The Effect of Fair Dealing for Digital Content in Canadian Education System-Distance Education - Research Paper Example

Distance education is a field of education that relies on technology to provide education to those who cannot be physically present in a traditional classroom or campus. With the evolution of technology, a changing workplace, and the advent of contractual work; distance education has become a vital tool in providing personal attention and communication to students internationally.  In Canada, distance education is important due to Canada’s vast area and an unevenly distributed population (Shale, 2002). Distance education in Canada has different setups.

Distance education in Canada takes many forms; there are universities that provide only distance education through the internet and video conferencing, there are universities offering both distance and conventional forms of education and then there are universities that prefer the conventional classroom and campus education but also offer distance education(Education, 1999). “Shared” programming has been developed (Shale, 2002).  It assists in the transfer of course credits and formalizes articulation of programs to bridge the college/ technical institute and university gap. The Canadian “open universities”, Athabasca University, the Open Learning Agency, and the Tele-university, have had mechanisms in place to support this kind of activity. The University of Northern British Columbia is mainly campus-based, regionally as well as centrally. It is an example of the traditional style of distance education, but with well-planned execution to facilitate the transfer of previously earned credits and to articulate programs with colleges in the northern British Columbia region (Shale, 2002). Distance education involves the use of technology to educate students and most course materials are considered digital content.

Digital Content denotes any information that is published or distributed digitally. This includes text, data, sound recordings, photographs, images, motion pictures, and software. In distance education, course materials make up digital content. This leads to issues related to copyright and intellectual ownership. Money is made by selling courseware. In distance education, there is this issue regarding who gets paid what and for what courses and what material should be developed by faculty members. There is intense debate regarding the legitimacy of the concept of commercialization in higher education (Shale, 2002). Instructors and course designers make great use of digital content in distance education as the primary means of communication is digital delivery. As digital content is an integral part of distance education, copyright issues emerge.