[Air-L] Online course development--what's a good contract?

[Richard Forno]

(removed cc's to the lists I'm not on)

For my grad program, we normally pay faculty the equivalent of 1 semester's teaching to develop a course ... or half that amount if it's to transform an existing course from traditional in-person lecture to online delivery. That said, I forget if the prof owns the course content and gives the uni a royalty-free license in perpetuity, or vice-versa but our lawyers blessed the contract, so presumably the uni's interests are protected.

Contract-wise, we also mandate a few milestones along the way:   in my case I keep things simple, and ask faculty for the high-level draft syllabus w/topics and planned books early (they get 1/2 payment) to make sure they're doing what I'm expecting them to be doing (and hitting the right themes) and then I'll  confirm the course is developed as expected - and all materials delivered - before I approve release of the second part of their payment at the end of the contract period.  Other program chairs or departments may micro-manage that process, but I keep it fairly simple.

And of course, there are some programs/depts that may view course development as 'service' and part of a regular prof's normal duties (if they want to do it) so a separate course dev contract may not be done.  By contrast, at least in our dept, regular instructional faculty tend to receive extra $$ for course development, just as they would for other administrative duties or overload teaching.

Hope that helps,

-- rick


> On Jun 22, 2020, at 20:11, Patricia Aufderheide <paufder at american.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi! We're in urgent need of understanding what good precedent is in negotiating faculty rights when universities develop online content. Who owns the content? What does the faculty member get paid to develop the content? What are the protections that the university won't just take the developed course and hire adjuncts to teach it? Any advice gratefully welcomed.
> 
> 
> Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication
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