Chapter 11 in our text "Delivering Digitally" gives what seems to me to be a fairly dispassionate description of the process of transitioning to distance/online education. And most of it seems pretty obvious--anyone who's gone through any organizational change could write the sentence that the process includes three phases: initial planning, startup, and changeover. Yes, of course.
More interesting to me was the question asked in our course information about what "teachers and administrators assume as part of their organizational culture", including who 'owns' the information that the teacher presents to learners.
This resonated with me because of an experience I've had with one of the universities where I teach as an adjunct asking me to develop my course into an online version. See, I think of it as "my" course. And in a way it is--it contains way more than simple content from a textbook or from other sources. It is based very much on my own experiences and the mini-internship component is built solely on my personal relationships with local non-profits who are willing to "host" grad students to write proposals for them.
But in a way it is not mine--yes, I developed the syllabus but it was approved by the faculty and is regulated by my department head every year. Yes, the course is based on my experience but is offered as an elective in a university degree program. And yes, I am paid to teach it every year.
If I, a yearly adjunct, feel the tug of "my" course, I can only imagine what others much more enmeshed in the academic life must feel when their institutions go in the direction of online DE. A major question is whether the development of a course means that the faculty will teach it, or whether a university might hire non-professors (like TAs or grad students etc.) to facilitate the course online.
From my position I can see a benefit to that, but I imagine that to a career-long resident of the academy, it might be tough to take.
What do you think?
I think what I would worry about is putting a lot of effort into designing a course and then after a semester or two being "fired". By fired I mean not asked to teach that particular course, not necessarily all out fired. If you design a course for a university it is almost like you then lose all rights to it. Once it is up and running they could hire someone else to teach it. Do you think you could take a course that you designed for one university with you to a new university if you switched jobs?
ReplyDeleteWhitney--I agree completely. That's why so far I have not done this for the university that asked me to. The contract that I would have signed to develop/adapt the course required me to give away all rights to the course and which indicated that the university could use anyone they wanted in the future to deliver the course.
ReplyDeleteAs for your question about taking courses with me--I do this now. I teach the same basic course that I developed at two different universities. And at one of the U's I teach it for two different colleges/schools (one Arts/Sciences, in the dept. of communication, the other the School of Public Health).
What I have come to see is that I could conceivably have two versions--my in-person, experiential course that is of course awesome since I am teaching it (!), and another which would have very similar content but which could be delivered by anyone. Though my personal belief is that if the course were not taught by someone with professional grant writing experience then it could not be as good. Seriously--doesn't have to be me, but the facilitator needs to be experienced in nonprofits and grants.
"That's why so far I have not done this for the university that asked me to."
ReplyDelete--I'm glad to hear this. Adjuncts already have taken advantage of so much and so often, if only because non-renewal of an adjunct is so easy.
I don't have personal experience with feelings of course ownership, but two weeks ago there was a good article that touched upon this in the Chronicle Review. The author wrote, "Far bigger reasons [for not retiring] are my attachment to the students and to several courses and programs that I've developed."
at
http://chronicle.com/article/I-Have-Been-Invited-to-Retire/124912/
but you can read it for free in Lеxís-Nеxís
-JD