Fred
In principle the use of OER under NC may not be a problem if they are not making a profit on that per se but any fees cover other services ( the same holds here in UK where students are charged fees). The proviso comes around the organisational status. If not for profit even if privately owned there is little problem, if for profit and paying out to share/stockholders then that might be construed as fully commercial but again they could say they are charging nothing for content and all for services (teaching, assessment etc). The position can only truly be tested in court.
Andy
Ps remember that any HEI operating in another country than that in which it is regulated/based is a private provider in that country unless largely in receipt operating using public monies from that country.
Sent from my iPad
On 3 Aug 2012, at 15:23, "Fred Riley" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On 3 August 2012 09:57, Andy Powell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Blog post summarising my personal experiences of undertaking one of the Coursera MOOCs: http://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2012/03/moocing-about-with-saas.html
>
> Thanks, Andy, that makes for interesting reading, as does this thread,
> not least because it introduced me to yet another unlovely acronym
> (MOOC) ;-)
>
> Whilst I welcome this and other MOOCs, it's really not clear to me how
> Coursera works. The About page (https://www.coursera.org/about) is
> pretty vague, and doesn't say where the content comes from, who
> produces it, who runs courses and why, where the money comes from, and
> so on. According to the BBC news story with which I started the July
> thread on this (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18857999):
>
> "Coursera, backed by venture capital, wants to follow the Google and
> Facebook funding model - offering a service free to users, with the
> aim of developing revenue streams from large numbers of visitors.
>
> In this latest announcement, it says it now has $22m funding."
>
> Fair enough, except how will the "revenue streams" be developed?
> Advertising? Associated services? Charging for courses? Certification?
> And if OER is being used, is there not a problem with the usual
> Creative Commons Non-Commercial licence? When with the Uni of
> Nottingham I put CC NC stuff out there (sonet.nottingham.ac.uk/rlos/)
> and I and those I worked with would be unhappy if the content were
> used for revenue-generating purposes. There are also the good
> questions that Amber has raised about who it's for and who's going to
> join in.
>
> I don't have any answers to these and other Qs, so would be
> interesting to read others' thoughts on them and/or be pointed to
> articles. I'll be giving the "E-learning and Digital Cultures" course
> in January a go to suck it and see.
>
> Cheers
>
> Fred
>
> PS: For those of an Albaphile persuasion, MOOC sounds like the Gaelic
> word "muc", or pig (search on http://www.faclair.com/), which could
> offer the Coursera lot an interesting alternative logo :o)
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