Information Society Watch

January 2005, R.G. Jackson

This is part two of a two part report that addresses specific issues of ICTs in education. This section discusses the question of making courseware freely available to anyone having access to the Internet. The paper describes developments in international legislation, copyright, and issues regarding students from developing countries studying abroad; and the arguments on whether charging for courseware is likely to become international standard practice. Since universities can no longer rely fully on public funds, the issue of openness has become less straightforward, and may run in contention to their economic sustainability. The funding of higher education is no longer seen as a state owned and funded monopoly. Because of the resulting economic ramifications, the global expansion of students engaging in tertiary education has caused commodification of degree based education. Universities in the UK are following a similar path to US universities, whereby universities are run much like businesses in the interest of generating wealth. Within this context the concept of open access courseware has become a very sensitive issue. The author concludes by suggesting that a nationally recognised facility is probably the most efficient way to develop an open courseware programme for national and international use.

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