ALIA 2001 TAFE libraries conference

Creativity: Does Your Institute Have It Managed

Barbara Sullivan-Windle
Manager Intellectual Property
Southbank Institute of TAFE, Queensland

ABSTRACT

Intellectual Property management as viewed at Southbank Institute of TAFE is not just the management of copyright legislation, but a whole suite of policies, processes and procedures, involving structural, physical and operational changes. It also includes the creation of new products.

Library and information professionals and product developers all agree that the management of intellectual property (IP) is an increasingly complex issue, especially in light of digital technologies such as the Internet which make it easier to disseminate, reproduce and adapt information.

Changes in the national vocational education and training (VET) agenda such as the introduction of the Australian Recognition Framework and national training packages also impact on the way training organisations conduct their business and create and manage their IP.

The VET sector creates and updates "products"- intellectual property - in the form of training materials, as well as using "products" created outside the sector. At TAFE institutes these materials are created in various areas including educational units, libraries, electronic learning centres, and in administration areas. Products are also used in these areas as well as via the Internet. Therefore all people having an association with the institute - staff, students, and suppliers - will be touched by the need to create IP, to comply with legislation relating to IP, and to be conversant with methods to protect their own, their employer's, or others' intellectual property.

At Southbank Institute of TAFE we have been implementing a suite of changes to manage intellectual property (creativity). This paper describes the changes that have already taken place at the institute, and gives an indication of planned future developments.

BIOGRAPHY

Barbara Sullivan-Windle is the Manager (Intellectual Property) at the Southbank Institute of TAFE, the largest TAFE Institute in Queensland. Her portfolio covers the management of four campus libraries and e-Learn Centres as well as the Learning Technologies unit. She also has responsibility for the implementation of the Institute's i-Net strategy, and the Institute's Online Strategic Plan, and is responsible for setting up an Institute infrastructure to manage intellectual property.

Prior to her appointment to Southbank, Barbara worked in Lending Services, Acquistions, and Reference Services at the Queensland University of Technology. She has also worked as a Reference Librarian at Griffith University. Her library career began as a "Relief" Librarian (with no librarianship qualifications) at the University of Queensland's Study Centre in Cairns. Her first career was as a nursing sister and midwife.

INTRODUCTION

Most will agree that intellectual property management is an issue that institutions, businesses and the ordinary citizen must come to grips with if they wish to work and play successfully, economically, and legally in the modern technological world.

However, the management of intellectual property (IP) is an increasingly complex issue, especially in light of digital technologies such as the Internet which make it easier to disseminate, reproduce and adapt information. Changes in the Vocational Educational Training (VET) sector as it moves into a new business environment that implies flexibility for clients, value for money and proper risk management of IP, is also increasing the complexity. However, complexity is no excuse for failing to wrestle with the issues, and as a government agency Southbank TAFE is obliged to set in place an IP management structure.

Agencies of the Queensland Government have a responsibility to:

• manage effectively the State's intellectual property assets in their custody, and
• respect the intellectual property rights of others and ensure employees are made aware of intellectual property issues and understand their obligations ¹

These whole-of-government guidelines state, among other things, that agencies are to "identify, record, value and actively manage both existing and newly created intellectual property it holds on behalf of the people of Queensland", and to "be responsible for effective and accountable management of their intellectual property assets".²

The VET sector creates and updates intellectual property in the form of training material "products", as well as using "products" created outside the sector. At TAFE institutes these materials are created in various areas including educational units, libraries, electronic learning centres, and in administrative areas. Products are also used in these areas as well as via the Internet. Therefore all people having an association with the institute - staff, students, and suppliers - will be touched by the need to create IP, to comply with legislation relating to IP, and to be conversant with methods to protect their own, their employer's, or others' intellectual property.

The management of IP is a vital function that has to be fully integrated within the overall context of an institute's product development and use policies, processes and procedures.

At Southbank Institute of TAFE we have been setting in place an infrastructure for the creation, maintenance and management of intellectual property so that its investment in the development of VET materials is protected, and ready and legal access to other external intellectual property is possible.

