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

On 28 Apr 2000, Prof. Harris-Ransom <harrisransom[_at_]email.msn.com> asked:
>
> interestingly, the copyright office, in its 1999 guidelines for
> fair use in digital distance education specifically include live,
> in class, with teacher and student situations. they also include
> situations where the session is recorded by a teacher, with no
> students present, for later transmission.
>
> any thoughts.

     Well, it would seem to me that if we stream the session at a a particular time, and the student needs to be on line to get it, that is real time (synchronous), but if we post it in an archive, and the student can play it on demand, that is asynchronous. However, I think we can say that most courses are now, and have always been both. It is the number of synchronous and asynchronous elements in courses that are changing, and they certainly vary, not just from supplier to supplier but from course to course internal to a supplier. Synchronicity seems a poor criterion to me for drawing copyright lines.

BRB Bert R. Boyce, Professor & Dean
School of Library & Information Science
Louisiana State University
267 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

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LSBOYC[_at_]lsu.edu Received on Mon May 01 2000 - 14:57:42 GMT