Can I use examples of Student work in future classes?
Answer
The first thing to remember is that the student retains copyright ownership in all their work unless that work was completed as part of their employment, in which case the employer typically owns the copyright. The long and the short of it means that you will require permission to use their work.
We have a permission form which we suggest you hand out to all your students. It is available in PDF on the Copyright Services webpage as appendix C “Student Course Work License Form”. Edit it to reflect your particular requirements and hand it out for your students to sign and keep the signed copies for future use. If the students are no longer at the College you can try and track them down and request permission in writing (whether that’s a modified License Form” or simply an email conversation). Please keep records especially if you are plainning on using the work in a non educational or promotional capacity.
And although one of our many mantras is “always remember to cite your sources” we ask that you think of your students’ privacy, and feelings. So in this instance please use your best judgment. If you are using a student's work in a brochure for the College please site them, if you are using examples of poor sentence structure it may be best to simply state that it's a student's work and leave any identifying features out of it.
