Hi, when asked by the department the number of hours required to develop a new course, how should one respond? It is hard to predict the number of hours required but it is needed for contract creation.
Yes, it is very hard to predict how much time it actually takes to develop a new course. If there is $ being exchanged for the development of a new course, it is easier to think in terms of $ instead of hours. Me personally, I've been paid anywhere from $500 to $2,000 extra, to develop a brand new course from scratch, with the upper end being an online course. That's if I get paid anything extra, at all. Most of the time I didn't get paid anything. I was the one that actually taught the courses, so as is industry standard, it's just part of "prep."
In a more direct answer to your post, I would quote 40 hours, as a general answer for most courses.
What does develop mean here?
I've written a course proposal in 2 hours, when copying and pasting large chunks from old course proposals and making a few edits.
Actually getting ready to teach a new unfamiliar course could take hundreds of hours.
For your purposes, just make up a number that is convenient.
Quote from: downer on October 07, 2019, 10:15:33 PM
For your purposes, just make up a number that is convenient.
And translates to enough money to probably be worth your time doing it. If you don't want to develop the course, then give the answer of $10k, which is what course designers at big institutions tend to get.
If you want to develop the course, then $2-3k is probably the most you can get from your institution.
I'd say that if you mean developing every lecture/discussion/activity from scratch, then at least 2 hrs per,I think, so could be 80 hrs, then assignments and course proposal and all can round that out to 100 hrs. So, for most people with a totally new course, I think probably 100 is a better estimate than 40. But I do agree that you should probably just pick some reasonable number in that range and be done with that aspect of things.
Agree mostly with polly_mer and Ruralguy.
If this is about remuneration, don't minimize the value of your time and expertise. Ask for as much as you can get. Negotiate if possible. Done right, preparing a new course typically takes months.
In general, don't be bashful when it comes to salary and other forms of compensation (e.g., course release time). Usually, the worst that can happen is they say "no."
I like Polly_mer's quote of $10k for creating a "canned" course where anyone with minimum qualifications in the subject area, can drop in at the last minute and "teach" the course. I've never been paid that amount, but I've never been asked to create a canned course for others. I've only been asked to create new courses for myself with me as the instructor, and most of the time, I didn't get paid jack squat for the new course. Well, maybe I got "paid" in favorable reviews for my teaching when I went up for tenure & promotion, because curriculum development is one alternative way to receive high marks for teaching in a tenure/promotion bid--God knows I wouldn't have wanted to submit student evals . . . . .
Thanks. I am a part-timer paid only by the number of hours teaching in class. No pays for making assessments, marking papers, answering emails, dealing with endless emails from nasty students and those who ask for exceptions for skipping tests, assignments, etc.
They will create another contract for developing new course(s). I have to create lesson plan, course outline, PPT slides, assessments, rubric, etc. Yes, there are two cases. Case 1: Developing a completely new course. Case 2: Developing a new course based on an existing one. I need to tell them the number of hours for each case. Too bad they don't offer a full time position even I will be developing multiple courses.
Quote from: hamburger on October 08, 2019, 08:21:06 AM
Thanks. I am a part-timer paid only by the number of hours teaching in class. No pays for making assessments, marking papers, answering emails, dealing with endless emails from nasty students and those who ask for exceptions for skipping tests, assignments, etc.
They will create another contract for developing new course(s). I have to create lesson plan, course outline, PPT slides, assessments, rubric, etc. Yes, there are two cases. Case 1: Developing a completely new course. Case 2: Developing a new course based on an existing one. I need to tell them the number of hours for each case. Too bad they don't offer a full time position even I will be developing multiple courses.
How many hours is the course? If it's a standard 3 hour per week, 18 hour semester that's 54 hours. Multiply that by a reasonable teaching rate.
Whether it's a new or existing course outline, it's still a lot of work to set up the class.
