These slides provided the learning material for a wintercourse on Academic Freedom at the University of Groningen. Questions on copyrights for a MOOC course are placed in the broader perspective of entrenched norms related to Academic Freedom.

1. Opening up education &
Academic freedom
Shaping academic freedom in the age
of the 3D printer

2. Programme
• Introduction
• Theory
– Data driven innovation
– Trends in online education
– Privacy in the context of education
– Academic freedom in Dutch regulation
• Cases

3. Introduction
• My role in university
• Why I am interested in academic freedom.
– User data in business models of new platforms for
online education
– Copyright and incentives for open access
publishing
– Freedom to select commodified or open learning
materials (EU opening up education)

4. Two levels in the discussion on
academic freedom
• Academic freedom as an safeguard for the
individual scientist, teacher, student
• Academic freedom as an organisational
principle for governance of higher education.

5. 3D printer????
Assignment: Discuss with your
neighbour: Which characteristics of
3D printing can be relevant for the
discussion on present day academic
education?
Key words: tools for a new generation of
users, data driven, personalisation, open
source technology, more independence for
time and place,
for fashion: no model needed just data
(measures)

6. Iris van Herpen:
no model needed just data

7. What is shaping online education?
• MOOCs (U.S. ...venture capital...social media)
• EU Opening up education: mix needed of on
campus and distance learning
• Bigger automony for the learner
• Legal aspects:
– Privacy
– Quality and certification
– Who decides about online availability of learning
materials?

8. Opening Up Education
• The EU will increasingly require institutions to
make their results available for reuse under an
open licence.
• At the same time, lecturers will retain their
freedom to recommended traditionally
published sources or Open Educational
Resources.

9. Some examples

13. Privacy in the context of Education
• Helen Nissenbaum
• Privacy in Context Technology, Policy, and the
Integrity of Social Life, Stanford Law Books,
2010 p. 169

14. Assignment
EdX: INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect information, including Personal Information, when you sign
up for a user account, participate in online courses, register for a paid
certificate, send us email messages and/or participate in our public
forums.
We also collect certain usage information about student performance
and patterns of learning.
In addition, we track information indicating, among other things,
which pages of our Site were visited, the order in which they were
visited, when they were visited and which hyperlinks and other user
interface controls were used.
You want to do a MOOC for which Mein Kampf is required reading
online. Discuss with your neighbours:
1. In what way will tools that monitor all use breach entrenched
norms of education?
2. Does that affect your perception of academic freedom?

15. Entrenched norms and academic
freedom
• Some reactions:
– learning is not exploitation,
– can the teacher decide who can go on in his
studies or does the software do that?
– Or the institution?
– Do open educational resources stay free of
monitoring?
– How can an institution verify that someone
passed a test after distance learning?

16. Academic freedom in Dutch regulation

17. Dutch Wet op het Hoger Onderwijs en
Onderzoek
• Aan de instellingen van wetenschappelijk
onderwijs wordt de academische vrijheid in acht
genomen.
• Dissertation Paul Zoontjes Vrijheid van wetenschap, juridische
beschouwingen over wetenschapsbeleid en hoger onderwijs, Tilburg 1993
p. 81:
• Human right?
– Aim is independence of research practice
– Works as organizing contectual principle within a
university

18. The Netherlands Code of Conduct for
Scientific Practice 2012
Preamble:
3. The Code presumes the administratively
autonomous university that safeguards the
academic liberty of the scientific practitioners
engaged there. It is the university’s
responsibility to let this liberty fit into the
frameworks of the established education and
research programmes.

19. Cases

20. Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice
Dilemma regarding verifiability
A teacher has written a study book intended for
first year students. To increase its readability he
has not used source references, offering instead
a list of further reading recommendations per
chapter. In writing the book, he nevertheless
made extensive use of the work of colleagues
from all over the world. Should he have made
detailed mention of this?

21. Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice
Dilemma regarding impartiality
A teacher is involved in compiling a list of
compulsory literature for a course. He proposes
a book of his own, for which he receives
royalties. If his book is listed, should he be
required to transfer the ensuing income?

22. Dilemma copyright
The university makes a videoregistration of the
classes of a professor. The professor wants this
video to be available online as Open Course
Ware. Is she entitled to decide this herself?

23. Dilemma user data
A local gas-company collaborates with university
to provide a MOOC on sustainable energy. The
best students of the MOOC will be invited to
apply for a job. Students can decide freely to
make use of this option. When they choose for
this option, the data about their use of the
MOOC will be shared with the gas-company. Will
this influence the collaboration amongst
students?

24. • Contact: E.Hoorn@rug.nl
• CC-By