I would like to describe for you the structural, physical and operational infrastructure that has already developed at Southbank Institute, and give an indication of what we have planned for the future.

BACKGROUND

As a training provider, Southbank Institute invests considerable time, effort and funds in the development, maintenance and management of VET materials, and associated teaching, learning and assessment resources. The need to clarify, streamline and consolidate these activities, all of which concern intellectual property issues has intensified with:

• the imperatives in the national and State VET sector for training organisations to use a range of client-orientated teaching and learning strategies, e.g. online technologies: this can mean the creation of digital intellectual property
• the possibility of obtaining Quality Endorsed Training Organisation status leading to self-regulation: this involves the development of new and updated training materials - digital or otherwise
• the need to implement models for efficient and cost effective delivery: this can also involve the development of new materials as older "product" becomes outdated or redundant
• the increased availability of electronic resources: setting up and abiding by licensing arrangements for third party products and services
• client demand for ease of access to resources: access to electronic resources from outside an institution typically requires different licensing arrangements
• increased involvement of teaching and support staff in intellectual property issues: training and advice in legislative or licensing requirements
• new automated and online methods for assessment and Recognition of Prior Learning: again, the creation of new products or the customisation of someone else's intellectual property

IP MANAGEMENT AT SOUTHBANK

At Southbank we have attempted to integrate IP management by attacking the issue on three fronts: structural, physical and operational. Our efforts so far fit very well into the framework subsequently developed in a recent research report commissioned by the Institute of Public Administration Australia (Queensland Division).³

IP management at Southbank has received the most vital first aspect mentioned in the research report - corporate support. The support has come in the form of setting direction (i.e. aligning IP management policies with institute objectives) and by the establishment of a corporate structure, the Intellectual Property Services unit, to develop policies, processes, and procedures for IP management. It is this unit which provides the environment and resources to develop an innovation culture to support the institute's direction.

Structural Management

Southbank's structure consists of three Business Units (A, B, and C), and a Corporate Services unit. The Business Director for Business Unit B is responsible for educational units as different as Hospitality, Visual & Performing Arts, Indigenous Programs, and Travel. The position is also responsible for all matters relating to teaching and learning across all areas of the Institute. A Teaching & Learning group was originally formed consisting of three separate units: Libraries, electronic learning centres (e-Learn Centres) and a separate Product Development Unit.

The new positions developed within these areas included:

• Manager (Intellectual Property) who was responsible for the strategic management of libraries and e-Learn Centres and for the development of policies, processes and procedures for the management of IP.
• Executive Officer (e-Learn Centres) who was responsible for promoting and supporting self-directed lifelong learning in the e-Learn Centres, and for creating an environment which fosters innovative delivery practices and management of learning, including online and web-based training.

The separate Product Development Unit included:

• Manager (Learning Technologies) who was responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of learning technologies across the institute, by promoting and encouraging the use of innovative learning technologies.

Towards the end of 1999, Libraries and e-Learn Centres were combined structurally, with the new unit being called "Intellectual Property". This structural change acknowledged that clients wish to access learning and information resources anywhere anytime, and that online learning is more in demand. It also acknowledged that the consolidation of the management of IP, created and used, was a critical success factor for organisations.

In 2001, Intellectual Property Services was greatly expanded. Initially, the majority of the staff from the Product Development Unit were absorbed into the unit. This included the Manager (Learning Technologies) and a Learning Technology Analyst, and their administrative support person. In the past six months, the unit's portfolio has been expanded even further to include Online Learning, Learning Technologies, and the Institute's "i-Net strategy" team for the development and management of its Intranet and Internet sites. The unit now has approximately 65 effective full time staff.

Physical Management

Along with structural alignment came a physical one. During 2000 three of the four libraries were combined each with an e-Learn Centre. The details of this and the outcomes were described in a joint article by me and the Executive Officer (e-Learn Centres) presented at the Networking 2000 online conference in November last year.⁴ Senior Librarians are responsible for the day-to-day operational management of this combined service, with the assistance of a Co-ordinator, e-Learn Centres who works across campuses ensuring standardisation of products and services in the e-Learn Centres.

