University of North Dakota Jane Overmoe Intellectual Property and Higher Ed Faculty: Knowledge Based or Commercial Based? Five Factors to Consider EDL 552 Spring 2010 University of North Dakota Jane Overmoe LITERATURE REVIEW: HIGHLIGHTS ABSTRACT OVERVIEW OF THE PRESENTATION STUDY Talab (2007) presents an opinion about universities becoming de facto owners of web-based instructional courseware and raised a question of compensation for faculty via collective bargaining or on intellectual property rights. Jorgenson and Helms (2008) review academic freedom law tenets and proceed to establish frameworks for present day turmoil for campus faculties and the rights and the responsibilities faced with new age practices and old age laws. van Rooij (2009) describes gaps in the literature and identified needs for stringent research to measure the cost effectiveness of Open Source software such as MOODLE and Sakai. Henslee (2009) contends that fair use law’s flexibility will produce more arguments and less creative works. Quartey (2007) reviews Brigham Young University’s procedures with faculty and student copyright educational experiences by using learning tools such as an official university copyright policy, an online tutorial, a resource manual, websites and databases to expedite copyright permission requests. Due to increased awareness of copyright issues with the advent of the technological paradigm shift, intellectual property use for today's higher education faculty needs to be addressed for further clarification. Based on the review of the literature, five factors have been identified for further explanation. In light of the changing learning environments for today's higher education faculty, I look at five areas as a guide for intellectual property use by faculty as knowledge based or commercial based: ownership issues, cost issues, fair use issues, university policy issues and academic freedom issues. Intellectual property issues exist in what has become a chronic state of uncertainty. Five factors have been identified to offer a framework for discussion concerning the ongoing two-sided debate: intellectual property as knowledge based or commercially-based in an online arena as well as in a face-to-face classroom for faculty in higher education today. RESEARCH PROBLEM Confusion about intellectual property rules and responsibilities continues to be a growing problem for higher education faculty inside today’s virtual campus or in a face-to-face classroom. RESEARCH QUESTION What intellectual property uses by faculty are considered knowledge-based or commercial-based? NEED FOR THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to clarify intellectual property use implementing five factors for higher education faculty. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Intellectual Property & Faculty: KNOWLEDGE OR COMMERCIAL BASED? Cost University Policy Fair Use Ownership Academic Freedom WIKISPACE.TWITTER.BLOG. http://spring10helaw.wikispaces.com/ http://twitter.com/janieover http://williampatry.blogspot.com/ PROPOSED METHODOLOGY Following the conventions of qualitative research, I propose to survey, to interview and to observe constituents who are in the middle of the intellectual property dilemma either as knowledge based users or commercial based users. A grounded theory will be constructed.