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Higher Education Meets eBay: An Online Marketplace for Course Notes

April 23, 2012 by

Instructors and students have been sharing course materials online for over fifteen years.  In the early years of the Internet and web browsers, instructors posted course materials on a personal web page or a file transfer (ftp) site.  In recent years, web-based learning management systems have replaced these personal course web pages.  Products such as Blackboard Learn offer an online site with a common interface for instructors and students to interact as well as a document repository for course materials.

Today, several new document marketplace sites have emerged including notehall.com,  sharenotes.com,  collegenoteshare.com,  notelog.com, coursehero.com, notepig.com and noteutopia.com to name a few.  Simply put, these sites provide students with the ability to buy and sell course materials.   For example, a student taking Econ 403 might take exceptional course notes.  Using a document marketplace site, the student can upload his/her course materials, advertise the availability of these notes and then get paid by the document marketplace site when other students purchase the materials.   Unlike eBay, document market sites can charge buyers a premium while paying the seller a smaller percentage or royalty from the sales.   There is no guarantee the seller will receive payment from all transactions.

Responsibilities of Students

Before choosing to become a member of a document marketplace site, students must remember to follow the IT Appropriate Use Policy. Student sellers are not permitted to upload material written by others, including, but not limited to, professors, students, textbook authors and University administrators.  Regardless of information from the document marketplace representatives, students cannot advertise or agree to allow a company to advertise on University of Mississippi managed systems such as Blackboard.  Student buyers should also take precautions to protect themselves.  These document marketplace sites will not guarantee the accuracy of the course notes.  And as always, review an online site before making purchases to ensure your personal and financial data will be properly secured.

Responsibilities of Instructors

These online marketplace sites are available to students nationwide. Talk to your students about their responsibilities to avoid violations of copyright laws and the IT Appropriate Use Policy.   In the event a student violates the IT Appropriate Use Policy, report the activity to the Dean of Students.   Also, the document marketplace sites publish guidelines for instructors to report policy infringements.  The information is typically found in the site FAQ or terms and conditions documentation.

Final Thoughts

With all the risks outlined above, the concept of sharing online course notes has been accepted on some university campuses.  The University of California at Berkeley (UCB) allows course notes online through a university sanctioned student group.   This course notes service is supported by UCB administration and approved by the University of California Board of Regents.

Browse safely.

Filed Under: Academic Technology, Classroom Technology, FTDC, IT Appropriate Use

Be Aware of Copyright Laws and Violations!

November 21, 2011 by

The number of copyright violations has significantly increased from Nov./Dec. 2010 to Nov./Dec. 2011.

Recently, the University of Mississippi  has seen an increase in the number of copyright violation notices received from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the Entertainment Software Association in accordance with the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).   These notices typically identify illegal music and movie downloads from the campus network.  The vast majority of violations come from using the file sharing  program, BitTorrent.  Examples of other file sharing programs include LimeWire, Kazaa, BearShare, etc.  To meet the University’s responsibility in addressing these violations, the University blocks the computer identified as containing the copyrighted material.  See the Network Blocked List for  a list of computers and network devices that are currently blocked from accessing the campus network.  That computer will remain blocked until the person responsible emails complaint@olemiss.edu and acknowledges that he or she has read, understood and agreed to comply with the IT Appropriate Use Policy.  This policy covers copyright violations as well as other inappropriate use of University resources and systems.

Students who have multiple copyright violations registered to them will be referred to the Dean of Students and go through the student judicial process.

Copyright violations are covered under the law and individuals found in violation are subject to legal ramifications including both civil and criminal lawsuits.  Penalties can include up to $250,000 in fines and a felony conviction accompanied by up to 5 years in prison.

Some examples of copyright violations include:

  • Copying, downloading, distributing, and electronically transmitting items from the Internet or websites without explicit permission.  Examples of copyrighted items include intellectual property such as written materials, videos, software, games, sounds, music, performances, etc. which were created by someone other than you.
  • Sharing copyrighted files from your computer without the owner’s permission through Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing.  Please Note:  Even if you do not intend to engage in infringing activity, installing P2P software on a computer can easily result in unintentional file sharing.

View the following online resources for additional information:

For Appropriate Use Policy questions, send email to aup@olemiss.edu.  For technical assistance, contact the IT Helpdesk at (662) 915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu.
Filed Under: Copyright Violations, IT Appropriate Use Tagged With: , , , , ,