Operational Management (or what we do in practice)

I turn now to a description of our activities over the past year - the operational management of intellectual property at Southbank. We have been, and still are, a very active unit of the Institute. The following is a sample of our activities and shows how the power of partnerships across the Institute is working to manage our flourishing creativity.

A paper at this conference given by Arlene Johnson this morning has detailed the Liaison Librarians' Project - an innovative way to have librarians become a pivotal part of the Institute's development of intellectual property. The project had liaison librarians working in partnership with teaching staff, specifically to assist with projects for online delivery. I commend this paper to you for an insight into a highly successful project to assist teaching staff to meet the objectives of the changing VET agenda.⁵

The very early phases of the project were also described in a paper at the Networking 2000 online conference.⁶

Participation in ANTA Funded Projects
Intellectual Property staff, including Managers, Senior Librarians, Liaison Librarians, and e-Learn Centre staff have been leaders and managers of a number of projects designed to increase teaching staffs' skills to create intellectual property. The majority have been ANTA funded projects such as Learnscope and Framing, or Reframing the Future projects. Examples of these projects are:

• The "Online Facilitation" project, managed by a Senior Librarian, provided teaching staff with the skills required to support online learners and to develop flexible delivery of training packages. This included acquiring the ability to use tools such as the Internet, Email, Chat, WebBoard and ELMS our electronic assessment system. Staff also acquired a fuller understanding of the theoretical aspects of online learning and how best to enhance the student's learning experience.
• The "Online Communication" project, also managed by a Senior Librarian, placed emphasis on teachers learning effective online communication techniques and gaining an understanding of the difference between classroom teaching and online facilitation. The use of a number of learning technologies were taught: including WebBoard, the Internet, NetMeeting, the Electronic Learning Management System (ELMS), the Library's e-Reserve system, Library web-based resources and the Library's Virtual Reference Desk.
• The "Weaving the Threads of Online Learning - Designing and Creating Online Course Materials" project, managed by a Liaison Librarian, aimed to provide Southbank staff with skills in using creative technologies, particularly Macromedia Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash, to design, create and facilitate courses and supportive resources in an online environment. The participants, who were drawn from all educational units across the Institute, were required to attend fourteen, three-hour sessions and were also required to attend the Online Communication program just mentioned.
• The "Women Into IT eConference" was designed to develop the skills and capacity of teachers in the flexible delivery of the IT training package. The project also emphasised inclusive practices to increase the participation of women in IT training. Library staff developed the web site, while the Executive Officer, e-Learn Centres was involved in online moderation and mentored others in online moderation.
• The "Best Practice for Teaching and Learning in Training Package Delivery" project was managed by a Senior Librarian, with a teacher as content provider and a Librarian as the web designer. This is an online resource developed from funding from the Product Development Unit's Innovative Projects and is available to all VET providers, public and private.

New Electronic Services and Products in Libraries and e-Learn Centres
The Library has been active in the development and provision of intellectual property. For example:

• An eReference service which includes an online Chat and "Ask a Librarian" service as well as the more familiar services such as electronic journal databases, eSkills (information literacy skills online), and access to library catalogues and subject guides.
• An eReserve service which provides secure, anywhere, anytime online access to teaching notes and other learning materials for approximately thirty subject areas.

i-Net Strategy
The IP Systems Librarian and the Manager (Learning Technologies) are co-managing the Institute's i-Net strategy. The i-Net team consists of a Web Developer, Web Designer, Web Content Officer, the Library/e-Learn Web Officer with assistance from the Liaison Librarians. The scope of this huge project is to lead and manage a coordinated Institute approach to identify, scope and implement the Institute's Internet and Intranet initiatives so that product can be made available to internal and external clients. It involves an assessment of the present functionality and capability of the existing web site; the redevelopment of this; and assisting educational units to have a quality web presence.

