There are a few reasons to use Permalinks instead of PDFs:

• No copyright infringement
• Helps to keep funding for the library - When an article is downloaded as a pdf by an instructor from a database, that counts as only 1 use.  
• If the instructor embeds the Permalink to the article instead, each time a student selects that link, it generates 1 usage point for the database. 30 students =  30 clicks = 30 uses = continued funding.

BBCC Bonaudi Library has databases for every subject taught here.  You should be able to find almost any article needed, and use it in your Canvas course by embedding the article record's permalink (rather than the url at the top of the page), which will remain consistent from website to website.

Sharing course content in MS Word is common and can be simple and effective. As you design MS Word documents, make sure you are taking accessibility into account.

Creating Accessible MS Word Documents

Be sure do the following:

1. Use headings (created by using the styles tool) to structure the document.
2. Add alternative text to images.
3. Create links by using meaningful text descriptions.
4. Avoid the use of SmartArt.
5. Avoid adding text boxes.
6. Avoid putting important information in headers or footers.

The tutorials provided below will take you through the process of implementing these suggestions.

More Resources: Accessible MS Word Documents

• Explore Access: Creating Accessible MS Word Documents
• NCDAE Cheat Sheet: MS Word
• University of Washington: Creating Accessible Documents in Microsoft Word
• WebAIM: Microsoft Word - Creating Accessible Documents

All PDF documents must be screen readable.

How to export PDF to OCR (screen readable) file format such as Word doc

1. Open the PDF in MS Word (Word will create an editable copy), or...
2. Open the pdf in Adobe Acrobat Online. (If already in desktop version, skip to 3.)
3. Select Open in Desktop App (upper right corner).    
4. In the desktop Acrobat app, select Export PDF.    
5. Select which format you wish to export to.     
6. Replace the pdf with the new screen readable Word doc, PPT, Excel spreadsheet, etc. in your Canvas course.  Don't forget to save.  

For more help, contact gerih@bigbend.edu or Section 508.govLinks to an external site.