I recently read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education "When a Syllabus is not your Own," by Jennifer Sinor. I at first thought the article was going to be about students providing copies of your syllabi, lectures, and notes to other students. This article, however, was about another professor using her syllabus for his class. The important issue raised was over ownership of academically created items. Does your university have the right to claim ownership over teaching items (notes, lectures, etc.) because they hired you to teach, and in fulfilling your contract you created these documents? This has been a big question for some of my colleagues since we are receiving a lot of pressure to develop classes we can teach on-line. Many of them fear that if you design the class, for which you are paid, then the University can take it away from you and give it to someone else who would then teach the class.
RSM
Ancient History Ramblings 