In my previous post I talked about a growing concern among academics about the use of their “intellectual property” by other individuals (including, sometimes, their own students) in the halls and forums of universities. These are understandable concerns. In some ways the fear is that someone else could take your syllabus (full of hard work and sweat and tears) and go off and teach it themselves without crediting (or otherwise giving monetary or other value) to the original creator, you. There are a number of problems that I identify with this line of thinking that I’ll get to in a moment. The whole idea of owning a syllabus, though, seems to fly in the face of shared knowledge that is supposed to occur in an academic setting.
I have a notice to instructors concerned about someone else teaching their syllabus: aren’t you the best teacher of that syllabus? I hate to be the bearer of bad news… but if the only value you provide to your students is your syllabus than I’m sure anyone would gladly change places with you and teach from your syllabus at a discount. The point is (or should be) that they couldn’t. The outline of a course and the books selected from it are not where the true value of the course lies. The value lies in the instructor who is teaching the material… not the material itself. I’d also like to give administrators a similar message: the teacher is more valuable than the syllabus. Their experience and knowledge far outweighs what is on that page. We all know you couldn’t hand that syllabus to someone else and still maintain the quality of the course. The course itself is something much greater than the syllabus.
If the above is true (that the teacher IS the course) then instructors should have no problem with their materials being available to other eyes. In fact, at the end of the day, isn’t it true that these instructors (at least at the beginning) were influenced to create courses because of the courses they themselves had taken (whether knowingly or not)? This is the key component to sharing information: that information grows and transforms. The instructor continues to grow and transform that information to fit their students, to include new research and collective understanding, and to build a present that will support and be added upon by future teachers (possibly your students). I’m sure I’ll write more on this later. I’ve even started making some of my own research freely available.