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Issue Contents
Copyright Law & Higher Education: The Pressure to Comply Linda K. Enghagen, J.D.
Recently reported agreements highlight the ongoing tensions between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of users of copyright protected works. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) characterized its agreement with Hofstra, Marquette and Syracuse as "new copyright guidelines" resulting from "cooperative efforts to establish easily understood and common-sense standards." In contrast, an anonymous source from one of the universities indicated that at least in its case, the same agreement resulted from the AAP's threat to sue over e-reserves that were not password protected. Regardless of their motivation, each of the universities now has in place a copyright policy that addresses the proper use of copyright protected works in electronic reserves and other forms of digital course content. The AAP is but one group challenging institutions of higher education to be mindful of the ways copyright law impacts educational mission. The copyright challenges confronting institutions of higher education are about a change in culture. Like all organizations, institutions of higher education have a responsibility to operate lawfully and protect themselves from exposure to lawsuits. And given their educational missions, they are also responsible for providing students and faculty with a working familiarity with copyright law. Institutions can begin pragmatically by considering the four E's of a culture of compliance: Evaluate, Educate, Expect and Enforce. Evaluate your institution's policies and practices. To what extent do they exist? Do they suit the needs and demands of the types of programs you offer? Educate your faculty, students, administrators and staff. What kinds of information and materials are already available? Are people aware of them? Do they use them? What else might be useful? Expect compliance to be the norm. Do those in positions of authority and responsibility model compliance? Is an honest effort made to resolve questions as they arise? Is there an accessible and user friendly vehicle for getting questions answered? Enforce the rules by taking appropriate steps when necessary. Are the policies and practices nothing more than window dressing? Are they enforced consistently and in good faith? In the end, creating a culture of compliance not only serves the needs of the institution but better prepares students for the many ways in which they will continue to encounter information technologies in both their personal and professional lives. It also has an additional advantage. Acting proactively diminishes the likelihood of a visit from the AAP (or one of the other similarly disposed groups) that in its own way is contributing to an increased cultural literacy in the legal uses of copyright protected works in the digital age and prompting some of the rest of us to stand up and take notice. (Join Linda K. Enghagen, University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the Sloan-C online workshop, Copyright Compliance for Online Educators, April 2nd - 10th.)
Accommodating Students With Disabilities Jane E. Jarrow, Ph.D.
In the mid-1970's, with new federal mandates about accessibility, the higher education community realized that our "built environments" were inhospitable and actually unreachable for too many bstudents with disabilities. We scrambled to retrofit buildings with ramps and elevators, to provide textbooks on tape and materials in Braille, and to assure good classroom acoustics and sign language interpreters. Only after we made those changes did we realize that a hostile climate is often a function of attitude, rather than architecture. We began the slow process of educating administrators, faculty, and staff about the rightful place of students with disabilities on campus. "Why should we spend all this money for upgrading campus? We have only had two students in wheelchairs here in the last 10 years." Could the fact that those students could only enter half the buildings on campus have had something to do with that? "Do you know how much it costs to convert that textbook to Braille? And it takes up eight, heavy volumes. Who is going to be bothered using something that unwieldy?" Perhaps the blind student who can't read any other way? "I don't want that sign language interpreter in my classroom. It is distracting to me and to the other students in class." When the class is engaging, the interpreter won't be a distraction. Today, the growth of educational technology repeats the old challenges. Students with non-visible disabilities face the old attitudinal barriers: "I don't believe this student has a disability - he seems like everyone else in my class"; "It won't be fair to the others. EVERYONE would do better if they had more time"; "Why should I have to make changes in the way I teach or test? I didn't sign on to be a Special Education teacher." In 2008, as higher education happily embraces online education, students with disabilities are too often excluded: "Why do we have to worry about accessibility of our classroom management system for students using assistive technology? We have had only two requests over the last ten years"; "Do you know how much it costs, and how complicated it is, to provide digital text for a screen reader? Is it really worth the time, effort and expense? Why can't they take the class on campus, instead?"; "If we give students extended time for online tests, it will just give them a chance to cheat. Besides, the technology doesn''t allow us to provide extended time to one student in the class...or if it does, it's a nuisance." Have we built accessible online learning environments? If not, there are two very good reasons to make sure we do: It's the law.
Advances in technology have opened the door to a whole new world of possibilities in learning. Now we have to assure that the doors are open wide enough for every student to enter. (Join Jane E. Jarrow, Ph.D, Disability Access Information and Support (DAIS), in the Sloan-C online workshop, Accommodating Students With Disabilities: Leveraging the Online Learning Environment, April 9th - 18th.)
