Policies Related to Distance Education

• Policy D-20a Intellectual Property Rights for Distance Education
• Policy A-58 Distance Education Faculty Compensation

In the spring of 2003, the SFA Board of Regents passed a new policy regarding Intellectual Property for Distance Education Courses. Before the policy was passed, the SFA Faculty Senate thoroughly considered the related issues and crafted recommendations that were foundational to the policy. A second committee appointed by the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and consisting of a dean, a department chair, two members of the Faculty Senate, and the Director of OIT, worked from the contributions of the Faculty Senate and observations of similar policies at other universities to draft the final version. This final version was approved by the Faculty Senate, the Academic Affairs Council and the Board of Regents.

The policy identifies 3 Categories of intellectual property ownership and rights:

• Category 1 - Works Totally Faculty or Staff Generated;
• Category 2 - Works Jointly Generated by the Individual and University;
• Category 3 - Works for Hire - University Generated.

In almost all cases, the policy interprets a faculty member's acceptance of additional compensation to develop the course as the determining factor that categorizes their work into what the policy defines as Category 2. (Note: This has nothing to do with delivery stipends, only original development stipends). Said another way, if a faculty member receives additional compensation for development of a course, those course materials will be categorized as Category 2. If a faculty member elects not to receive additional compensation for development, the work will remain a Category 1.

In order to clarify expectations regarding compensation, ownership, and usage rights a simple License Agreement form has been created. If you are working on Web-based electronic materials which will be used in a distance education course, you should:

1. Arrange a meeting including yourself, your department chair, dean, and the Director of OIT to discuss your plans for course development in light of Policy D-20a (available at http://www.sfasu.edu/upp/pap/academic_affairs/Intellect_Prop_Dist_Ed.html);
2. Determine in the meeting which Category best fits the distance education course materials you plan to develop;
3. Have all parties agree and sign the License Agreement (available at http://www.oit.sfasu.edu/disted/facsup/licenseagreement.pdf; this file uses Adobe Acrobat Reader);
4. Send a photocopy of the completed License Agreement to be filed in the Office of Instructional Technology at P.O. Box 13038.