A University policy enacted in spring 2001 states that students distributing class notes for commercial purposes without instructor approval is “an offense against the academic community” and is therefore prohibited. The policy’s intent is to protect the rightful intellectual effort of faculty. They often work hard to prepare class lectures but are not compensated by the commercial enterprises that sell the notes. However, the policy deprives students of an additional learning tool. Professionally written class notes further students’ understanding and retention of class material.

So what can be done about this impasse? Actually, technology has provided a solution. With little effort, teachers can now post their notes on the Internet. The University pays $28,000 per year to license WebCT for campus-wide use. With it, instructors can post class notes, PowerPoint presentations, useful links and grades. University educators have been given an extraordinarily useful tool to help impart information unto their students. Unfortunately, some faculty members are reluctant to use it.

These members state various reasons for not posting class notes. The most common perhaps is that doing so will cause a drop in class attendance. This belief stems from the idea that if students can obtain the notes from a source outside of class, then there is no need to attend. This philosophy is flawed in two ways. First, with the same logic, it follows that if instructors go over the assigned readings in class then there is no need to do the readings or even assign the books. Class time ought to give students more than they can get simply from their notes, and it is the instructor’s job to make this so. Second, students who choose not to attend class and rely solely on the notes are making a free choice that detracts only from their education. The students who attend class should not be punished by not being allowed access to the instructor’s notes and subsequently have their education detracted from because of another student’s dichotomous decision.

Instructors need to reconcile with their technophobia and post class notes. A three-credit class costs approximately $540 without adding in all the additional fees. With that money, a student could buy a semester’s worth of academic books and study independently, but they don’t. Students rely on instructors to help decipher and contextualize information. Technology can’t change this role. Quite contrary, it will aid in teachers’ ability to have the information absorbed by students so that under their guidance, the knowledge can be put to work as wisdom. Failing to utilize the highly beneficial role of technology to do things such as post class notes is a disservice to students.

The University’s administrators have protected the intellectual efforts of instructors. Now they need to protect students’ efforts by adopting policies that encourage professors to provide the best pedagogical resources available, and right now that means providing class notes on the Internet.