Copyrighted Internet material in education—teacher needs and use arrangements

Abstract

Teachers are in need of mechanisms to allow them routinely reproduce and distribute digitally copyrighted material. That was the starting point in the study on teachers’ Internet material use benefits in Finnish education. The study considers the use and reproduction of Internet material like text, graphs and pictures. In the study, which took place in 2005–2006, conjoint analysis was used to measure teachers’ individual benefits for different types of Internet material and special attention was given to how teachers wanted to reproduce the material as well how the price paid affected their choices. The demand for different types of uses was simulated on the basis of the benefits measured. The study interviewed a representative sample (n = 1,146) of teachers on all the levels from primary school to universities. The study produced information for all the players in the educational copyrights field. User studies of copyrighted digital goods in education or any other field are almost non-existing. We wish to highlight the value of such studies.