Categories

Emergent Categories

The 2007 HECAS database contains 940 institutional contracts, 378 of which are faculty contracts from two-year institutions. This researcher searched those contracts for terms like “distance learning”, “distributed learning”, “distance education”, “elearning” and the like. 185 contracts contained distance education related terms and of those, 85 were retained for coding. The following are the categories which emerged from the study.

Class Size: This term type refers to the size of distance education courses, generally limiting class size to a certain number.

Committee: Many institutions have Distance Education Committees specified in their negotiated agreements. This term type generally explained the duties, powers or composition of Distance Education Committees.

Compensation: Nearly every contract contained terms regarding faculty compensation for distance education related instruction. This area was quite varied, including compensation for course preparation and revision, for the actual instruction, for mentoring other faculty as well as compensation for the use of intellectual property (covered in another section).

Competency: Few contracts addressed this area. Those that did required faculty teaching distance education courses to demonstrate proficiency in distance education teaching methods.

Contract Review: The area of distance education is a rapidly changing one. Recognizing this, some institutions included terms to reopen sections of the contract for re-negotiation should changing conditions in distance education warrant it. This category also included terms where the union and the institution were unable to reach agreement on areas of distance education and left those terms open to later negotiation.

Definition: Here, institutions defined what they meant by “distance education” and related words and phrases, including online course, telecourse and hybrid. Definition has a subcategory of Materials. Occasionally, negotiated agreements specified the types of materials to be used in distance education courses.

Displacement: Faculty have long been concerned that distance education courses might displace traditional campus courses. Terms in this popular category generally prohibited online courses or faculty from displacing traditional courses or faculty. A subcategory of this term is Priority. This term type specified who had priority in the assignment of distance education courses.

Equivalency: Contracts with this term type generally required that distance education courses be the equivalent of a traditional course.

Evaluation: This term is related to the evaluation of faculty teaching distance education courses, frequently limiting or prohibiting such evaluation.

Intellectual Property: This category included all aspects of copyright and intellectual property. One of the more popular terms, this term type talked about ownership, sale, and other aspects of intellectual property.

Intent/purpose: This term type generally explained why an institution was engaging in distance education.

Load: This term noted whether distance education courses counted towards a faculty member’s teaching load.

Mentor: This term specified conditions and compensation for experienced distance faculty who mentored their colleagues.

Office hours/time on campus: In this category, terms outlined expectations for distance faculty time, including office hours, committee obligations and the like.

Process: This broad category refers to any terms that specified how distance education is to take place. This includes chains and methods of course approval, considerations on when to offer courses, and avenues for the resolution of distance education related problems.

Professional Responsibility: This term specifically outlines the professional expectations of distance faculty.

Quality/assessment: This term relates to the evaluation of the quality of the online course and is distinct from the assessment of online teaching found in the Evaluation terms.

Release time: Many colleges permit faculty to have release time in the preparation and initial teaching of distance education courses. It has a subcategory of Mentoring, referencing faculty who were given release time for that specific activity.

Right of refusal: The faculty member who creates a course is often given the first right of refusal in being scheduled to teach the course.

Scheduling: This category specified the process of distance course scheduling and who would be selected to teach the courses.

Security/privacy: This category included terms which outlined the expectation of privacy for faculty, staff and students in distance education communications like email. It also included terms about how that expectation might be limited to protect the security of the institution.

Technology Support: This term specified how faculty could expect to be supported in the use of distance education related technology, both on campus and off.

Technology: This category relates to the hardware and software technology that an institution would provide for distance education faculty.

Technology Compensation: Some institutions reimburse faculty for distance education related technology costs including a monthly allowance for internet access and the provision of laptop computers.

Training: This term generally requires that faculty have access to distance education related training opportunities.

Use of recordings: This term generally limits the use of recordings, primarily made for ITV classes, without the express permission of the instructor.

Voluntary: This popular term generally states that the teaching of distance education courses if voluntary and that faculty cannot be forced to teach in this mode.

Distance Education Terms in Faculty Contracts by Stephanie Delaney, JD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.