Quote from: hamburger on October 08, 2019, 08:21:06 AM
Thanks. I am a part-timer paid only by the number of hours teaching in class. No pays for making assessments, marking papers, answering emails, dealing with endless emails from nasty students and those who ask for exceptions for skipping tests, assignments, etc.
We've been over this before, but I don't see how it does much good to think of things this way. I'm not suggesting you're getting paid enough, but if you decide to teach a class, you have to do all the things involved in that. How they actually calculate hours is irrelevant, there isn't some version of teaching a college class where you don't have to grade things or answer emails.
Anyway, for what its worth, maybe things are different in the humanities, but essentially every course I've ever taught, I've had to design it and I've created four totally brand new courses from scratch in 5 years and didn't get any extra pay from it, nor would that have been a reasonable expectation. This isn't really that out of the ordinary, so its sort of nice you even get paid at all for this...
When I worked for an academic study abroad company, I was paid $2500 to develop a new program.
I think I spent somewhere between 40-60 hours on it. It was a 3-credit hour course. That was about 15 years ago.
I think this can depend on how well you know the content as well. Last semester I taught a new course with fairly familiar stuff that is closely related to my field and it was fairly straightforward--probably 3 hours of prep for every hour of in-class time. This semester I've got a new course that isn't close to anything I've taught before, and I'm spending probably about 6 hours of prep for every hour of in-class time (yes, it's killing me!).
Quote from: ciao_yall on October 08, 2019, 08:30:40 AM
Quote from: hamburger on October 08, 2019, 08:21:06 AM
Thanks. I am a part-timer paid only by the number of hours teaching in class. No pays for making assessments, marking papers, answering emails, dealing with endless emails from nasty students and those who ask for exceptions for skipping tests, assignments, etc.
They will create another contract for developing new course(s). I have to create lesson plan, course outline, PPT slides, assessments, rubric, etc. Yes, there are two cases. Case 1: Developing a completely new course. Case 2: Developing a new course based on an existing one. I need to tell them the number of hours for each case. Too bad they don't offer a full time position even I will be developing multiple courses.
How many hours is the course? If it's a standard 3 hour per week, 18 hour semester that's 54 hours. Multiply that by a reasonable teaching rate.
Whether it's a new or existing course outline, it's still a lot of work to set up the class.
They did not say the total number of hours but it should be about 50-60 hours. I thought the rate should be the same as my teaching rate or higher. However, to my surprise, they told me that the rate for developing a course is 1/3 of my teaching rate which means I can use an hour of work to eat at a food court for no more than two times. I asked for 60 hours. Is that unreasonable? They told me to tell them how I spend that amount of time. I did. It has been a few days but there is no reply from them.
It looks like the employer is ripping you off again, Hamburger.
How's that job search going to get out of this situation?
I've never been paid to develop a course, but like most of us in the humanities I do this all the time. Syllabus design can take 5-6 or 20-30 hours of reading selection, if you know the field well. I don't know what folks in textbook fields do. Assignments & lectures then require that you read you materials and conduct research and figure out how to pull it together. I can do this in 3-4 hours for a 75 minute class session, assuming I have no existing notes, but so sometimes it will take a lot longer.
Quote from: polly_mer on October 23, 2019, 06:04:05 AM
It looks like the employer is ripping you off again, Hamburger.
It has been two weeks since I submitted a breakdown on how I would spend the 60 hours to develop a new course which they said I would be teaching next semester. Never heard from the department. The deadline for all the teaching materials ready for approval to open the new course is in less than two weeks. Meanwhile, they advertised for a new part-time position on developing courses including the one in my area mentioned here. Since they don't give me the contract, I don't have to start doing the work. Am I right?
Quote from: hamburger on October 30, 2019, 06:34:44 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on October 23, 2019, 06:04:05 AM
It looks like the employer is ripping you off again, Hamburger.
It has been two weeks since I submitted a breakdown on how I would spend the 60 hours to develop a new course which they said I would be teaching next semester. Never heard from the department. The deadline for all the teaching materials ready for approval to open the new course is in less than two weeks. Meanwhile, they advertised for a new part-time position on developing courses including the one in my area mentioned here. Since they don't give me the contract, I don't have to start doing the work. Am I right?
