Perceptions of Academic Staff toward Copyright of Educational Materials

Implementation of the effective copyright process in educational settings is the only way to sustain the development and distribution of the knowledge and preserve the creativity of the content developers. This paper outlines the knowledge and perceptions that academics have regarding copyright laws in relation to using external materials in the classroom. An online survey was distributed to gather data from 114 tertiary level academic staff employed at a Turkish state university. After introducing the theoretical background to the problem, this paper purports how the survey was carried out and then presents the data obtained. The results indicate that while most academics are aware of the existence of copyright laws, they do not possess a clear understanding on the legal applications in educational context. The study also revealed the need for educational institutions in Turkey to take the appropriate steps in providing adequate copyright law training for their academic staff