Distance Learning

Background

Contrary to popular belief, distance learning is not a new educational development. Rather, distance learning has existed for more than a century, beginning with the development of correspondence courses in the late 1880s. Unlike today's distance learning courses, which are delivered online, lessons from correspondence courses were mailed to students who completed them and mailed them back; they were then graded and mailed back to students. The delivery method of distance learning courses changed dramatically with the advent of distance learning on the Internet in the mid-1990s. Based on the instructional development and delivery of online, or Web-based courses, the geographic location of students and faculty has become increasingly irrelevant, because online distance learning courses can be taken anywhere or at any time as long as instructors and students have Internet access.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

As with any type of instruction, access to instructional materials and making copies of these sources of information present legal issues to be considered. Under Section 110(1) of the 1976 Copyright Act, often referred to as the “classroom exception,” the use of copyrighted works and materials without formal copyright permission is permitted in face-to-face instructional course settings if faculty members meet three criteria. First, the display and reproduction of copyrighted materials must take place in a nonprofit educational organization. Second, both faculty members and students must be present in the same location. Third, if materials are audiovisual works, lawful copies of the copyrighted materials must be made. Unfortunately, because this broad classroom exception under Section 110(1) of the 1976 Copyright Act did not include a consideration of the evolving new category of online distance learning courses that were incorporating emerging technologies as the primary method of instructional delivery, questions remain.

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