Yes, obviously.
Quote from: downer on October 30, 2019, 06:38:00 AM
Quote from: hamburger on October 30, 2019, 06:34:44 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on October 23, 2019, 06:04:05 AM
It looks like the employer is ripping you off again, Hamburger.
It has been two weeks since I submitted a breakdown on how I would spend the 60 hours to develop a new course which they said I would be teaching next semester. Never heard from the department. The deadline for all the teaching materials ready for approval to open the new course is in less than two weeks. Meanwhile, they advertised for a new part-time position on developing courses including the one in my area mentioned here. Since they don't give me the contract, I don't have to start doing the work. Am I right?
Yes, obviously.
I heard that many colleagues have been around for over 15 years and they are still part-timers.
A senior professor asked me to have some new course materials ready to show him earlier next week. The deadline to have all materials ready for the new course to be approved before opening for students to register is in about 10 days. The department has not even replied to my 60-hour work proposal. No contract has been created. Are they asking me to do free work for them now? Don't know why they also advertised the new position I mentioned. What suggestion do you have?
Give up on this employer and get a different job.
Quote from: polly_mer on October 30, 2019, 04:14:19 PM
Give up on this employer and get a different job.
Thanks for the suggestion. The 60-hour proposal has been turned down. Now, they are asking me to attend the 3rd organizational meeting to get some work done before even a proposed contract has been issued. Even HR mentioned that the department could offer me higher hourly rate, the department chose the minimum.
Quote from: hamburger on October 30, 2019, 06:34:44 AM
Meanwhile, they advertised for a new part-time position on developing courses including the one in my area mentioned here.
Quote from: hamburger on November 04, 2019, 08:22:17 PM
Even HR mentioned that the department could offer me higher hourly rate, the department chose the minimum.
Everything you write sounds awful and it's been going on for years. Like a bad, amateur novel. It's all true? You owe it to yourself to find a better life. Life's too short. Why spend so much time thinking and writing about these awful things?
You've indicated no hope that your current place will improve. Focus on finding a better life. Good luck.
I'm starting to doubt these posts because it seems no rational person would stay in a situation relentlessly awful with new awful stuff happening weekly.
Quote from: hamburger on November 04, 2019, 08:22:17 PM
Quote from: polly_mer on October 30, 2019, 04:14:19 PM
Give up on this employer and get a different job.
Thanks for the suggestion. The 60-hour proposal has been turned down. Now, they are asking me to attend the 3rd organizational meeting to get some work done before even a proposed contract has been issued. Even HR mentioned that the department could offer me higher hourly rate, the department chose the minimum.
Ugh, that's a very bad sign. A good department should be trying to pay adjuncts as much as they can within university rules.
Quote from: Caracal on November 05, 2019, 09:42:11 AM
Quote from: hamburger on November 04, 2019, 08:22:17 PM
Quote from: polly_mer on October 30, 2019, 04:14:19 PM
Give up on this employer and get a different job.
Thanks for the suggestion. The 60-hour proposal has been turned down. Now, they are asking me to attend the 3rd organizational meeting to get some work done before even a proposed contract has been issued. Even HR mentioned that the department could offer me higher hourly rate, the department chose the minimum.
Ugh, that's a very bad sign. A good department should be trying to pay adjuncts as much as they can within university rules.
I heard from colleagues that this place always penny-pinching professors especially part-timers. They only care about getting more students and having a high retention rate. Quality is not really a concern.
Quote from: Cheerful on November 05, 2019, 06:53:15 AM
Quote from: hamburger on October 30, 2019, 06:34:44 AM
Meanwhile, they advertised for a new part-time position on developing courses including the one in my area mentioned here.
Quote from: hamburger on November 04, 2019, 08:22:17 PM
Even HR mentioned that the department could offer me higher hourly rate, the department chose the minimum.
