How should Stanford become involved in new distance learning initiatives? What restrictions, if any, exist on individuals or academic units who want to market electronic curricular materials? Who owns a "Stanford course"?

These questions and others are among those that are being considered this year by the Academic Council's Committee on Research and are the focus of the committee's annual public meeting Monday, May 14, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Packard 101.

While distance learning is not new to Stanford, the availability of Internet-based technologies and an increasingly competitive marketplace for e-learning have dramatically increased both the options for and the interest in distance education.

The public meeting will provide a forum for faculty, staff and students who are interested in distance learning to hear about current initiatives and to offer their views about the future. The topic will be explored from several perspectives, including those of:

• Paul Marca, director of professional education at the Stanford Center for Professional Development, who will give some background on the Stanford Instructional Television Network and Stanford Online;
  
  
• Brian Cantwell, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and a member of the Committee on Research, who will describe his experience as an instructor in a distance education course;
  
  
• Sam Steinhardt, chief financial and operations officer, Learning Technology and Extended Education, who will discuss some new arrangements entered into by Stanford to explore distance education, such as U-Next and e-Skolar; and
  
  
• John Perry, professor of philosophy, and a member of the Committee on Research, who will present a set of five principles that the committee believes are most applicable to deliberations about distance learning.

Background information on these topics is available at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DoR/C-Res/dl.html . Linked to that site is a draft paper prepared by the committee summarizing fundamental principles most applicable to the topic. The website also links to current policies, readings, and other background material.

• Distance learning background information