We are pleased to announce that, following two years of negotiations with the UCSC administration, we have reached an agreement regarding on-line course contracts, resulting in an Online Course Hosting and Services Agreement between Coursera and the University, and a Pilot UCSC Online Education Course Agreement for Coursera Courses to be used between the University and future Course Creators. These negotiations got off to a rocky start when the university signed a contract with Coursera without first consulting with the SCFA, but substantial progress was made subsequently and the bargaining committee of the SCFA wants to thank the administration for their good faith efforts in reaching a resolution on this matter. The agreements will be revisited at the end of two years to gauge their effectiveness and decide whether any changes in the contracts are needed.
Pilot agreement: One of SCFA’s goals in these negotiations was to create a model contract between the “Course Creator” and the university that could be used by everyone, including lecturers and graduate students. We discovered no lawyer willing to create such a template, out of concern that no such contract could protect everyone. The pilot agreement is based on legal advice and our efforts to ensure that it will protect the rights of course creators, whether faculty, lecturer or student (you may wish to look http://ucbfa.org/2014/05/ideal-online-ip-provisions/).
The Online Course Hosting and Services Agreement between Coursera and the University was effective upon the date of the last signing parties signature, here May 19, 2015. From this point forward, all online courses created by a Course Creator to be used on the Coursera platform will be subject to those agreements until the agreed upon time for review. You may contact us at scfa.assist@gmail.com for further information.
Note that these do not apply to UC’s Innovative Learning Technology Initiative (ILTE) for on-line courses within the UC system. We hope to negotiate a separate agreement about Course Creator rights for that initiative.