Professor Sells Lectures Online

// September 14th, 2006 // Technology Bits

North Carolina State University professor Robert Schrag is charging $2.50 for audio copies of his lectures.

From Kelley Brackett of the Technician Online:

The professor in the Department of Communication sent his students an e-mail Sept. 7 notifying them that lectures from their 75-minute communication and technology class were available online for $2.50 each. The Web site allows students to “buy now” and hear the lecture, in an MP3 format, as often as they like.

[...]

According to Schrag, he wants to serve three “markets.” The first is comprised of students who question their ability to take quality notes in the classroom. Students that are interested in doing well in the class can, therefore, use the online lectures as a study tool in preparation for tests.

Schrag said he is also concerned about the increasing number of international students on campus. The second market is for these students who may have difficulty understanding lectures from an English-speaking professor and would prefer to review lectures at a slower pace.

The third market, he said, is for students who prefer not to attend class.

[...]

“Your tuition buys you access to the lectures in the classroom. If you want to hear one again, you can buy it.”

[...]

“Obviously all the students can get the lectures for free by coming to class,” Schrag said. “I guess you could see the service as a safety net designed to help the students get the content when life gets in the way of their getting to class.”

A fourth market he could be serving is people who do not even attend the university or students who are interested in his lectures, but do not have time or opportunity to take the class. Consider this the “long tail” of potential students. I think this is a fantastic use of media and the price seems appropriate and right.

lecture, professor, college, Kelley Brackett, technician online, technician, communications, long tail, North Carolina State University, ncsu

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14 Responses to “Professor Sells Lectures Online”

  1. ken says:
    September 15, 2006 at 7:08 am

    Not wholly unexpected, but I wonder how the institution is dealing with this as there are intellectual property issues, i.e. work-for-hire. I believe each institution set’s their own policies within guidelines. Interesting twist on the concept of “migratory” faculty.

  2. Jon says:
    September 15, 2006 at 9:15 am

    Now that’s a communications professor who has a clue about his field!

    Although if he were really on the technology he’d be offering it as a podcast on iTunes. He could still charge for it and students could just subscribe.

    I’ve had professors who won’t even share their notes with you and this guy records his lectures? This would be a great way to reach non-traditional students. With my 45 minute drive to work each way I could easily be attending 10 lectures a week on Podcast!

    Jon

  3. zbtirrell says:
    September 15, 2006 at 10:48 am

    I agree with you Jon, this is an understanding and accurate leveraging of the faculty members’ field. On the point of intellectual property Ken makes… What complaint could the institution have? Do they get profits from a professors book? Usually not. If the professor pre-recorded lectures and offered them through the bookstore on CD, no one would blink an eye. This is an extension of existing practice. From the institutions’ standpoint, they still get the student tuition as well as the potential for happier students with better GPAs. This is purely a win for everyone.

  4. Ken’s TEK (Technology, Education, and Knowledge) » Blog Archive » Migratory Faculty, Part III says:
    September 15, 2006 at 9:16 pm

    [...] In my first post on migratory faculty I noted that faculty would use non-institutional resources to house their content, potentially side-stepping the institutional LMS and that this would be a characteristic of Higer Education 2.0. In Migratory Faculty, Part II, I shared a link to an article about a faculty member who decided that he would not use lecture hall lectures, but rather just podcast his lectures. My colleague, Zach Tirrell at nosheep.net posted an article about a professor who was charging $2.50 to his recorded lectures online at a non-university site. I thought that was a pretty interesting approach although I was certain that this would raise the interest of his school’s administration. Well sure enough, looks like they asked that he shut down his service down as reported in this Chronical article. I am certain there will be more creative models and entrepreurial opportunities that will be examined in the months and years ahead. [...]

  5. Dawn Of The Citizen Professor? « MaisonBisson.com says:
    April 10, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    [...] isn’t alone, and at least one professor has started selling his lectures as podcasts (via), without support from the [...]

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