This week, I learned a lot about Fair Use, Intellectual Property, and Open Educational Resources (OERs). The first important “take away” point for me is that, under the TEACH Act, there is inequity in fair use when comparing online and f2f instruction. A second point/recommendation is that making a website password protected is one of the best ways to protect intellectual property. Yet another important point is that I should explore open educational resources for use in my courses.

In reflecting on the readings and supplemental resources, I identified the explicit themes and topics of evolution, creativity, regulation, fairness, law, and academic integrity. However, what there was not much attention/discussion about were ethical considerations. For instance, Ko and Rossen provided very useful tips to encourage academic integrity, but did not provide ethical principles that could be used to teach students about academic integrity in the online environment. Another example is that we were told that the use of OERs in our courses can save students money. However, I cannot help but “ethically consider” that using OERs in my course also might lead to a loss of money for a book author(s). Bottom line, I am of the opinion that ethical principles should frame all of these discussions.

Next week, I will create my first YouTube video.