Online Learning Strategic Plan
The Executive Officer, e-Learn Centres developed an Institute Online Learning Strategic Plan which aims to ensure that the intellectual property developed and used at the Institute is done so in the most effective pedagogical manner. The Plan consists of eighteen separate "key tasks" or deliverables which will assist the development of an e-learning culture at the Institute, orient teachers and learners into their changing roles for online learning, increase participation in online learning, monitor and report on progress, and to celebrate progressive achievements.

Learning Technologies Taskforce
We have established a Learning Technologies Taskforce to investigate learning technologies for the development of product, and to develop strategies to assist staff in their implementation. The group, under the management of the Manager (Learning Technologies) is responsible for evaluating and choosing an online platform to support online learning.

Online Network
An Online Network of teaching and IP staff has been established to contribute to the development of policy, procedures and protocols for online learning at the Institute. The Network supports and mentors staff involved in any aspect of online learning. It creates and fosters discussion and collaboration in matters relating to online learning. Its members widely promote and support the use of various forms of electronic interaction.

Flexible Learning Leaders' Scholarship
Two IP staff, the Executive Officer (e-Learn Centres) and the Manager (Learning Technologies) have won ANTA Flexible Learning Leaders' Scholarships - one last year and one this year. The scholarship is designed to develop a nation wide group of VET practitioners able to lead Australian VET in flexible learning pedagogy and in the technical skills required to apply information technologies to flexible learning. It enables scholarship winners to undertake a professional development program to further develop their pedagogical, technical and management skills.

This in turn enables recipients to provide leadership within their own organisation thus increasing the capability of their organisations to deliver or support flexible learning. Participants develop a national profile and contribute to the development of flexible learning at a state and national level.

Last year's recipient travelled to eighteen Australian educational institutions that had significantly transitioned to flexible learning in order to gain knowledge of models for the implementation and management of flexible learning. She also participated in the Moving Out of the Middle (MOOM) moderating online course based in the USA.

This year's recipient visited three institutions in the United States, including the Teletraining Institute in Oklahoma, to undertake a course concerning videostreaming techniques.

We have also developed policies, processes and procedures to protect our own and others' intellectual property. These include the development of:

• a web-based Product and Intellectual Property (PIP) Register which contains information related to the development and use of intellectual property at the Institute. It also incorporates a "permissions register" for use of third party material, and details licence conditions for non-Southbank property.
• Copyright Factsheets which give guidance on copyright legislation to assist product developers and users have been placed on the Institute's Intranet on a dedicated Copyright Page.
• An Employee Acknowledgment of Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Rights Form which all new employees sign on commencement of duty to ensure they are cognisant of confidentiality, infringement of third party intellectual property, and ownership rights.
• A suite of QA procedures have been developed to ensure copyright legislation is complied with during the development of intellectual property, and that all details of these products are entered in the PIP Register.

In addition:

• The Manager (Intellectual Property) had membership on a TAFE Queensland-wide working party which developed a set of Intellectual Property Protocols for use in all TAFE Queensland Institutes.
• All staff preparing contracts or memoranda of understanding have the clauses relating to intellectual property scrutinised by Intellectual Property staff
• Institute staff induction includes information about copyright compliance.
• All workforce development plans for IP staff include tasks associated with compliance with copyright legislation.
• The Institute has a commitment to work with AEShareNet, where appropriate.

