While students value the opportunity to attend lectures given by prestigious University professors, they often fail to realize that these professors teach others who have never set foot on campus.
As part of a growing trend in higher education, professors across the country are using technology and the Internet to reach audiences far from the classroom.
English professor John Fleming said he is in the midst of organizing an online course for alumni. He also has recorded lectures for an audio-cassette course called "Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition." The audio-cassette was produced in 1993 by The Teaching Company, which sells audioand video-cassettes for more than 80 courses. Five of the 10 professors who teach the western literary tradition course are Princeton professors.
Fleming said he views the chance to lecture to people outside the University as "an opportunity to reach an audience that I wouldn't ordinarily reach." Most of the cassettes are purchased by retired people and others who are looking for continuing education, he said.
Financial incentives
Fleming said he receives a portion of the profits from the tape's sales each year, and noted that the potential for financial gain is another advantage of using the Internet to share knowledge. "I wouldn't mind making some money," he said.
Comparative literature professor Claudia Brodsky Lacour also lectured for The Teaching Company's tape. She said finances were her only reason for contributing to the course. "I was an underpaid assistant professor who needed the money," she explained.
Questions of intellectual property have "confused" the issue of using technology and the Internet in higher education, Fleming said. "Just as they're having to sort out rules about downloading [compact discs], they're going to have to have some major summit meeting about this," he said.
Princeton places specific limits on professors who lecture outside the university, University Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62 said. "The rules are not simple," he explained, adding that many involve judgement calls.
One rule requires that faculty members spend a specific amount of time on their job at the University. "A faculty member must devote a predominant amount of time to their work for Princeton, and there is a restriction on the amount of outside time that someone can devote," Wright explained.
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