Is it acceptable to take some exercises directly from the text book when preparing exercise sheets?

Question

I want to prepare some exercise sheets for a course. I am wondering whether or not it is OK to take some exercises directly from the textbook.

Answer 1

I want to prepare some exercise sheets for a course. I am wondering whether or not it is OK to take some exercises directly from the textbook.

Yes.

Regardless of the legality or scholastic integrity of copying exercises from required textbooks, recommended textbooks, non-required textbooks, other books in your personal or institutional library, course web pages, random pieces of paper found in classrooms, and the like, it is common and accepted practice to do so, typically without attribution of any kind.

Unless you're teaching a popular MOOC (which attract lawyers like certain substances attract flies) or writing a popular textbook (likewise), nobody is going to come after you for copyright violation. But if it'll keep you awake at night otherwise, rewrite the problem in your own words before you distribute it to your students.

Of course, you should also include your own original problems. (Just don't be surprised to see another instructor use them later.)

Answer 2

From a practical point of view, taking a few exercises for internal classroom use will probably not cause copyright problems, depending on the local laws. Teaching is one of the fair use possibilities in the US, but I am no expert in law, and I don't know how far it goes.

Assuming US law applies, here are a few rules for fair use, and I believe you fulfil them all: non profit, for educational purposes, on content more factual than artistic, extracting small parts, and no net effect on the market. Some other sources also add restricted access to the student as a point in favour. It is always safer and more ethical to add a reference to the original book.

Answer 3

The big concern is copyright. How important it is depends on how complicated the problem statements are. For instance, if the question is something like:

Using Rolle's Theorem and the Intermediate Value Theorem, prove the Mean Value Theorem.

then there's no worries about "reusing" a question like this, because the formulation of the question is not really "original."

However, if the problem involves a half-page of explanations and formulations, you can't simply copy it in your problem sheet verbatim without reference. You may or may not be able to make a photocopy of the relevant page and distribute it under fair use guidelines; you should probably consult your university librarians about this.

The simplest solution, though, would be to list the source of the problem, and identify the problem from the source:

Deen, Analysis of Transport Phenomena, 1st ed., Problem 1.6.

and then allow the students to look it up. (Of course, you should make sure that a copy of the text is available to them in the library via "reserve" policies, if at all possible.)

Answer 4

Beyond the issue of legality, you have to put in some effort in order to make it appropriate for students and TAs (if you have some) -- plain copying can be dangerous.

1. Cross-check definitions and results necessary to solve the exercise. Even small differences between the book and your lecture can render an exercise completely infeasible.

2. Skim the related chapter and prior exercises in the book. Sometimes problem 8 builds on the thought process or solution developed in problem 5, or uses a theorem you don't have in your lecture. If you skip 5 but copy 8, or don't give the theorem as hint, you are posing a harder (infeasible?) problem to your students.

3. Make sure the exercise works as you expect, i.e. solve it in detail (!) yourself. Not only are there many flawed exercise problems in books, but the level may also off.

   Make your solution accessible to the TAs.

4. If you don't want your students to have an easy out, make sure to take the exercise from a textbook not on the syllabus and/or without solutions and reformulate a bit so they can't google solutions (easily).

These are lessons I've learned from painful experiences which were unanimously caused by me being short on motivation, time or both and just copy-pasting exercises onto sheets.

Regarding work ethics, provided what you do is legal (in your country) I'd say copying exercises is completely acceptable. Developing good exercise problems is hard and time-consuming. It helps nobody if you do half a job, or overextend yourself on this. It's somewhat similar to using an existing texbook vs writing your own.

Answer 5

Textbook publishers and instructors have an agreement (in my experience, an unwritten one): if the instructor tells students the textbook is "required," then the instructor is allowed to use all the images, test bank questions, and animations as desired in the course. If you or the main instructor has therefore indicated that the book is "required," then I would say you can use examples from the text (with proper attribution) all you want.

If you are using a text that isn't required, I would say you are venturing into fair use territory, nicely summarized by Davidmh and commenters. An email to the publishers asking to use X number of questions with attribution over the length of the course would be the most legal way to use the resources.

Of course, saying a text is required does not mean students will purchase it. But that's a separate discussion, and publishers do not expect the instructor to enforce the requirement.

Answer 6

Most of these answers seem to be focused on the legality of using textbook but I would like to argue from a student's viewpoint that it is not acceptable.(And don't have enough reputation to simply leave a comment.)

These questions are from a textbook they should already have. Normally the questions are extremely similar to examples in the text and are most useful in the context of understanding the concepts. It is my opinion those questions should be reserved for students to reference while going through the book, as well as references while working on your slightly different or harder exercises.

What is the point of taking a class when you could have just got the book instead?

Edit: It is your responsibility as the instructor to add value to the course, giving students new (possibly tailored to skill level) problems is a great way to do that in addition to your in class explanation of concepts. Taking exercises from the textbook adds no value since they already have those questions.