Re: definition of "asynchronous" on-line course delivery

On Thu, Apr 27, 2000, Robert S. Gurwin <bob[_at_]gurwin.net> wrote:
>
> On Apr 25, 2000, Lori K. Harris-Ransom <harrisransom[_at_]email.msn.com> wrote:
> >
> > An expert I am not on the subject of copyright issues relating to
> > higher education, but I was asked, and did give a recent presentation
> > on the subject. (As I am sure many of you can relate, as the only
> > business law professor on staff, I am expected to know all points
> > legal :-)).
> >
> > Anyway, an interesting discussion came about at my presentation and
> > I'd like to throw it out to the forum.
> >
> > As many of you are aware, perhaps the most definitive, albeit not
> > exhaustive, guidance for on-line course development can be found in
> > the Copyright Offices Guidelines. However, these guidelines as they
> > relate to distance education specifically do not apply to asynchronous
> > course delivery on-line, only to real time delivery. Soooooo, the
> > following question is one that we lawyers just love: What is the
> > definition of "real time" course delivery? Could it be defined as a
> > semester long course as a reasonable interpretation?
>
> I'll take a stab at your question and throw out my opinion for what
> its worth. To me, anything "real time" specifically implies that
> the course sessions are live and interactive akin to what takes
> place in an internet or AOL type of chat room such that students
> who are enrolled actively participate and can interject comments
> amongst each other and back and forth with the instructor during
> the actual real time session.
>
> The opposite model for distance education would be akin to what
> existed in the pre-information age as "correspondence school"
> courses where materials were sent out from the school to the
> students by mail, students would complete assignments and then
> return their written assignments for grading. Certainly, this
> type of education still exists, although with current information
> technology, assignments can be distributed and examinations taken
> by students using a limited access internet structure. However,
> I do not qualify this latter example as "real time", but define
> it as asynchronous because there is no immediate and direct
> interaction between the instructor and the students.
>
> I hope that provides some insight. I'll be anxious to see what
> other contributors have to add.

thank you robert,

i tend to agree with you. but the copyright office, in its 1999 guidelines for fair use in distance learning makes an argument that existing digital distance ed courses may be compared to the correspondence schools of yesterday, and since these were specifically contemplated in the legislative history of the copyright act, the copyright office argues, that accordingly, digital distance ed courses should be subject to copyright law also. interestingly enough, the copyright office does exclude asynchronous course delivery from its guidelines, but they use your example as one that the guidelines should cover.

the copyright office seems to make the distinction between asynchronous and synchronous based on whether there is a definate timeframe for completing the course; the more indefinate the timeframe, then the more the course looks to be asynchronous.

more thoughts?

Lori K. Harris-Ransom, J.D., M.A.
Associate Professor
Caldwell College
Business Department
9 Ryerson Avenue
Caldwell, NJ 07006
Office: 973-618-3517
Fax: 973-618-3355
E-Mail: Lransom[_at_]caldwell.edu

              harrisransom[_at_]msn.com Received on Fri Apr 28 2000 - 16:25:40 GMT