Digital Learning News in 'Inside Higher Ed' This Week

The following news developments received coverage in Inside Higher Ed this week:

• Faculty leaders in Indiana and nationally are criticizing what they call a highly restrictive employee agreement at Purdue University Global -- one that requires academics to potentially waive their rights to course materials they create. The agreement, which the American Association of University Professors released publicly and blasted, also prohibits ex-employees from hiring former Purdue colleagues for a year -- or from bad-mouthing Purdue once they’re gone. Purdue Global is the unusual quasi-public university that resulted from Purdue University's purchase last year of the for-profit Kaplan University. Officials at Purdue sharply challenged the AAUP's analysis.
• Two teachers' unions sued the U.S. Department of Education for "illegally" delaying state authorization rules designed to help college students determine in which online university to enroll. The groups alleged in federal court that the department did not follow the correct process to implement the delay, calling it a "brazen attack on student rights" in the name of deregulation. The rules were due to go into effect on July 1 of this year but have been delayed until July 2020.
• Several higher education and library groups have expressed their support for a lawsuit challenging the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to roll back net neutrality rules. The Obama-era rules were designed to prevent internet service providers from slowing down or blocking traffic that may not serve their commercial interests. In a 50-page document, the higher education groups outlined how repealing net neutrality could negatively impact higher education -- potentially raising costs, slowing down the high internet speeds needed for teaching and research, and negatively affecting students who study online.