UNC system president orders all class syllabuses to be published as public records

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Roberts and Han are the appointed wrecking crew.

I'd love to see reporting on the various system chancellors and the degree to which they have worked (or perhaps not) toward the BOG goals of hamstringing, downgrading, crushing The Humanities, and pushing overall instruction to The Right.
 
donbosco said:
"Peter Hans, UNC System president, has said—with little prior consultation with faculty—that course syllabi will be considered directed works, copyrighted and owned by the UNC System, not the instructors who created them....Andd yet, the impending UNC policy is cause for concern. Because of the far-reaching implications of defining syllabi as directed works—the same, in effect, as calling them works made for hire—this policy can be seen as a trojan horse, sneaked in the back door and potentially usable later as a tool for controlling course content and undermining academic freedom....If syllabi are defined as such works, the same legal principles would apply. University administrators could say what must be included or excluded, the form a syllabus must take, and how the syllabus can be used—perhaps even whether a faculty member can share it with others or allow it to be reprinted. All this becomes legally permissible if a syllabus is owned by the university. This would amount to an extraordinary transfer of control."

ncnewsline.com

UNC system’s new 'work for hire' policy is a right-wing Trojan horse • NC Newsline

COMMENTARY: As faculty objecting to the policy argued, making syllabi public isn’t really about transparency for the benefit of students, as Hans claims, but about making faculty and their courses easier targets for outside critics with an ideological agenda.
ncnewsline.com ncnewsline.com
Click to expand...
If institutions start trying to dictate course content, accreditation will be at risk, at least from the traditional accrediting bodies.
 
donbosco said:
Roberts and Han are the appointed wrecking crew.

I'd love to see reporting on the various system chancellors and the degree to which they have worked (or perhaps not) toward the BOG goals of hamstringing, downgrading, crushing The Humanities, and pushing overall instruction to The Right.
Click to expand...
Roberts is a tool of the BOG.
 
donbosco said:
This will change the nature of the syllabus I foresee.

And while I've not seen anything about it in the news...I believe that all the system schools are being required to switch to Canvas as their LMS. That will, I suspect, mean that all of the material posted there will be viewable by administrators. I reckon that was always the case but there was some degree of rigamarol involved in accessing an individual instructor's LMS previously. The streamlining/leveling of everything to Canvas will make that much easier for Big Brother BOG.
Click to expand...

The "Move to Canvas" order has been issued and will start next Spring. And it facilitates even more broad harvesting of intellectual property than imagined...

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Meanwhile this from a Chronicle of Higher Education article of December 29, 2025:

"To understand these processes, consider Instructure Holdings, the company responsible for Canvas, the dominant learning-management system in the United States. In 2024, Instructure was acquired by Dragoneer Investment Group, which led a major round of venture funding for OpenAI, and KKR, a prominent private-equity firm with well over half a trillion dollars under management. In the months following the acquisition, Canvas announced it would introduce generative-AI integrations not only from OpenAI, but also Google Gemini and Amazon Bedrock.

The archive of Canvas course environments goes back over a decade and encompasses, conservatively, hundreds of thousands of courses worldwide. In AI-development terms, this is an incredible multimedia corpus, consisting not only of syllabi and assignment prompts, but recorded lectures, slideshows, readings, rubrics, gradesheets, quizzes, discussion boards, and many forms of (ostensibly private) interaction between students and instructors.

When you create “content” on Canvas, according to the standard terms of use, “Instructure does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, you grant Instructure a fully paid, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right (including any moral rights) and license to use, license, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform, and publicly display, Your Content (in whole or in part) for the purposes of operating and providing the Instructure Properties.”

These practices are the tip of a very large iceberg. Ed tech’s white whale is aggregating and monetizing student data. Instructure openly imagines the gamification of Canvas, whereby student performance in coursework is converted into badges that students could pay to display, or employers could pay to see, and that could be migrated to other enterprise software run by Instructure or its partners. Employers could pay to find out, theoretically, if, between two students with similar GPAs, one had better attendance or turned in assignments more punctually, or was more active in group work, or did better under the pressure of cumulative exams.

One of the more durable strengths of American higher education has been the space it creates for young adults to develop not only academic and occupational skills but also habits of mind, social knowledge, independence, and reliability under conditions where failures are routine and are rarely part of their permanent record. The totalitarian surveillance apparatus designed by ed-tech enterprises promises to ruin this."

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Anyone want more from this firewalled article just drop me a line and I will share. Here is the link just in case:

 
Originally posted on the "War on Universities..." thread...

