The first thing you have to realise is that no matter what you do, if
someone is really determined to purloin your hard-done work off a website,
they will be able to... the only real safeguard you have is not to put it
there at all!

Even a PDF is not secure (I can think of a couple of ways of extracting the
information without even resorting to the full Acrobat creation program!),
and as you say it is not readily accessible for those using screen readers.
I find them quite horrible to read off a screen anyway, it's a print format.
But I digress...

Given that, I would recommend that you put together a copyright statement
laying out precisely what you are and are not prepared to permit people to
do with your work. Look around a few websites and you will find examples -
some people say that you may only use material yourself, or for
non-commercial ends, or not at all: or they say that if you want to use it
you have to go and ask them first. Scrupulous folks will respect this and
abide by your requests. The rest will pinch it whatever you do or say!

Put your copyright statement on EVERY page to which it applies... some of us
might think you are being a bit 'anal' about it, but it should ram the point
home to anyone contemplating (mis)using your work. Oh yes, remember to put
your name and the date you created the page on each one as well.

If your work is going to remain on the web, it ought to get picked up by the
'plagiarism' services that are now being developed; these sweep the 'Web to
pick out possible examples of theft by matching content. So someone else
using your work unattributed in an academic context MIGHT be caught.

After all, if you publish in a more conventional paper medium, what's to
stop some rogue laboriously copying out what you have said and reproducing
it in their own work?

Megan.
ILT Champion, City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College.

-----Original Message-----
From: Zoe Toft
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 09/05/03 13:43
Subject: Creating Accessible yet non alterable web based material

Dear All,

My query only relates indirectly to VLEs so my apologies for posting
here,
but I'm not sure where else to ask this question of mine:

I am about to present a case study of a VLE pilot I ran during the
spring
term. As well as an oral presentation, I have created a small web page
with
useful links etc. On this web page I wish to post the full contents of
the
(anonymous) student evaluation that was carried out for the VLE. I have
permission from my students to do this. My problem, however, lies is the
fact that, in line with good practise I wish to make sure my web page is
accessible but at the same time, the content of the page should be such
that
it cannot be downloaded and altered by people with suspect motives: my
line
manager is concerned that e.g. someone could use the evaluation comments
for
their own portfolios, altering them and then passing them off as their
own.
To this end, she suggested I used pdf, but I am unhappy with this, as,
to
the best of my knowledge (and I'm a relative newcomer to all this) pdf
is
not accessible (e.g. screen readers have problems with it). Can anyone
suggest a solution to this situation? I am not in a situation where I
can
buy any commercial software.

With thanks (and thanks too to those of you who pointed me towards an
explanation of IMS compliant material)

Zoe

Zoe Toft
Room 368
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
+44 (0)20 7898 4318

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To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with the message: leave vle