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[crazybatlady]

This question arose as I was reading the thread about sharing class materials and lectures, and I didn't want to hijack that thread (amazing, eh?): 

Last year, my Old U gave access to blackboard teaching materials for a freshpeep-level required class (everything!  Syllabi, lectures, notes, assignments, grading rubrics, everything that was online) to adjunct instructors for them to adopt in their own courses.  These were materials created for online courses by full-time faculty, and were not created with the intention of sharing them with anyone but the students--they were certainly not samples of ideal course design.  The FTFaculty didn't have any warning about it, either, so they couldn't go back and dot their Is and cross their Ts.

During the uproar, my Old U claimed ownership of all materials created using their web programs and explained that they wanted students to get the best education possible so they wanted courses designed by PhDs (no one could answer why they were using adjuncts without said degree to teach the courses, though).

What's the rule at your school?  Are you cautious about putting certain course materials on Blackboard for fear of losing ownership of them?  Are certain courses created by full-timers "given" to part-time instructors so they don't have to create their own course materials?  What if you are not planning to stay where you are?

[zharkov]

At one school, I was paid to develop online courses for, I recall, 2500 each, so the Blackboard stuff belonged to the school. At my current place, my BB material belongs to me.

This is an intellectual property issue'; the point about using your school's software to develop the course is a trivial matter. If you have a faculty association, you may want to have them consult their attorney.

[crazybatlady]

Thanks for the suggestion, Zharkov.  I'm not there anymore, and in fact the department just about imploded last Spring when a bunch of faculty (including me) left for greener pastures.  There are a number of other issues at that U aside from this one, but I'm really curious about BB and ownership.

I can understand the school getting it if you were paid to develop it.  How do you know you own it otherwise?

[zharkov]

Thanks for the suggestion, Zharkov.  I'm not there anymore, and in fact the department just about imploded last Spring when a bunch of faculty (including me) left for greener pastures.  There are a number of other issues at that U aside from this one, but I'm really curious about BB and ownership.

I can understand the school getting it if you were paid to develop it.  How do you know you own it otherwise?

It's a matter of intellectual property law, so they need a lawyer for the correct answer. But in my understanding, what a prof develops, he/she owns. If the prof signed a contract giving the school IP rights, or if a faculty union's contract gives the school IP rights, then it would be another matter.

[j_source]

We are paid a flat fee to develop the course, separate from the salary for teaching the course.  This makes it a work for hire and so it belongs to the university, although the faculty member is free to use the material elsewhere if they choose.

[gennimom]

There is a course here, that when I took it 14 years ago, was taught by faculty. Now, it is taught by adjuncts. There are four sections with each one taught by a different adjunct. They use the syllabi designed by the faculty so there is some attempt at keeping the courses similar (the word I need escapes me at the moment). I was there one day when there was griping about the adjuncts using an outdated version of the class after the faculty had designed a new syllabi. They were discussing how to get the adjuncts to use the new syllabi. (And no, I wasn't eavesdropping, I was already in the office.) I don't know what they finally decided. But this use was apparently at the faculty's insistence.

[larryc]

We get paid to develop online courses, but our administration has said they consider them the joint property of the faculty and the institution. I don't know what this would mean in practice if they adjuncted those courses out, but they have not.

In the case of my internet courses, the college really doesn't get that much for their development money.  I don't post lecture notes or outlines, I assign a textbook.  Most of my online teaching is interacting with students on the discussion boards and grading their papers.

[crazybatlady]

The variety is interesting here, folks!

Thanks for the replies.

cbl

[expatinuk]

In the UK the view is that the University owns ALL material that you do for your class.

It does get tricky in that they also say that you own your research material... so when I create material for my class that I then use in research....

This is why I don't use University things like Blackboard... I own my domain name and everything is put there.