faculty coursework online

I am co-chairing a faculty committee on intellectual property rights. The committee has been established in our institution because, for the first time, we are offering a small number of courses on-line to students. Faculty are concerned that if they agree to teach courses on-line, much of the innovation, research, and curriculum developed will become the property of the College. The college, on the other hand, asked for advice from their lawyers and were told that this work does belong to the college under "work-for-hire" copyright law.

Needless to say this does not provide any incentive for faculty to teach on-line. Because of the college's newness in this arena, I would like to pose the following questions:

How should I frame the discussion between faculty and the college so that we can move towards some type of consensus which supports the rights of faculty?

Do professors have any rights by law to "intellectual property" once they start to teach online? If yes, what rights?

Which websites would be of most help in developing a policy on intellectual property?

Thank-you,
Lyda Peters
lydap[_at_]aol.com Received on Fri Feb 25 2000 - 15:01:39 GMT