Distance learning is clearly in its infancy, and no one knows with certainty what forms it will assume or what impact it will have on liberal arts education in the future. Wellesley will need to respond quickly and flexibly to opportunities and challenges in this area as they arise and to make informed decisions about how best to invest limited funds in digital learning. To those ends, the Wellesley in the Digital Age Committee offers the following principles.

Purpose

The primary purpose for developing digital learning at Wellesley is to sustain the College's educational quality and maintain its position as a leader of pedagogical innovation. The first objective of an investment in digital learning should thus be to augment on-campus learning for our regular students. Alumnae constitute a possible second audience, especially if digital materials for alumnae have applications for standard Wellesley courses.

At the present time, we anticipate that the College's most vigorous energies will be spent developing materials for students currently studying and paying tuition at Wellesley. This is not, however, to discourage expanding the College's efforts to other audiences in the near or distant future. Additional audiences in the future might include 1) Wellesley summer school students; 2) a larger audience of students, either at home or abroad, served by courses developed in partnership with another institution, either educational or for-profit.

Digital content development

Individual faculty members are responsible for identifying, selecting and developing digital materials to be used in courses within the College's curriculum and in other not-for-credit academic offerings sponsored by the College. College resources (hardware, software, technical staff assistance, etc.) are available to support these activities. The Office of the Dean of the College determines the priorities for digital content development in consultation with faculty members regarding academic program needs and with Information Services regarding the College's current technological capacity.

Faculty members are encouraged to collaborate with other faculty both within and outside Wellesley to develop digital content for use in courses and other academic offerings. For internal collaborations, digital content development grants may be made available to the participating faculty. Individuals who wish to collaborate with faculty outside of Wellesley may also receive College support for this activity. Individual partnerships that span institutional boundaries are most productive if there is an agreement to collaborate at the institutional level. As a result, development activities that strengthen existing institutional partnerships (i.e., MIT, Brandeis, Olin College) will receive priority. As appropriate, the College may enter into additional partnerships with academic institutions or commercial providers to develop and deliver digital content. Faculty who develop digital content for offerings other than those sponsored by Wellesley should receive support for these activities from the outside provider.

Incentives

Given the demands that developing digital materials place on faculty members' time, some incentives will be offered. There are four types of incentives for faculty-expert assistance, financial, release time, and recognition. Faculty members are encouraged to use digital tools to enhance aspects of their courses by working in partnership with Information Services. For large undertakings, they are encouraged to apply for special grants to develop digitized courses or materials during the summer. If a fee is charged to alumnae or non-Wellesley students for enrolling in a digitized course, the faculty member should receive an appropriate portion of the enrollment revenue or, as is the case with teaching in the Summer School, be given a stipend. If a course is developed with a for-profit partner, the faculty member should receive compensation as per the agreement between the partner and the College.

In special cases, the Dean of the College may provide course release for the development of a complicated, multi-media digitized course. The development of digitized materials may be submitted to the Committee on Faculty Appointments as evidence of strength in teaching and college service.

Quality assurance

As is the case with traditional course materials, individual Wellesley faculty members are responsible for both the content and the quality of the digital materials (or courses) they develop. Individual departments should assess the quality of courses that are primarily digital in form. Following such an assessment, a department may recommend to the Committee on Curriculum and Instruction (or a newly created subcommittee of the CCI) whether the course should carry Wellesley credit. Once a digitized course receives approval for Wellesley credit from the CCI, the approval must be affirmed by the Academic Council.

The quality of course materials developed by Wellesley faculty in partnership with other academic institutions or commercial providers for use outside of Wellesley will be determined by the faculty member and the outside provider.

Existing transfer-credit practices governing creditworthiness should be extended to those non-Wellesley courses that are primarily (or exclusively) digital in form. Put directly, departments should decide on a case-by-case basis whether such courses should be approved for transfer credit.

Copyright and intellectual property issues

The College will provide technical and legal assistance to help faculty comply with copyright laws for content incorporated into digitized courses or materials. As a general rule, the faculty should own the copyright to their scholarly works. However, the ownership of digitized courses or materials developed with outside partners will be governed by the contractual agreements with the outside parties. The complicated issue of who owns a digital course when a faculty member leaves Wellesley must be negotiated with the Dean of the College on a case-by-case basis.

Financial considerations

For digital learning to be successful at Wellesley, the information technology infrastructure must be maintained and upgraded on a regular basis. Funds for this purpose are incorporated in the Division of Information Services budget and should not be diluted. As the Dean of the College sets priorities for digitized content and courses, supplemental funds may be needed for increased staff to assist in the development of digital materials or courses and to provide stipends for faculty working on major digital learning projects. Faculty who have created courses at Wellesley that are sold outside the College may receive a portion of the tuition revenue, as determined by the contractual relationship or by the Dean of the College.