Duke U. Moves to Set Policies on Online Courses

By DAN CARNEVALE

Duke University's Academic Council has approved a policy that sets rules for faculty members' ownership of online courses while attempting to protect against possible conflicts of interest that could arise from professors' providing course material to other institutions.

If approved by the administration, the policy would let faculty members own all courses they create as individuals. Courses developed with substantial Duke resources or through work-for-hire arrangements would remain the property of the university. For courses that fell in between, a committee appointed by the provost would determine ownership.

The policy defines potential conflicts of interest several ways. Faculty members who wanted to teach an online course outside the university that would compete with an online Duke course, or that was "substantially equivalent" to a conventional Duke course, might be barred from teaching the outside course. Conflicts might also arise if a professor let an outside online course interfere with duties at Duke, or if a faculty member's outside course was designed in a way that misled the public into thinking it was actually a Duke course. Such outside activities could also be banned.

The professor's dean would review any potential conflicts of interest. In the review process, the dean could simply waive the conflict-of-interest rules or could discuss ways to work around them.

David Lange, a Duke law professor who is a member of the Academic Council committee that wrote the policy, says one of its strengths is that it separates the issue of intellectual property from conflicts of interest. That way, faculty members can keep ownership of their courses while the university can make sure that what the professors do doesn't hurt Duke.

"It's an extremely good approach to these issues," he says.

The policy was approved by the Academic Council, which is made up of faculty members, in May. But the new rules won't take effect until July 15, giving interested parties time to bring up concerns about it. No objections are expected, faculty members and administrators say.

"As far as the faculty is concerned, we're generally satisfied," says Robert P. Mosteller, chairman of the Academic Council.

Peter Lange, who is Duke's provost and who is not related to David Lange, says administrators seem happy with the policy and will approve it if no further concerns arise. Although Duke's distance-education program isn't as extensive as those of more aggressive institutions, university officials wanted to have in place a structure capable of accommodating a larger program, in case they decided to create one. The reason for establishing the policy now was to anticipate any problems that might occur, and plan accordingly, he says.

"It seemed to us that this was a looming issue," he says.

Faculty members who are creating online courses believe the policy will work well, says Mr. Mosteller. With the policy in place, the university and its faculty members will be able to develop distance-education materials without getting in each other's way, he says.

"It allows both parties to go out and start doing stuff," he adds.

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