Like many universities worldwide, the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa has joined the open educational resources (OER) movement, making a selection of teaching and learning materials available through its OER directory, UCT OpenContent. However, persuading and then supporting busy academics to share their teaching materials as OER…

Whether by choice or necessity, colleges and universities are in competition with each other for the burgeoning web-based course market. Spurred by the growth of the for-profits such as the University of Phoenix, institutions have reasons, both practical and philosophical,"...to secure a position in ownership and control of faculty-produced…

This study describes an investigation of the intellectual property policies of a stratified random sample of public and private Carnegie Doctoral Research-Extensive Universities. Current copyright law was reviewed as well as the status of the "academic exception." University policies were examined to determine whether or not they…

The role of distance education is shifting. Traditionally distance education was limited in the number of people served because of production, reproduction, and distribution costs. Today, while it still costs the university time and money to produce a course, technology has made it such that reproduction costs are almost non-existent. This shift…

This paper addresses the difficult issues of balancing faculty and university rights and responsibilities regarding courseware and courseware modules developed as both commissioned and non-commissioned works. The ways in which this debate affects those who are engaged in building their own online courses for their universities, courseware…

A roundtable discussion of specialists in copyright law examines issues of intellectual ownership and copyright for online courseware created by college/university faculty. These include faculty as free agents, the need for normative standards concerning conflicts of interest, academic freedom, the possibility that institutions will import…

The issue of who owns courseware is of great concern to faculty and universities. Until recently, when technology entered the picture, the issue was straightforward: faculty typically held copyright with everything except patents. One of the most interesting and complex issues of intellectual property in the digital environment is faculty…

To soothe faculty distrust and encourage engagement, or reengagement, in exploring applications of digital technology for teaching, the authors believe it is necessary to do three things: (1) create incentives for faculty that balance public service goals with professional and entrepreneurial rewards; (2) clarify ownership and usage rights of…

This report serves as an overview of intellectual property law, policies, and practices as they relate to distance learning. It seeks to provide background information and direction for the Florida Distance Learning Network and the Postsecondary Education Planning Commission's Task Force on Telecommunications. Several of the technologies used in…

Describes library services available to distance learners at the Rochester Institute of Technology's library. Highlights include courseware products; subject specialists; electronic course reserves; interlibrary loan; research databases; online library instruction, including online guides, streamed instruction, and computer based training for…

A school district in the southwestern United States has over the past several years built its infrastructure to support high-quality technology integration by its teachers. The district partnered with a nearby university's educational technology graduate program to develop a digital high school project. Teachers and advanced instructional-design…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This January 30, 2004 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "Fighting to Get out of a Rio Slum" (Lloyd, Marion); (2) "Against…