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Intellectual Property snafu for University Professors
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:29 am
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:29 am
This came up last night for a FOAF:
Professor A is assigned to teach a virtual class by the university and spends 3 weeks prior to the start of class creating online tests, slides, content, videos, answer banks, etc.
4 days before class starts, the dept head reassigns the class to Professor B presumably because of some scheduling conflicts.
The dept head just changes the name of the professor on the course which gives Professor B the entire course content/work product of Professor A. Professor B has to do no work now except field questions throughout the semester.
Who owns the content and was the dept head justified in giving Professor B all of Professor A’s content?
Professor A is pissed off because she did a lot of work and won’t be compensated for it. Professor B is loving life on easy street. Dept head doesn’t care because he’s retiring.
Professor A is assigned to teach a virtual class by the university and spends 3 weeks prior to the start of class creating online tests, slides, content, videos, answer banks, etc.
4 days before class starts, the dept head reassigns the class to Professor B presumably because of some scheduling conflicts.
The dept head just changes the name of the professor on the course which gives Professor B the entire course content/work product of Professor A. Professor B has to do no work now except field questions throughout the semester.
Who owns the content and was the dept head justified in giving Professor B all of Professor A’s content?
Professor A is pissed off because she did a lot of work and won’t be compensated for it. Professor B is loving life on easy street. Dept head doesn’t care because he’s retiring.
14
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:30 am to sleepytime
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:31 am to sleepytime
99% of professors are “Professor B”
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:32 am to sleepytime
Not sure if academia is different than the real world, but often the employer owns IP if they used company time/materials to create it.
This post was edited on 1/29/21 at 9:32 am
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:32 am to sleepytime
Poor pitiful white girl, bent over by the man again.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:32 am to sleepytime
Throw them in a ring with 2 sharpened sticks. The one who walks out alive owns the content.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:39 am to fightin tigers
Academia is definitely different. I’m trying to find the universities IP policy. It’s part of the UL school system and I think they have close to the same policy.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:45 am to tigahbruh
quote:
Throw them in a ring with 2 sharpened sticks. The one who walks out alive owns the content.
Then televise the event as a pay-per-view event. Use the proceeds to support the school. I see this as a win-win.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:45 am to sleepytime
quote:
Who owns the content
You can’t own knowledge. Who owns 2+2=4?
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:47 am to OysterPoBoy
quote:
Who owns 2+2=4?
I do. That’ll be 0.000000001 BC for usage rights. Thanks
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:48 am to bad93ex
quote:
99% of professors are “Professor B”
Not 99%, but it happens a lot.
I taught an online summer course in 2014, online courses were still somewhat new and it was my first time teaching online. I asked the department chair for advice on preparation. He flat out advised me to use a pre-packaged course from an online company. His exact words were, “they’ll take care of everything, you barely have to work.” The students paid tuition for the course, then around $100 to access the course website and did all of their work there. To be fair, the content was great. No lectures, no prep on my part. I only had to grade written assignments, the rest were auto-graded, and check in with the students once a week via the course bulletin board (not required). I spent a grand total of around 4-5 hours of work the entire semester.
The entire thing felt like a scam, but I was shocked when the course was over at how positive my evaluations were. Apparently me checking in with them once a week was way more than most of their professors had done. They also seemed to have no issue with the lack of face to face interaction and the pre-packaged nature of the course. They were fine to just pay the money, log in, and get their grade. This was for a 100 level intro course, but I’d be curious to know how often it happens in higher level major courses as well.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:50 am to OysterPoBoy
You cannot own the knowledge, and if Professor A leaves to go somewhere else she can recreate the exact same thing and they cannot do anything (outside of any potential non-competes they may have) unless they can prove she used the school's resources to "re-create the content". However, the school very well could own the tests, slides, content, videos, answer banks, etc since she created it for the purposes to use at the University.
All of this should be spelled out in the school's policy manual and/or her employment contract. If not, it most likely reverts to common practice which means the content is the school's, but she can regurgitate for her own use as the school cannot own what's in her head.
All of this should be spelled out in the school's policy manual and/or her employment contract. If not, it most likely reverts to common practice which means the content is the school's, but she can regurgitate for her own use as the school cannot own what's in her head.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 9:52 am to sleepytime
Professors, especially tenured faculty, should certainly realize by now the traditional means and methods they rely upon to “own” ideas or maintain their place at an institution of learning is antithetical to building a fair and just society. Such vestiges of whiteness must be abandoned, including their frail attempts at owning notes, ideas, presentations, writings, or even their jobs. Maintaining a diverse community of learners and sharers requires eliminating these behaviors and habits.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. It’s time liberal professors own and live by their rhetoric.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. It’s time liberal professors own and live by their rhetoric.
This post was edited on 1/29/21 at 9:55 am
Posted on 1/29/21 at 10:00 am to sleepytime
Both Professor A and Professor B are full of shite.
They chose their textbooks based on the readily made materials the facilitate instruction. The publisher of the selected text has slides, quiz questions, notes, and everything else in a package to accompany the text books.
The amount of work to prepare to teach a class is extremely low because of the materials the publisher provides.
I taught at 3 different universities at the adjunct level and have first hand knowledge of how easy teaching bachelor level classes are.
They chose their textbooks based on the readily made materials the facilitate instruction. The publisher of the selected text has slides, quiz questions, notes, and everything else in a package to accompany the text books.
The amount of work to prepare to teach a class is extremely low because of the materials the publisher provides.
I taught at 3 different universities at the adjunct level and have first hand knowledge of how easy teaching bachelor level classes are.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 10:01 am to mceuph
quote:
The entire thing felt like a scam, but I was shocked when the course was over at how positive my evaluations were
It sounds like you had a crop of strong students. If not, you would have been tarred and feathered.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 10:06 am to Mid Iowa Tiger
quote:
I taught at 3 different universities at the adjunct level and have first hand knowledge of how easy teaching bachelor level classes are.
What level were the courses and what field did you teach in?
Posted on 1/29/21 at 10:15 am to sleepytime
I would assume work done for the university belongs to the university and not the professor.
And being a college professor has to be the easiest job on earth.
And being a college professor has to be the easiest job on earth.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 10:19 am to sleepytime
Reminds me of that time Clifton Ganus plagiarized my filmstrip about the War of 1812. Never did get any satisfaction on that point.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 10:21 am to Mid Iowa Tiger
Prof A created a whole series of videos for the class to help students because the publishers materials for labs was intended for face to face hands on interaction. The class is mainly nursing students and requires close inspection of body parts.
Posted on 1/29/21 at 10:23 am to fightin tigers
quote:
Not sure if academia is different than the real world, but often the employer owns IP if they used company time/materials to create it.
this. Professor A was paid by the university to develop curriculum. He can take that with him to another job or position, but he did that on the university's dime, it's their IP.
i understand being pissed as i would be too, but the university owning it is the right answer.
my last job i developed a whole ton of automation and technology that saved the school district thousands of man hours. i don't get to turn it off and take the keys when i leave.
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