Thursday 10 July 2008

Managing IPR issues for e-learning materials

SUEtr will be running an event on IPR later in the year. In the meantime, if you want to know more about IPR within the specific context of e-learning materials, take a look at the outputs of the TrustDR project.

The project developed a package of materials to help repository managers update and clarify their institutional policies and infrastructures so they can make best use of technologies to support teaching and learning. As the website states, 'confusion, lack of awareness, poor practice, contradictory policy and risk aversion currently dominate thinking about this subject at all levels – particularly amongst senior management. This is presenting a major obstacle to the effective uptake of e-learning in our tertiary education system. In this pack we explicitly link the task of overhauling the IPR regimes in our institutions to the organisational and professional ‘process change' that is required to make effective use of e-learning – especially in relation to the introduction and extension of flexible learning delivery.'