by Yvonne Belanger | September 24th, 2009
During interviews, most faculty have discussed whether they feel some or all of their course web site content should be visible or open to individuals outside of the enrolled students. Faculty have expressed strong feelings both for and against making online course materials and activities more publicly visible. Some commonly heard issues are summarized below.
- Easier ways to make basic course information (such as a syllabus) discoverable and available for audiences such as students not yet enrolled and colleagues at other institutions
- Better tools for engaging collaborators from beyond Duke as presenters, peer reviewers and participants in course activities
- Tools that support engaging students in authentic tasks or scholarly activities of students available to wider audiences rather than within a restricted LMS environment
- Maintaining ways to restrict access to some course materials to comply with privacy and legal guidelines such as FERPA and copyright as well as preserving the integrity of an exam for future use or to protecting the investment of time in teaching materials they have created.