Everything you write sounds awful and it's been going on for years. Like a bad, amateur novel. It's all true? You owe it to yourself to find a better life. Life's too short. Why spend so much time thinking and writing about these awful things?
You've indicated no hope that your current place will improve. Focus on finding a better life. Good luck.
I'm starting to doubt these posts because it seems no rational person would stay in a situation relentlessly awful with new awful stuff happening weekly.
Recently I question myself this too. Life is short. Colleagues who are full-time told me that they are also suffering because most professors are part-timers. This leaves full-timers lots of things to do. Sometimes they spend more time dealing with students' complaints than teaching because complaining is a culture in this department. The school is afraid of students' complaining and students know about this. Full-timers have to face endless of such students until they retire or quit earlier. They said that it is just too time consuming and tiring to deal with these students. This makes me think if I want to have a full-time job in this place. If I continue to work here, my research career is dead.
So, what have you done today to look for another job at a different employer?
We're all agreed this is a terrible place that won't do right by you.
What's the plan to go forward?
Quote from: polly_mer on November 06, 2019, 07:33:44 PM
So, what have you done today to look for another job at a different employer?
We're all agreed this is a terrible place that won't do right by you.
What's the plan to go forward?
Filling in applications. I found this process annoying. Different places require filling in the same information on different forms. Is this unavoidable?
They don't have a full-time job for me nor they can guarantee a new contract next semester. So it is fair that I apply somewhere else as well. When is a good time to leave? I don't know if I will have an offer to teach in this place next semester. If I do, there is a high chance that I will waste my time and energy on those entitled students again. My publications has been on hold for years already. If I quit, I will be unemployed which may not look good when I look for another job.
So the head told me that in this department, they only pay the minimum for part-timers to develop a new course. It has been a few days but again, they don't give me a contract. Meanwhile, the head asked me to send materials for the new course. What does that mean? They don't even want to pay the minimum rate and expect free service?
Quote from: hamburger on November 08, 2019, 06:50:41 AM
If I quit, I will be unemployed which may not look good when I look for another job.
The thing to remember is that you have a job that does not pay very well at all. It should be possible to find something that pays more money, even if its just working at Starbucks. That might not give you a lot of professional satisfaction, but the way you talk about your job and your students, your job doesn't give you that now. At least if you work retail, you get to just leave at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, being an adjunct long term won't make you more competitive for most full time academic jobs. Certainly, in terms of other part time jobs, nobody is going to care much if you took a year off from teaching.
Quote from: hamburger on November 06, 2019, 05:57:55 PM
Quote from: Cheerful on November 05, 2019, 06:53:15 AM
Quote from: hamburger on October 30, 2019, 06:34:44 AM
Meanwhile, they advertised for a new part-time position on developing courses including the one in my area mentioned here.
Quote from: hamburger on November 04, 2019, 08:22:17 PM
Even HR mentioned that the department could offer me higher hourly rate, the department chose the minimum.
Everything you write sounds awful and it's been going on for years. Like a bad, amateur novel. It's all true? You owe it to yourself to find a better life. Life's too short. Why spend so much time thinking and writing about these awful things?
You've indicated no hope that your current place will improve. Focus on finding a better life. Good luck.
I'm starting to doubt these posts because it seems no rational person would stay in a situation relentlessly awful with new awful stuff happening weekly.
Recently I question myself this too. Life is short. Colleagues who are full-time told me that they are also suffering because most professors are part-timers. This leaves full-timers lots of things to do. Sometimes they spend more time dealing with students' complaints than teaching because complaining is a culture in this department. The school is afraid of students' complaining and students know about this. Full-timers have to face endless of such students until they retire or quit earlier. They said that it is just too time consuming and tiring to deal with these students. This makes me think if I want to have a full-time job in this place. If I continue to work here, my research career is dead.
