Materials & OER
Course Certification Checklist
Course materials are addressed by Standards 13 and 19 on the Course Certification Checklist.
Standard 13 states, “Both the purpose of the instructional materials and how the materials are to be used for learning activities are clearly explained.”
Standard 19 states, “The course provides alternative means of access to course materials in formats that meet the needs of diverse learners.”
Course materials include textbooks, multimedia, journal articles, and websites.The UMKC Libraries provides access to two million licensed online resources including research databases, eBooks, films, and images.

In an effort to a more engaging learning experience for students, faculty should strive to use a variety of instructional materials, including instructor-created content (e.g. Panopto videos, PowerPoint slides, or Word documents). By including a variety of instructional materials and alternative means to access those materials, instructors meet the needs of diverse learners.

All course materials must align and contribute to the completion of your learning objectives and assessments.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning tools that exist in the public domain or released with intellectual property licenses (usually Creative Commons) allowing their free use, continuous improvement, and modification by others. For additional information and to locate OERs, visit the UMKC Research Guide.

The Canvas Commons serves as another source for OER materials. The content stored in the Canvas Commons is generated by Canvas users across multiple education institutions using Canvas. Within the Canvas Commons, instructors may locate educational content to import directly into a Canvas course. Instructors may also contribute to the Canvas Commons by sharing their content.

The instructional materials provided to students can be from a variety of sources, but instructors must be aware of appropriate usage according to the copyright of the material. Instructors are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the UMKC Libraries’ Copyright Resource page.

Instructors may also want to review aspects of Fair Use as it relates to their instructional materials.

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Workshops and Training

The Instructional Design and Technology team offers free online and face-to-face trainings focused on technology implementation and quality course design. Check out our frequently updated training calendar to view all current offerings. Want to request a departmental or one-on-one course consultation? Please schedule an appointment now!

Instructional Technology Support

UMKC uses a variety of e-learning tools including the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), Panopto for lecture capture, Zoom for synchronous course sessions and meetings, and many more. Learn more about the unique features of these tools and discover how to implement them in your own course.

Course Certification Checklist

Instructors may request for the Quality Matters certified UMKC Instructional Designers to conduct a review of their online course using the Course Certification Checklist. Courses meeting each element of the Certification Checklist will be certified for online instruction at UMKC.

Office of the Provost

Administrative Center, Room 300G
5115 Oak St.
Kansas  City, MO 64110