflections on copyright in a time of crisis at the ALT Summer Summit

With the weather having turned it may seem like summer is becoming a distant memory, but back in August we were fortunate enough to take part in the ALT Summer Summit and host an online workshop on copyright at a time of pandemic. This was an opportunity to share with the wider learning technology community the work we’ve been involved with since the beginning of the pandemic in addressing copyright issues in online learning. The recording is now on You Tube.
We were joined by an expert panel, (Listen to our panel members share their reflections from 35 minutes into the discussion) comprising:

• James Bennett, Head of Rights and Licensing CLA
• Dr Emily Hudson, Reader in Law King’s College London
• Martin Hawksey, Association for Learning Technology
• Lisa Moore, Copyright Officer University of the Creative Arts

The session was an opportunity for us to reflect with our panel guests on the challenges of working with copyright at a time of pandemic and what we had learned. We were really pleased with the interactions and feedback we got from those who attended the session. If you are interested in this part of the discussion it starts 31 minutes into the recording, but just a few final reflections from us: 

• We wondered if it’s too soon to reflect on a crisis while we are still living through it, but it’s clear that copyright plays an important role in helping or hindering us provide access to content needed for online learning. 
• We think the webinars have played an important role curating content for the community. We have shared news about topical issues related to copyright and licensing, at a time when people are easily overwhelmed by information. 
• The webinars have also allowed us to do something we wanted to do for a long time, it is a bit like hosting a chat show where we can bring the community together to try and solve problems. However we have recognised that you can’t always find solutions easily to tricky copyright issues and we can’t do it all on our own. 
• So our final reflection was about sustainability and the need to expand the community. We think this shows there is a strong desire to think creatively about copyright literacy in the learning technology community which suggests the Copyright and Online Learning (CoOL) special interest group we are setting up with ALT will have broad appeal.