Fairleigh Dickinson University got a new president last fall, and one of his first orders of business was to decree that, starting in the fall, all FDU undergraduates must take at least one course via distance learning each year. The intent, says president J. Michael Adams, is to ensure that the university's students are "global scholars" equipped with the skills to use the Internet for learning as well as for research and commerce. The new policy will also include training to get faculty up to speed in teaching in a different way.

Linguists find new niche

No one ever accused linguists of choosing their specialty to get rich, but the Internet could be changing all that. For who provides the sense underlying the text searches we all conduct with most Web site visits? It's linguists, a.k.a. "knowledge engineers," who program Web sites to distinguish between word groupings. When linguists join their specialized study with an advanced degree and a degree in computer science, they can command salaries in the six figures, reports Trend Letter in its Sept. 21, 2000, issue. Web sites like AskJeeves.com and other search engines can't find enough tekkies with this specialty, says the newsletter (www.gphinc.com).

Winning intellectual property rights

Negotiating intellectual property rights for faculty who develop online and distance learning courses is a thorny issue on most campuses. But faculty and managers at the Stevens Institute of Technology think they've found the model middle ground, reports the Nov. 22, 2000, online Chronicle of Higher Education.

Under the policy, the institute pays faculty members to develop online courses, gives them ownership of the materials they develop, and offers them control of how and when the materials can be used. The institution will control the copyrights of the online courses and manage distribution. In return for giving up the copyright on a course, faculty members receive a third of revenues when a business or other institution purchases use of a course. Faculty members who leave the institute can take their courses to a new institution--if it pays Stevens a licensing fee--in which case the professors would get a third of the money. http://chronicle.com/free/2000/11/2000112201u.htm.