"Hearing that this platform/website may be in the pipeline."

simplesyllabus.com

Syllabus publishing - Simple Syllabus

Save instructors time, eliminate frustration, promote an interactive experience for students through syllabus management system.
simplesyllabus.com simplesyllabus.com


This will further facilitate the end of intellectual property and the harvesting of data.
 
The UNC Policy Manual
400.1.6[R]
Adopted 12/19/25
Regulation on Publication of Academic Calendars, Grading Policies, and Related Materials
I. Purpose. Section 400.1.6 of the UNC Policy Manual, Policy on the University of North Carolina
Academic Calendar and Credit Requirements, provides that constituent institutions shall develop
academic calendars and course offerings that are structured to ensure consistent academic rigor and
learning outcomes. Section 400.1.6 of the UNC Policy Manual further mandates that institutions shall
publish academic calendars, grading policies, and other related materials in a manner publicly available
to students and the public and ensure that they are widely distributed.
Access to course syllabi furthers the university’s overall goal to improve student progression and
timely degree completion. A student’s review of syllabi prior to registration in a course properly equips
students to critically weigh their respective capacities and successfully plan for their semesters ahead. A
student’s evaluation of potential course success might include a cost analysis of required materials and
an understanding of an instructor’s grading scale, relative to the student’s additional courseload and
evaluation expectations. The availability of current and representative course syllabi further empowers
prospective transfer students to evaluate their perceived success and academic fit in a constituent
institution’s courses and programs.1

This regulation informs the public regarding the copyright ownership and public accessibility of
course syllabi and reaffirms the university’s commitment to transparency as a state agency.

II. Syllabus Defined.
A. “Syllabus” or “Syllabi” is defined in this regulation as an employer required document to
accompany any course offered by an institution for academic credit. Syllabi are developed by the
instructor, at the institution’s direction, and are required to include sufficient detail to inform
students of the course and instructor’s expectations for the specified class.
B. Directed Works. Syllabi are directed works2, as distinguished from creative non-directed
works, that are developed within the scope of an instructor’s employment and under institutional
direction. Under section XII of Section 500.2 of the UNC Policy Manual, Patent and Copyright
Policies, the institution is considered the copyright owner of course syllabi, as directed work.3 As
such, instructors do not retain personal copyright in these materials, and syllabi owned by a public
agency generated in the course of public business, are not copyrightable in a manner that would
exempt syllabi from public access to these records, consistent with state and federal public
records laws. Syllabi shall be treated as “public records” as that term is used in Chapter 132 of the
North Carolina General Statutes.

1. Because of the treatment of syllabi as public records recognized by this

Footnotes
1 See UNC Policy 400.1.5.3[R], Regulation to Foster Undergraduate Transfer Student Success.
2 See UNC Policy 500.2, Patent and Copyright Policies.
3 See UNC Policy 500.2 section XII.

regulation, if in response to a public records request, an instructor believes his or her
syllabus for academic year 2025-26, or before, includes copyrightable materials for which
he or she holds an ownership interest and objects to the production of the syllabus in
response to the public records request, the instructor may submit a written position to
the institution’s provost for review within a reasonable time period prescribed by the
institution.
a. Written positions shall include a copy of the applicable syllabus and
identify specific language in the syllabus that the instructor believes he or she
maintains a copyrightable interest. The provost, in consultation with the
institution’s General Counsel, shall consider the instructor’s position before filling
any public records request in accordance with applicable law.

C. Beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, all syllabi shall, at a minimum, include the
following:
1. Course name and prefix, along with the course description;
2. All goals, objectives, student learning outcomes, and/or student expectations for
the course;
3. An explanation of how student performance will be assessed, including the
grading scale, percentage breakdown of major assignments, and how attendance or
participation will affect a student’s final grade;
4. List of all course materials (physical and/or electronic) that students are required
to purchase; and
5. A statement noting that the course engages diverse scholarly perspectives to
develop critical thinking, analysis, and debate and inclusion of a reading does not imply
endorsement.
D. Syllabi do not constitute an express or implied contract among the student, faculty, or
institution. Rather, syllabi serve as a guide for the course.

III. Availability of Syllabi.
A. Beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, each instructor teaching a course offered by an
institution for academic credit shall establish and maintain a course syllabus to properly define
the expectations of the course and include information required in section II.C. of this regulation.
Academic experiences occurring outside of organized course sections and providing individual
instruction in exchange for course credit, e.g. practicums, internships, independent research, and
dissertations, may not require a syllabus.

B. Beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, each constituent institution shall develop an
online platform to house syllabi for each course offered in a given semester or session. Each
institution shall make the online platform publicly available and:

1. Make syllabi readily searchable to the public within that online platform;
2. Post course syllabi on the institution’s online platform in accordance with the
implementation timeline in section III.C., below; and
3. Update syllabi information within the online platform in accordance with material
changes in instructor syllabi and course expectations.4

C. Implementation Timeline.
1. Beginning Fall 2026, all course syllabi shall be posted to the institution’s publicly
available online platform no later than one (1) week prior to the first day of classes for
the applicable semester or session (For instance, if an institution’s Fall 2026 classes begin
August 17, 2026, syllabi for the Fall 2026 semester shall be posted by August 10, 2026).
2. If a syllabus is unavailable as required in section III.C.1. above due to reasonable
institutional operational limitations, such as when a course is under development or the
instructor is not yet assigned, the institution shall post the syllabus upon its development
and completion, which shall occur no later than the first day of classes for that academic
semester or session.

IV. Institutional Regulations. Each constituent institution shall implement its own respective policies
or procedures on syllabi publication consistent with the requirements of this regulation and applicable
law.5

V. Other Matters.
A. Nothing within this regulation shall be construed to require a publicly available syllabus
to include the location or time of day at which a course is being held.
B. The content of posted syllabi shall adhere to all applicable law, including the Federal
Educational Rights and Privacy Act. No syllabus shall include any personally identifiable
information of students.
C. Effective Date. The requirements of this regulation shall be effective on January 15, 2026.
D. Relation to State Laws. This regulation as adopted by the president supplements, and
does not supplant or modify, those statutory enactments, regulations, and policies which govern
the activities of public officials.

Footnotes
4 Syllabi posted to the institution’s online platform may be removed after four (4) years, in accordance with the
university’s record retention schedule. See also UNC General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule (2021),
Series # 12.11, “Course Syllabi and Outlines” (which has long affirmed that course syllabi are institutional records
held by the university, and are not classified as confidential or as containing confidential information).
5 This regulation applies only to work at the baccalaureate level and above and therefore does not apply to the
North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for its high
school programs, or to any lab schools operated by a constituent institution. Secondary instruction at those
institutions is subject to separate regulations under various General Statutes.
 
donbosco said:
The "Move to Canvas" order has been issued and will start next Spring. And it facilitates even more broad harvesting of intellectual property than imagined...

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Meanwhile this from a Chronicle of Higher Education article of December 29, 2025:

"To understand these processes, consider Instructure Holdings, the company responsible for Canvas, the dominant learning-management system in the United States. In 2024, Instructure was acquired by Dragoneer Investment Group, which led a major round of venture funding for OpenAI, and KKR, a prominent private-equity firm with well over half a trillion dollars under management. In the months following the acquisition, Canvas announced it would introduce generative-AI integrations not only from OpenAI, but also Google Gemini and Amazon Bedrock.

The archive of Canvas course environments goes back over a decade and encompasses, conservatively, hundreds of thousands of courses worldwide. In AI-development terms, this is an incredible multimedia corpus, consisting not only of syllabi and assignment prompts, but recorded lectures, slideshows, readings, rubrics, gradesheets, quizzes, discussion boards, and many forms of (ostensibly private) interaction between students and instructors.

When you create “content” on Canvas, according to the standard terms of use, “Instructure does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, you grant Instructure a fully paid, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right (including any moral rights) and license to use, license, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform, and publicly display, Your Content (in whole or in part) for the purposes of operating and providing the Instructure Properties.”

These practices are the tip of a very large iceberg. Ed tech’s white whale is aggregating and monetizing student data. Instructure openly imagines the gamification of Canvas, whereby student performance in coursework is converted into badges that students could pay to display, or employers could pay to see, and that could be migrated to other enterprise software run by Instructure or its partners. Employers could pay to find out, theoretically, if, between two students with similar GPAs, one had better attendance or turned in assignments more punctually, or was more active in group work, or did better under the pressure of cumulative exams.

One of the more durable strengths of American higher education has been the space it creates for young adults to develop not only academic and occupational skills but also habits of mind, social knowledge, independence, and reliability under conditions where failures are routine and are rarely part of their permanent record. The totalitarian surveillance apparatus designed by ed-tech enterprises promises to ruin this."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Anyone want more from this firewalled article just drop me a line and I will share. Here is the link just in case:

Click to expand...
Unfortunately, since so many high schools use Canvas (Wake County schools all use Canvas for example), I think this move was inevitable.

In terms of user friendliness, Canvas is better than some others out there. In terms of protecting intellectual content, it appears to be very weak. At least that is my initial impression. I could be way off on that.
 
15 years ago or so my X got really pissed when the Middle School wanted to put her old self 55 yr old picture on the web page next to her name.....
My how we have progressed
 
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