That's a surprisingly skillful changing of the subject. Cheerful's point was that nobody could exhibit as much learned helplessness as "hamburger." The suggestion was that "hamburger" might be a character of fiction. I had the same reaction. I have done a search for symptoms of "self-defeating personality disorder."
Anyway, "hamburger" will never get a full-time job at this place, so don't even think about it.
Even I told them that the teaching materials are not good, they told me not to make any change. They just want have minimum change. Now, several weeks have passed and I have reminded them a few times, they still do not give me a contract but continue to ask me to meet them and do some work in those meetings. Sounds like they don't even want to pay the minimum now and expect me to do some charity work for the department.
Don't do any work without an acceptable contract!
Quote from: polly_mer on November 14, 2019, 06:05:28 AM
Don't do any work without an acceptable contract!
Still no contract. I reminded the department head. Now she told me that only small changes in the assessments are needed. She told me to call her. I am afraid that after deciding to give me the minimum hourly rate, they now decided not to pay me. Colleagues just told me that in this place, they just use people as much as they can with minimum pay. If somebody complain, then they just tell them that there is no teaching duty for them in the next semester.
How's that job search going?
Quote from: polly_mer on November 23, 2019, 05:52:20 PM
How's that job search going?
Still working on it.
Just talked with the chair. Now she wants students from to-be-two-separate courses to sit in the same classroom in the Fall. She calls it "cross-listing". As for January, I run a new course with a different course code for 2-year diploma students using the same teaching materials I am using now for 4-year degree students but I need to change the assessments a bit to make it easier for 2-year diploma students. She said that creating assessments is part of the job of professors (even for part-time professors). As a result, she is not going to pay me. The coordinator then suggested further meetings to work on this.
Quote from: hamburger on November 25, 2019, 09:50:59 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on November 23, 2019, 05:52:20 PM
How's that job search going?
Still working on it.
Just talked with the chair. Now she wants students from to-be-two-separate courses to sit in the same classroom in the Fall. She calls it "cross-listing". As for January, I run a new course with a different course code for 2-year diploma students using the same teaching materials I am using now for 4-year degree students but I need to change the assessments a bit to make it easier for 2-year diploma students. She said that creating assessments is part of the job of professors (even for part-time professors). As a result, she is not going to pay me. The coordinator then suggested further meetings to work on this.
To which you of course replied "Humbug!" and left. I hope. "Eat my shorts" would also be good.
The thing about "hamburger" is that the stories are credible enough, but it is the deadpan reporting of them and the total lack of appropriate response that makes one feel that they are products of the imagination.
Quote from: hamburger on November 25, 2019, 09:50:59 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on November 23, 2019, 05:52:20 PM
How's that job search going?
Still working on it.
Just talked with the chair. Now she wants students from to-be-two-separate courses to sit in the same classroom in the Fall. She calls it "cross-listing". As for January, I run a new course with a different course code for 2-year diploma students using the same teaching materials I am using now for 4-year degree students but I need to change the assessments a bit to make it easier for 2-year diploma students. She said that creating assessments is part of the job of professors (even for part-time professors). As a result, she is not going to pay me. The coordinator then suggested further meetings to work on this.
Did the chair
require alternate assessments, or is that your own idea? If she didn't require it, then you don't have to do it. In that case it wouldn't be surprising that she doesn't intend to pay extra for something that she doesn't see as necessary.
Quote from: marshwiggle on November 25, 2019, 11:10:26 AM
Quote from: hamburger on November 25, 2019, 09:50:59 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on November 23, 2019, 05:52:20 PM
How's that job search going?
Still working on it.
Just talked with the chair. Now she wants students from to-be-two-separate courses to sit in the same classroom in the Fall. She calls it "cross-listing". As for January, I run a new course with a different course code for 2-year diploma students using the same teaching materials I am using now for 4-year degree students but I need to change the assessments a bit to make it easier for 2-year diploma students. She said that creating assessments is part of the job of professors (even for part-time professors). As a result, she is not going to pay me. The coordinator then suggested further meetings to work on this.
