Thursday, May 24, 2001

U. of Vermont Considers Intellectual-Property Policy Said to Foster Distance Education By DAN CARNEVALE The University of Vermont Faculty Senate has approved an intellectual-property policy covering distance education that would offer copyright protection to the faculty and staff members who contribute to an online course's creation. Officials there hope it will entice professors to participate in the online education program that's just starting to get off the ground at the university. The policy will not go into effect until it is approved by the acting president, Rebecca Martin. She is withholding comment on the proposal until the university's lawyers review it. Jean Richardson, president of the Faculty Senate, says the policy is unusual in that it would split the ownership of the online course into content, which would be controlled by the professors, and instructional design, which would be controlled by the institution's staff. The details of individual professors' rights would be determined on a case-by-case basis through contract agreements, Ms. Richardson says. But the guiding principle of the policy is that faculty members would always have control over the content of the course material. That means that if a professor left the university or a course was sold to another organization, the professor would continue to receive royalties and could decide whether the material should be used in the course at all. "We've ended up with one of the most faculty-friendly policies in the nation," Ms. Richardson says. Mark F. Smith, associate director of governmental relations for the American Association of University Professors, says the proposed Vermont policy is unusual in that it protects both faculty and staff members' intellectual property. "I've looked at quite a few of these policies," he says. "I've never seen one outlined like this with such a division of ownership." Ed Twarty, dean of the division of continuing education, says the intellectual-property policy will prove necessary as the new distance-education program expands. Vermont offered seven distance-education courses last summer in a pilot version of its program. Students who were living off campus were enticed to take classes by the promise of graduating more quickly. That program, called CyberSummer, was so successful that it has been expanded to 21 courses this summer. Eventually the university will offer distance courses all year long and to residents all over the state. "If it works, as we expect it's going to, we will select the best of those course experiences and provide them to the rest of Vermont," Mr. Twarty says. That's why the university decided to update its intellectual-property policy, he says, to head off any problems before the distance-education program got too big. "The whole point of having a policy is a potential crisis turns into a routine operation," Mr. Twarty says. Ms. Richardson says she is fairly confident that the president will approve the policy. Her biggest concern is that the administration will use it as a negotiating tool with the faculty, who recently voted to unionize. Given that many of the details of the collective-bargaining agreement have yet to be decided, approval of the policy could become a bargaining chip, she says. "The policy is a benefit to the faculty," Ms. Richardson says. "The university could say, if you don't do this, then we won't pass this policy." Because of the costs of such an undertaking and the uncertainty of a payoff, the distance-education program is something of a risk for the university, Mr. Twarty says. But he likened it to the type of necessary risk that Columbus took in looking for a western route to India. "We're four days out of Portugal, heading towards India, so we don't know what's ahead," Mr. Twarty says. "Some people think there's land. Other people think we're going to fall off the edge of the earth." Background article from The Chronicle: Faculty at the University of Vermont Votes to Unionize (4/20/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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