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J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library

Embed Learning Resources in your Canvas Course

Learning Resources in Canvas

There are many ways to embed learning resources such as articles, e-books, newspaper articles, etc. into you Canvas course. The options listed below are often the simplest. If you have any issues or embedding content in these ways doesn't quite accomplish what you need, please reach out to us at library@mtu.edu. We would be happy to discuss other strategies.

Link to the Library Catalog

The library's online content including journals, book and videos can easily be linked into your Canvas course. Linking provides access to the work without needing to worry about copyright or licensing restrictions. In addition, linking provides the library with valuable (anonymous) usage data which we use to help inform our collections decision-making.

To link a library resource to your canvas course follow these steps: 

  1. Locate the content you want to share in the library search tool at https://www.mtu.edu/library/
  2. Open the full record of your work by clicking on the title.
  3. Click on the Permalink icon in the full record and select Copy to Clipboard.
  4. Use the copied link to hyperlink the title of the work within your Canvas course.

Your students can now access the linked material. Off campus access may require login with ISO credentials.

To embed online content into your Canvas site see our guide Embed Learning Resources in your Canvas Course.

(Note: all users of the library's online content are encouraged to be familiar with the library eResources policy)

Embed a PDF

Directly embedding PDF's of articles and books is often permissible under copyright law. For more information, please take a look at the library's Copyright in the Classroom guide.

To do this, navigate to the Files section of your Canvas page. Upload the pdf. Navigate to the page/module/assignment where you would like the file displayed and open the editing window of the appropriate section of the page. Place your mouse where you would like the file, and use the Files tab on the right of the screen to insert a download link.

Link to an E-book

Some e-books allow you to link directly to their platform. Be careful with this method - on some platforms if you don't access the material via the library's catalog, the user won't get sent through Michigan Tech's log in page and it will look like access is restricted. Below are a few platforms that will allow for direct links.

Accessible Course Materials

The Library supports the University's Accessible Technologies initiative to provide equal access to University information and communication technologies to everyone. While many tools and library resources are accessible, some publishers are still in the process of updating materials. As such, instructors who create, adapt, or embed content into their courses are encouraged to review and use the tools available through the Center for Teaching and Learning's Accessible Instructional Materials page to ensure their course content is accessible.