To provide your students with a direct link to an article from a library database, find the article in the database, then look for "Permalink," "Document URL," "Permanent URL," etc. You can copy and paste these links into a course web page or Canvas shell, or email them to your students.
Persistent links are generally listed as part of the citation record for an online resource:
Please note: never copy and paste the URL that appears in the address bar of your browser. These URLs typically contain session information that will expire, resulting in a dead link.
In order for your students to be able to access these materials from off campus, these URLs must be preceded by the proxy string which will prompt the students to log in:
http://ezproxy.westminstercollege.edu/login?url=
For the article in the image above, the link you would provide to your students would be:
http://ezproxy.westminstercollege.edu/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3050881