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Ownership and Copyright
Issues of copyright and ownership already play a major
role in discussions of online learning. Most
such discussion centres around the question of who owns course content.
In the future, this question will not make sense because a course will not
be seen as an individual entity which can be owned, but rather, a collection
of entities, each of which can be owned.
This is in fact not so different from the system in place today. In
a traditional course offering, various resources - such as textbooks,
videos or CD-ROMs - are employed. Copyright for each of these individual
entities is owned, not by the course instructor, but rather, by the publisher
or author of the entity in question. Where material is reproduced, this
reproduction is performed under license,
either explicitly, as in the case of CanCopy, or implicitly, under the
provisions of fair use.
The gray area will be in the case of materials which in the past were produced by instructors
solely for their own classes, which in the new system, may be used by many other classes.
For example, if a professor produces a set of notes on fallacies for his logic class, and
this set of notes is purchased by another institution, the question arises: who gets paid,
the professor, or his home institution.
This will remain a bone of contention for a very short time. The production of educational
materials, now a relatively simple project involving a mostly rudimentary understanding
of technology, will evolve into a highly technical discipline. Just as instructors do not
typically create their own movies or videos to show in class, because they are too
complex to produce on an as needed basis, so also instructors will not typically
create educational resources for their classes.
Specialized Resources will be offered by large and small companies, targeting particular
educational niches. For example, one company may offer a resource centred around the poem
The Road Not Taken. This resource would include audio readings of the poem,
video background information, multimedia analytical tools, discussion and criticism, and additional resources.
The task of the online instructor will be to review the material, link to it from the instructional module,
and assign students particular tasks related to the resource. While many such modules will be
offered for free to educational institutions, by government, charities or corporations, others will be
offered on a fee-for-use basis. Because these resources are playing for a global audience, the
fee-for-use will be very reasonable.
A blossoming of such sites
has already occurred on the internet. What we will see in the future is
an entrenching of a few authoritative sites in particular subject areas.
Because these sites will be expensive to maintain and create, they will
eventually seek funding, either from government, from advertising, from
the sale of information (for example, user demographics to advertisers),
or by direct charge.
Online services will be offered by subject matter experts independently of any given institution.
For example, leading authorities on Descartes' Meditations will provide an online resource,
and in addition be available for consulting and discussion. It will be common for instructors
to expect students to consult with online experts in any of a myriad of fields while preparing
for assignments or doing background research.
Some online communities are already adopting this
approach. A site called The Mining Company hires 'guides' to provide
information and links in specific subject areas. At a site called Suite101,
the same function is performed by 'contributing editors'. Both sites take
a magazine-like approach to these subject areas, however, as technology
and their understanding evolves, these sites will become more service
oriented and less display oriented.
Schools will not be their only customers. Government and business often
require research in particular subject areas. People also access such
resources out of curiosity or interest. Most likely a multi-tiered
pricing strategy will evolve, with varying levels of service.
Agencies wishing a full consulting service, including customized research,
will pay a much higher rate than the casual browser (who in most cases
will probably pay nothing). Schools will fall into the mid range.
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