Re: faculty coursework online

On 2/28/00, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2000, Lyda Peters <lydap[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
> >
> > 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?
>
> If college managers want teachers to "perform for the camera,"
> they would be wise to provide incentives. I believe it is far
> too easy for any instructor to do his/her job in the classroom
> while intefering with video presentation quality.

I am the copyright consultant for the Intellectual Property Information Center at Kansas State University and we have been working the last year on a virtual office Web site which should be finished in the next couple of weeks. We developed our Intellectual Property Policy last year and I was on the committee. I have also written books and articles on copyright over the years. Typically, written works are retained by faculty in university policies for various reasons, however their use on university networks is often included where internal networks are used for scholarly exchange. This will change as universities assert their rights to faculty intellectual property, particularly with publishing costs rising. I have also taught in various distance education modes, such as fiber optics networks, satellite, state video network, and Web, and have spent time investigating these courses around the country for the last few years. Web-based course ownership in most cases, as with other highly technological courses which utilize university resources (software, support, etc.), owned by the university because of the "substantial" or "significant" use of resources clause that most universities have in their policy and is established law in universities. However, I have found that incentives and ownership varies, too. It's a case of market demand, more than anything else, when a faculty member owns a mediated course, and the university makes a deal with a "star" or a college or program that can be used on a national basis. It is rarely the case, from what I have seen. In some cases the instructor will have "course revision" rights in a contract and a contract will be routinely drawn for faculty with certain rights as these at some universities, particulary ones that rely heavily on distance education. Rarely have I found that anyone could take a course elsewhere under that title unless the title is generic. The course as developed is usually the university's. It is a moot point, though, since each person puts her/his imprimatur on a course and the faculty member can go to another university, make changes (sometimes for the better), use the same resources, and develop something somewhere else. (I must add that I have seen gross violations by one university in this regard so that I make clear what I wish to keep as my own copyright and what I will offer as a work for hire, for example, in my current position at the IPIC.) Payment or remuneration is another issue. I have talked to people who are only paid for Web-based courses when the student is 3 miles out of town. In-town students are not part of the incentives program. Some states have in-state territory guidelines unless the course is unique. In most cases, if you look at the Intellectual Property Policies the most heated area of debate is in mediated instruction. The Association of University Technology Managers <http://www.autm.net/> is a good place to start, and Ann Okerson's collection of policies is excellent <http://www.library.yale.edu:80/~okerson/copyproj.html>, although there are many others which can be found by searching. MIT has a nice statement on sigificant use of resources,for example: <http://www.mit.eduafs/athena.mit.edu/org/p/plicies/13.1html>

Good luck

Rosemary Talab
<talab[_at_]ksu.edu> Received on Wed Mar 01 2000 - 18:37:40 GMT