Professional Development

In addition to the professional development for teaching staff detailed above, it was necessary for me to develop my own knowledge in the area of intellectual property management. I also considered it necessary to do some succession planning. I have been mentoring a Senior Librarian in this role. My personal staff development included:

• Attendance at a number of Australian Copyright Society and Australian Copyright Council conferences and seminars.
• Attendance at the [indecs] (Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce) evaluation and implementation conference concerning the development of a metadata schema for trading intellectual property online.
• Learning about AEShareNet and being the Institute's representative for this project.
• Completion of an online World Intellectual Property Organisation course entitled "Introduction to Intellectual Property".
• Attendance at a "Public-Sector Intellectual Property Management in Queensland" workshop - it was this workshop that made us realise that we were well and truly on the right track in achieving our Institute IP management objectives.
• Completion of the law subjects, "Legal Regulation of the Internet", and "Intellectual Property Law" as part of a Queensland University of Technology Graduate Certificate of Law.
• Purchase of a number of reference tools on intellectual property law, not to mention acquiring all the Acts related to intellectual property.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

There is still much to be done to ensure the continuation of our present intellectual property management plans, and to introduce other vital strategies. These currently include:

Cultural Change Issues
We must continue to work on a cultural change within the Institute which values innovation and risk taking so that new products can be developed.

Funding Issues
An Institute commitment of sufficient resources; winning funding for projects; policies for the distribution of revenue; more networking and the formation of partnerships; and using appropriate communication tools to ensure our product can be successfully marketed, are also needed.

Protection of Intellectual Property Issues
We need to keep abreast of intellectual property legislation, in particular all the issues surrounding digital communication. We need to investigate the use of technological protection measures and rights management software in the development of our products.

We need to conduct regular IP Audits to identify and minimise the legal risks that can lead to liabilities or complaints, marginalise a potential plaintiff's success, and assist with the resolution of difficult issues associated with the Institute web site, such as Chat Rooms and the provision of e-Commerce facilities.

CONCLUSION

New technology presents us with new means of creating learning environments and learning products. Some of these are increasingly taken for granted (access from home to materials once only available in a library; the existence of online courses); some of them are very new, undergoing overnight changes, and require constant attention and evaluation (new tools and techniques for making information accessible, or for controlling access to information).

Educational institutions need to accept and embrace these new possibilities - indeed, expectations - and must set themselves up to use them well. They need to:

• ensure the institutional structure facilitates the ease with which people skilled in educational technology and intellectual property management can address the issues;
• ensure that they consider how they can best physically structure services to provide easy access to a one-stop-shop of totally flexible learning products, services and support which results in a sharing of staff expertise, and increased creativity to develop flexible solutions for clients; and
• ensure that policies, processes and procedures are executed so that operational strategies provide effective ways of tapping into staffs' creative energies.

REFERENCES

Best Practice for Teaching and Learning in Training Package Delivery, at http://www.southbank.tafe.net/library/eref/ref_shelf/train_pkg1/index.htm

Department of Communication and Information, Local Government and Planning, Communication and Information Services (2000) Draft Information Standard Number 25, Management of Intellectual Property.

Hogan, Patrick, Bockanic, William N. &. Kalbars, Lawrence P. (2001), "Reducing Web-Based Legal Exposures", Internal Auditor, 58(i1) 49.

Johnson, Arlene & Sullivan-Windle, Barbara, (2000), Librarians Working in Partnership with Teaching Staff to Achieve the Flexible Learning Objectives of the National VET Agenda, ANTA's Networking 2000 Online Conference, November.

Johnson, Arlene, (2001), TAFE Librarians Working in Partnership with Teaching Staff to Achieve the Objectives of the National VET Agenda, ALIA 2001 TAFE Libraries Conference 21-23 October, 2001, Sheraton Hotel, Brisbane, Queensland.

Morgan, John P. & Wong, Nicole A. (1999) "Conduct a Legal Web Audit", e-Business Advisor, 17(I*) September, 34.

Moving Out of the Middle Course, (MOOM), at http://ccservices.concord.org/moom/brochure4.html

Steffens, P., Shulman, A., Waterhouse, M., Wollin, Andrew, (2000) Capitalising on Intellect: Public-sector Intellectual Property Management in Queensland, Brisbane: IPPA (Qld).

Sullivan-Windle, Barbara & Ambrose, Lyn (2000), The Consolidation of the Management of Intellectual Property at Southbank Institute of TAFE, ANTA's Networking 2000 Online Conference, November.

Teletraining Institute, Oklahoma, at http://www.teletrain.com