Did the chair require alternate assessments, or is that your own idea? If she didn't require it, then you don't have to do it. In that case it wouldn't be surprising that she doesn't intend to pay extra for something that she doesn't see as necessary.
Updating assessments seems like a reasonable part of any teaching assignment, IMHO.
Quote from: marshwiggle on November 25, 2019, 11:10:26 AM
Quote from: hamburger on November 25, 2019, 09:50:59 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on November 23, 2019, 05:52:20 PM
How's that job search going?
Still working on it.
Just talked with the chair. Now she wants students from to-be-two-separate courses to sit in the same classroom in the Fall. She calls it "cross-listing". As for January, I run a new course with a different course code for 2-year diploma students using the same teaching materials I am using now for 4-year degree students but I need to change the assessments a bit to make it easier for 2-year diploma students. She said that creating assessments is part of the job of professors (even for part-time professors). As a result, she is not going to pay me. The coordinator then suggested further meetings to work on this.
Did the chair require alternate assessments, or is that your own idea? If she didn't require it, then you don't have to do it. In that case it wouldn't be surprising that she doesn't intend to pay extra for something that she doesn't see as necessary.
The chair and the course coordinator require it. The thing is that first they wanted me to develop a new course based on an existing one. They asked me for the number of hours required to get the job done so they could create a contract. Then, after I quoted 60 hours and reminded them that HR said they could offer me 100% of my current teaching hourly rate or 1/3 of it, they changed the strategy to "cross-listing" the courses and decided not to give me a penny doing it.
Since I am not teaching that new course with a new course code until January, even it is a professor's job to create assessments, I don't really have to continue to waste my time to talk to them because it is for teaching in January that I have not received the job offer yet. Usually they ask me to sign a contract about a week after the term has started.
Quote from: hamburger on November 25, 2019, 12:01:16 PM
Since I am not teaching that new course with a new course code until January, even it is a professor's job to create assessments, I don't really have to continue to waste my time to talk to them because it is for teaching in January that I have not received the job offer yet. Usually they ask me to sign a contract about a week after the term has started.
That's true.
But it is not unusual to sign the contract after the start of the semester.
I spent an hour or so today working on the syllabus for a Spring course. I don't expect to sign a contract until January. But I am scheduled to teach it and I am confident that I will teach it.
Quote from: downer on November 25, 2019, 11:03:42 AM
"hamburger" is that the stories are credible enough, but it is the deadpan reporting of them and the total lack of appropriate response
This is exactly what death-marching as an interchangeable, warm body cog looks like. This is why I use those particular terms to characterize the problems of adjuncting. Why do administrators think they can continue to pay peanuts, treat people badly, and still have classes covered? Because hamburger's situation is not rare down at resource-strapped institutions nor are hamburger's reactions to the situation rare.
People who are professional fellows or have a good enough part-time job don't have an adjunct problem, although they may desire more stability, better pay/benefits, and different working conditions. A union or individual negotiations may help those folks get those better conditions. The only solution to this kind of death-marching, even limited to just one institution, is quitting for the individual.
downer, you claim to have 7500 posts on the CHE fora. I have to wonder how you missed threads like this every term where we had people who posted asking for advice in these situations (students who couldn't do the work, very low pay or even missing pay, and unsupportive administrators for student problems) and then claimed they couldn't leave or even were angry at us for pointing out the realities.
For years on the fora, we had the recurring discussions of these death-marching adjunct situations as being akin to domestic violence with people asking for advice on how to improve the situation and then not taking the one action that will fix it (i.e., leaving the individual situations).
This situation is not limited to academia. I am a regular reader of the Dear Prudence column in Slate. (https://slate.com/human-interest/dear-prudence) The commentariat there routinely roll their collective eyes over people who ask questions that can be summarized as "what are the magic words to make other people change so I can stay exactly the same, but my situation improves immensely?"
