From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Professor Takes On Lecture-Notes Companies (Chron of High
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 15:19:05 -0500
Armed With a Web Site and Links, a Professor Takes On Lecture-Notes
Companies
By FLORENCE OLSEN
Mathieu Deflem is a lone professor crusading against a group of Internet
companies that he condemns as intruders into the private, privileged
relationship between a professor and his students.
Mr. Deflem, an assistant professor of sociology at Purdue University, has
converted a portion of his academic Web site into a mini-clearinghouse of
information about Internet companies with names like Versity.com
(http://www.versity.com), StudentU.com (http://www.studentu.com), and
Study24-7.com (http://www.study24-7.com). The companies pay college students
to take notes in lecture classes, and then make those notes available free
to other students on Web sites that are paid for by advertising. (See a
story from The Chronicle, October 1.)
After he became aware of the new companies a month ago, Mr. Deflem says he
raised objections directly with the Net entrepreneurs -- by e-mail messages
and in letters -- that the companies eventually acknowledged. But only one
of the two companies honored his request to remove his course listings from
its Web site.
Now he wants to raise awareness among colleagues and students. His Web site
(http://www.sla.purdue.edu/people/soc/mdeflem/education.htm) -- dressed up
with slogans like "Go to class and enjoy the company of real living people!"
and "Down with the Anti-Education Companies!" -- lists 10 companies that he
has been able to identify so far. "I'm sure that a more-organized response
is needed, but the site is a first step," he says.
It provides short summaries of news stories about publishers of class notes,
as well as the names of academics who share Mr. Deflem's distaste for the
companies. Mr. Deflem also posts his views on "the educational cost of free
lecture notes on the Internet."
His other strategies for dealing with what he considers bad behavior by
these Internet companies have been less
successful.
Mr. Deflem's criminology course, Sociology 342, was listed without his
permission on the Versity.com Web site as a course for which the company was
looking to hire student note-takers. He sent a message to Versity,
requesting that his course be removed from the list. The company, he says,
didn't respond -- even when he kept up the e-mail campaign for two weeks.
Most galling, he says, was the voice-mail message he finally received,
suggesting that the company's representatives "wished to work out a
'mutually agreeable solution' with me."
"The audacity!" was Mr. Deflem's response. "Somebody intrudes upon you, and
then says, 'Can we work this out?'"
The professor says he fared only a bit better in his experience with an
on-line bookseller, Bigwords.com. When Mr. Deflem went to the site to look
for his own course, he noticed a statement saying that the instructor had
not yet approved of the posting, which listed his course title, reading
list, final exam date, and e-mail address.
Without doing anything more, he logged out of the site. Seconds later, he
logged back in, only to find that the disclaimer had changed and now read:
"The information on this page has been reviewed and approved by Professor
Mathieu Deflem, guaranteeing you the most reliable source for your course
materials on-line! Thanks, Professor Deflem!"
"Thanks a lot indeed!" says Mr. Deflem.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education