Your students gain access to your course 7 days before the course start date. Access to Cap II courses will also be 7 days before the course start date.
Library Services Coordinator Alyson Koenig will be holding space for drop-in library support on the following days from 1:30–2:30pm:
No question is too small—if you need help finding a resource, adding a resource to your course, or want help copying Information Literacy & Research Skills modules into your course shell, drop in and we'll help you get it done.
You wouldn’t build a house without an architect—so why build a course without an instructional designer? We help turn your expertise into engaging, effective learning experiences.
Instructional design is the thoughtful and purposeful process of creating learning experiences that really work. It involves identifying learners' needs, designing and developing instructional materials, implementing them, and evaluating how well they support learning. It draws from education, psychology, and communication to support learning in classrooms, online spaces, and the workplace.
For faculty, instructional design provides a framework for enhancing teaching effectiveness and student engagement. Whether you are revising an existing course or building a new one, an instructional designer can help you clarify learning goals, align assessments and activities, and choose strategies that support diverse learners. With a focus on evidence-based practices, instructional design ensures that your time and expertise have the greatest possible impact on student learning. It is likely save you time, as well.
Instructional design also supports innovation. As teaching methods evolve and technologies continue to emerge, working with an instructional designer can help you explore new tools, develop creative activities, and structure meaningful learning experiences without adding unnecessary complexity.
If you'd like support refining your course, trying something new in the classroom, or rethinking the design of your learning experiences, we invite you to make an appointment with the instructional designers at CTRL!
On Friday, August 22nd, Carlow is upgrading to the "New Content Experience" in Brightspace. The New Content Experience features a new layout, so you'll likely notice that a few buttons have moved. It also means that new features will soon be available!
The new features Brightspace is working on include:
Some of these updates are still in progress. If you have any questions about the New Content Experience, reach out to us at ctrl@carlow.edu. We will cover all of this, and more, in the Brightspace sessions during our Lunch & Learn Fundamentals series!
Over the summer, the library made the decision to switch from using Niche Academy for Information Literacy modules to using Brightspace. With this change, faculty are easily able to copy over pre-made content into their Brightspace course shells and fit the content into their lesson plans.
Current modules include:
In addition to faculty and staff being able to use content from this course, students are able to self-enroll for the duration of their time at Carlow, making sure that they always have access to library instruction within the Brightspace platform.
To learn more about these new modules, check out our page on Library Tutorials. We'll cover all this—and more—during our session on AI & Information Literacy in September.
Using the Information Literacy & Research Skills course as a starting place, we are in the process of creating a Basics of Generative AI course in Brightspace that will be available for all faculty and staff, addressing concerns about how Generative AI works, ethical implications, and its role in Higher Education.
Stay tuned! We hope to roll this course out in October of this year.
Here are links to some of the most requested information related to teaching resources, including support materials for Brightspace, Panopto, TurnItIn, and more.
Brightspace, sometimes called CelticOnline, is Carlow's Learning Management System (LMS). Even if you are not teaching an online course, you can utilize Brightspace for face-to-face classes, taking advantage of it to organize course materials, track grades, and provide additional materials for your students all in one place.
Brightspace Login: Access Brightspace directly from this link.
Brightspace How-Tos: Visit our site full of helpful documents, videos, and links for Brightspace.
Creator Plus: The CTRL recently added content from Brightspace Creator Plus! Learn how to insert interact elements like notecards, change the layout of your course, and create practice exams and assignments.
Brightspace Support: Looking for more Brightspace support? Book an appointment with the CTRL, chat directly with Brightspace, or join the D2L/Brightspace community to easily find resources and join community discussions.
Record video and incorporate video assignments into your course.
Carlow University Panopto Site: This is where video content created by Carlow users are stored.
Panopto Resources: Find Carlow-specific Panopto resources as well as general resources created by Panopto. Includes video and text resources.
TurnItIn helps instructors manage assignment submissions while detecting and preventing plagiarism in students' essays and research papers.
TurnItIn Support: Use this link to find helpful documentation on how to add TurnItIn to an assignment in Brightspace
How can Grace Library support you and your students throughout the semester? This list provides just some of the many ways we partner with faculty to build library resources into course content.
Campus librarians are available to help locate resources appropriate for your course. Whether you are looking for articles to assign as readings or trying to decide on which databases to recommend to your students, we will help you find the right materials.
Using LibGuides, we will work with you to create Research Guides designed to provide students with curated information on how to best perform research on a specific course or topic. In these Research Guides, we can link directly to peer reviewed journals, books, databases, and websites best suited to your field or course content.
Curious about Open Educational Resources? Librarians can provide you with lists of OER publishers, directories, and platforms that you can use to locate these resources, as well as assist in the evaluation process.
Schedule a Library Instruction Consultation with a librarian. We will discuss your options when it comes to integrating library instruction into your course, either through an in-person or virtual course session or by embedding library tutorials into your course.
Grace Library has ready-to-go Information Literacy and Research Skills modules that can be integrated directly into your course content in Brightspace. The current list of modules are:
Each of these modules consists of short lessons designed to help students understand and navigate the research process with ease. Learn more here.
Copyright law applies to the use, performance, and display of copyrighted works. All members of the University community—faculty, staff, and students—are expected to obtain permission from copyright owners for uses protected by copyright law.
The Copyright Act of 1976 provides "authors [and creators] of original works protection for their intellectual property in any work exhibiting minimal creativity and fixed in a tangible mode of expression." Copyright protections cover published or unpublished intellectual property in all formats and media by authors, artists, composers, and creators.
Grace Library's Copyright Policy prohibits the following:
Learn more about the Library's Copyright Policy here.
The general rule is that copyrighted work may not be appropriated by others through duplication or dissemination without the creator's permission. There are exceptions to copyright restrictions that apply to academic institutions.
Grace Library supports the use of copyrighted work that falls under the fair use doctrine, which is codified in Section 107 of the Copyright Act. To qualify as fair use, the use of the copyrighted work must be used "for purposes such as criticism, comment...teaching, scholarship, or research," although this is not without limits.
For the use of copyrighted work to qualify as fair use, the following factors must be considered:
For more information, visit the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index.
When determining what falls under fair use, we (your friendly campus librarians) recommend using tools such as the ALA's Fair Use Evaluator and the ALA's Exceptions for Instructors in U.S. Copyright Law tool. While these evaluation tools do not provide legal advice, they can help faculty members better understand fair use and evaluate how they are using materials in their courses.
While Grace Library cannot give legal advice, we do recommend these best practices when it comes to integrating materials into your courses:
Instructional Designers and Librarians are happy to work with faculty in a variety of ways, either in person or virtually. Simply schedule an appointment using our Microsoft Bookings site for one of the following services:
We can also be reached by email at ctrl@carlow.edu or gracelibrary@carlow.edu.