TWC451/551
Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Electronic Age
Technical Communication Program
Fall 2009 Syllabus

Course Description and Outcomes

Outcomes

Outcomes articulate the skills, abilities, and knowledge that students learn in the TC Program. If you are a TC major, you will present examples of your work from the courses you have taken in your capstone portfolio to demonstrate your learning. As you are taking courses, an understanding of the outcomes will help you in two ways: 1) it will help you understand how the various courses tie together and integrate work and experiences as part of a larger context and 2) it will help you to identify and select coursework that meets specific outcomes. In this course, the outcomes that are specifically addressed include:

Rhetorical Knowledge:

R1: Understand the role of a variety of technologies/media in accessing, retrieving, and communicating information

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

CRW1: Use information, writing, and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating

CRW2: Understand the relationships among language, knowledge, and power including social, cultural, historical, and economic issues related to information, writing, and technology

CRW3: Recognize, understand, and analyze the context within which language, information, and knowledge are produced, managed,
organized, and disseminated

CRW4: Integrate previously held beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge with new information and the ideas of others to accomplish a specific purpose within a context

KC1: Learn and apply appropriate standards, laws, policies, and accepted practices for the use of a variety of technologies

KC2: Apply appropriate means of documenting their work

KC3: Understand and apply legal and ethical uses of information and technology including copyright and intellectual property

To meet these outcomes, on completion of this course, students will be able to:

• define copyright and intellectual property rights
• identify and understand the various laws governing intellectual property in the United States and globally and analyze implications for the ownership and use of information
• understand and analyze the impact of technology on intellectual property laws
• understand and analyze the impact of intellectual property laws on the retrieval and use of information (print and electronic)
• understand and apply ethical standards for the use of information and technology within the realm of intellectual property and copyright
• understand the social, cultural, economic impact of intellectual property laws
• recognize, understand, and analyze the impact of intellectual property laws on the production, management, organization, and dissemination of information and knowledge

Texts and Required Readings

Burgunder, Lee (2007) Legal Aspects of Managing Technology. Mason, OH: West Legal Studies in Business.

See additional list of readings.

Course Evaluation

+/- grades will not be used in this course

This is an online course. If you have never taken an online course, you may want to take the Online Learning Readiness Quiz to see if it's right for you. All assignments are to be completed on time.

Graduate Students: Students registered for graduate credit (TWC551) will complete an additional assignment.

See the course schedule posted in Blackboard (course documents) for due dates. This is a content-heavy course with a significant amount of difficult reading and class discussion.

Scale	Grade
131 - 145 pts	A
116 - 130 pts	B
102 - 115 pts	C
87 - 101 pts	D
0 - 86 pts	E

Graduate Students (TWC551):

Scale	Grade
185- 205 pts	A
164 - 184 pts	B
144 - 163 pts	C
123 - 143 pts	D
0 - 122 pts	E

Course Requirements and Policies

Email

Students enrolled in TC courses are required to use an ASU email account for all course-related email communication.

See the ASU Email help page for information on how to set up your ASU account and policy information.

Academic Integrity

As a student in this course you are expected to complete your own work and to write your own assignments. The use of all sources should be properly cited and documented.

You are responsible for reading and understanding your rights, responsibilities and obligations under ASU's Student Academic Integrity Policy (http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/studentlife/judicial/academic_integrity.htm).

Additional information on plagiarism can be found on the Council for Writing Program Administrators' statement on best practices for defining and avoiding plagiarism (http://www.wpacouncil.org/node/9).

If you have any questions about how or when to cite sources in your assignments, please contact me or consult with a tutor in the ASU Student Success Center.

Students with Special Needs

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal antidiscrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. One element of this legislation requires that all qualified students with documented disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation please contact the Disability Resource Center at ASU Polytechnic located in Student Affairs Quad # 4 or call 480-727-1039 / TTY: 480-727-1009.  Eligibility and documentation policies online: http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/ed/drc.

Last modified: 19 August 2009