JALN Participates in International Joint Publication In 2007, six international scientific journals launched a common call for papers on the theme-distance education and the right, or access, to education-with the objective of collecting a common set of references on research from all over the world in the field of distance education and of its impact on access to education. Sloan-C research abundantly demonstrates that online education is effective for learning, especially for encouraging reflection, interaction, diversity and collaboration. It can take advantage of cost efficiencies, especially through curriculum redesign and shared resources. It provides access to more learners and more kinds of learners at their own chosen times and places. Although teaching and learning online may take more time and effort, the growth of online education in the United States to 20% of the entire college population shows that faculty and students readily engage online. Nevertheless, there is still tremendous potential for growth. The eight papers in this special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks examine some of the roles that online education plays in implementing the right to education: http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/index.asp. The 1948 Declaration called for free and compulsory education with choice and equal access based on merit. The studies in this issue propose identifying metrics for progress towards universal access, using online education for continuity of learning despite disasters, stewarding resources, marshalling partnerships, and designing learning that promotes the values of the Declaration: ‘respect, understanding, tolerance, friendship, and peace.’
Open Educational Resources: Build It and They will Come?- Free Bonus Workshop for College Pass Members What are open educational resources? Why would an educator or institution choose to freely distribute their content? Many educators have heard about MIT's OpenCourseWare project, (OCW), but some of the courses completely reference texts that are bound by traditional copyright laws. Are these truly open educational resources? In Sloan-C's upcoming workshop, Open Educational Resources: Build It and They will Come?- July 23 - August 8, facilitators will explore the paradigm shift which places the power of knowledge, not in the hands a few publishers, but in those of the global education community. The workshop will adopt a unique learn-by-doing approach. Participants will gain first-hand experience in a real OER global community by developing one teaching resource in return for "free" training skills. The implications are immense. One significant innovator in this area is the Commonwealth of Learning, (COL). COL supports the technical infrastructure for WikiEducator, an environment which supports an evolving e-learning community. The simple table below displays the mission and description of these initiatives respectively.
Moreover, WikiEducator further defines the project as: "WikiEducator is a community project working collaboratively with the Free Culture Movement towards a free version of the education curriculum by 2015." The last words of the preceding sentence are striking. The Sloan-C community, with our thorough knowledge of distance learning from pedagogy to emerging technologies, is poised to play an important part of this growing movement. However, a new vocabulary needs to be learned. From free content to reusability, we need to understand our role in this movement that includes higher education institutions as well as developing country's governments. The vision grand, scope immense if not daunting, but, stated plainly, this stuff is exciting! Workshop Facilitators: Wayne Mackintosh - WikiEducator, Commonwealth of Learning Remember - Sloan-C is providing this workshop complimentary to College Pass members. Sign up for our free e-mail newsletter for more information about this workshop as details become available.
Learn From the Experts - The Sloan-C 2008 Workshop Series The workshop, "Finding Evidence of Quality in Distance Education: Community College Exemplars", has been changed to "Accreditation: Community College Case Studies Point the Way" and has been moved to March 12 - March 21. Accreditation: Community College Case Studies Point the Way* - March 12 - 21 This workshop uses a series of illustrative case studies to describe the particularly effective practices of a small selection of community colleges and discusses a variety of possible strategies for institutions seeking to meet emerging accreditation standards for distance education programs. *This workshop is part of the Select Series and College Pass Members must use their additional 50 seats provided to take advantage of this workshop. Click here for details and registration. Blended Learning: Using the Hyflex Course and Design Process* - March 19 - 28 Hyflex represents an approach to creating and managing blended courses that provides students even greater choices when trying to manage their time. Hyflex, (Hybrid/Flexible), allows a student to choose whether they will attend a F2F class, or complete the required work online for any particular class date. Hybrid - combines both online and face-to-face teaching and learning activities. Flexible - students may choose whether or not to attend face-to-face sessions... with no "learning deficit". This workshop examines how to structure and deliver in a Hyflex environment: how to present the course effectively (and professionally), how to engage learners with generative learning activities and how to use authentic assessment to evaluate student learning. *This workshop is part of the Select Series and College Pass Members must use their additional 50 seats provided to take advantage of this workshop. Click here for details and registration. Online - Informal - Learning Communities: How Do They Work? - March 26 - Apr 4 What do successfully sustained online communities have in common? How do informal communities emerge and evolve in ways that are distinct from formal directed communities? In this workshop participants will explore and utilize community places and spaces to discuss successful (not best) practices, identify resources that help sustain communities, and share cases of successful communities. Click here for details and registration. |
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The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is composed of institutions and organizations dedicated to continually improving the quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs, according to their own distinctive missions, so that education becomes a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines. The Sloan-C View is published by Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C™). Responsibility for the contents rests with the authors and not with Sloan-C™. Copyright ©2008 by Sloan-C™. If you have a question or comment, would like to submit an article for publication, or would like to suggest an event to be listed on the Sloan-C View Calendar, please email sloan-cview@sloan-c.org. Materials in the Sloan-C View, unless otherwise noted, may be distributed freely for educational purposes. However, if any materials are redistributed they must retain the copyright notice and use the proper citation. Kindly send an email to sloan-cview@sloan-c.org indicating how you are using the material for distribution. Your privacy is important to us, you can view our privacy policy at www.sloan-c.org/aboutus/privacy.asp This issue is being sent to: %%emailaddr%% If you do not wish to receive future issues, please send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% and your email address will be removed from our list. The Sloan Consortium, Olin Way, Needham, MA 02492-1200 | |||||||||||||||||||||||