Learning Outcome 3 Significant Results
On January 16, 2007, I met with VP for Policy & General Counsel, Bill Mullowney to discuss Valencia’s copyright policy and the creation of my active learning notes for MAT0024C Beginning Algebra. At the beginning of the meeting, I explained that I created my active learning notes to help students be successful in MAT0024C Beginning Algebra, and my concerns were if Valencia College had any rights or ownership of the document that I created because I am an instructor at Valencia, and I am using the document at Valencia College. Bill Mullowney asked if Valencia College paid me to create the active learning notes through a special project and/or stipend, and my response was "no." He also asked if it was in my job description, or if I was asked to create the active learning notes, and my response was "no." Another question he asked was if I created the document on Valencia’s time, and my response was I mainly created the document on my own time. After gathering the information, he concluded that I had complete ownership of my document because Valencia College did not pay me for the work I created. He also informed me that there could be a conflict of interest if I wanted to sell my document to my own students for profit. There may also be other issues if I wanted to make money on my document at Valencia, but I informed him that my intention was not to make money on my document at Valencia College. He then informed me that I can sell or make money from selling my document to other education institutions, and Valencia would have no ownership of the document and, therefore, does not need to receive any share of the money earned.
After review the copyright policy, I confirmed what Bill Mullowney stated in our meeting through portions of the policy.
In the below portion of the copyright policy, it states that the college would have ownership if the creation of the document was part of an assigned project or task, which in my case, it was not.
The College does not cede ownership in the following situations:
1. Assigned Projects and Tasks.
The College retains ownership of the copyright to Works created:
a. by faculty members as part of an assigned project or task, where the assignment explicitly states that the work will be owned by the College;
b. by staff members in any work they perform for the College; and
c. by student employees in the course of any assigned duties.
In the below portion of the copyright policy, it states that the creator of the teaching material has ownership of the material, but the college shall have a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, display, copy, distribute, and prepare derivative works of the material.
I. Teaching Materials and Student Works
When a student creates works independently, using only resources available in common to all students such work is owned by the student. However, work created by a student(s) when working for pay or academic credit, or voluntarily working on faculty projects or college or externally sponsored projects is subject to the provisions of this policy. In all cases the college and faculty shall have a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, display, copy, distribute, and prepare derivative works (with appropriate attribution) of such materials for educational and administrative purposes and as examples of their students' work.
Creators of reusable teaching and classroom materials for Valencia courses, such as curriculum guides, problem sets, exercise solutions, laboratory manuals etc., shall own these materials unless they are subject to a prior agreement or provisions of this policy governing their ownership. In all cases the college shall have a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, display, copy, distribute, and prepare derivative works (with appropriate attribution) of such materials for educational and administrative purposes.