Dan Savage has written a blunt sex advice column for decades now in which DTMFA (Dump the Mother Fucker Already) is standard advice: (even cruder language in link) https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=30928
I believe that hamburger is a real person who is death-marching and feels trapped because the other options seem worse, just like the abused spouse who fears not being able to make a clean break and will end up worse off for trying. However, while domestic abuse victims are right to worry about physical violence by the abuser for trying to escape, academics don't really care who stays or goes and won't chase anyone down (as long as grades are submitted on time and materials are left in the admin's office). People can leave and improve their situation, but just deciding to leave won't immediately change anything.
Getting a good professional job may take years if one is geographically constrained, death-marching for more than a term or so, and continues to have the mindset that good jobs are a matter of applying to job ads with the hopes of convincing someone that academic degrees is the same as job experience instead of networking and leveraging observed experience for one of the 70+% of jobs that are never advertised.
Quote from: polly_mer on November 26, 2019, 04:45:23 AM
This situation is not limited to academia. I am a regular reader of the Dear Prudence column in Slate. (https://slate.com/human-interest/dear-prudence) The commentariat there routinely roll their collective eyes over people who ask questions that can be summarized as "what are the magic words to make other people change so I can stay exactly the same, but my situation improves immensely?"
Dan Savage has written a blunt sex advice column for decades now in which DTMFA (Dump the Mother Fucker Already) is standard advice: (even cruder language in link) https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=30928
Those are great! I hadn't previously come across them, but they certainly reflect the attitude of waiting for the world to change rather than taking personal action to change one's situation. As Polly says, it's (sadly) not exclusive to academia.
Quote from: polly_mer on November 26, 2019, 04:45:23 AM
Quote from: downer on November 25, 2019, 11:03:42 AM
"hamburger" is that the stories are credible enough, but it is the deadpan reporting of them and the total lack of appropriate response
This is exactly what death-marching as an interchangeable, warm body cog looks like. This is why I use those particular terms to characterize the problems of adjuncting. Why do administrators think they can continue to pay peanuts, treat people badly, and still have classes covered? Because hamburger's situation is not rare down at resource-strapped institutions nor are hamburger's reactions to the situation rare.
People who are professional fellows or have a good enough part-time job don't have an adjunct problem, although they may desire more stability, better pay/benefits, and different working conditions. A union or individual negotiations may help those folks get those better conditions. The only solution to this kind of death-marching, even limited to just one institution, is quitting for the individual.
downer, you claim to have 7500 posts on the CHE fora. I have to wonder how you missed threads like this every term where we had people who posted asking for advice in these situations (students who couldn't do the work, very low pay or even missing pay, and unsupportive administrators for student problems) and then claimed they couldn't leave or even were angry at us for pointing out the realities.
For years on the fora, we had the recurring discussions of these death-marching adjunct situations as being akin to domestic violence with people asking for advice on how to improve the situation and then not taking the one action that will fix it (i.e., leaving the individual situations).
This situation is not limited to academia. I am a regular reader of the Dear Prudence column in Slate. (https://slate.com/human-interest/dear-prudence) The commentariat there routinely roll their collective eyes over people who ask questions that can be summarized as "what are the magic words to make other people change so I can stay exactly the same, but my situation improves immensely?"
Dan Savage has written a blunt sex advice column for decades now in which DTMFA (Dump the Mother Fucker Already) is standard advice: (even cruder language in link) https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=30928
I believe that hamburger is a real person who is death-marching and feels trapped because the other options seem worse, just like the abused spouse who fears not being able to make a clean break and will end up worse off for trying. However, while domestic abuse victims are right to worry about physical violence by the abuser for trying to escape, academics don't really care who stays or goes and won't chase anyone down (as long as grades are submitted on time and materials are left in the admin's office). People can leave and improve their situation, but just deciding to leave won't immediately change anything.
Getting a good professional job may take years if one is geographically constrained, death-marching for more than a term or so, and continues to have the mindset that good jobs are a matter of applying to job ads with the hopes of convincing someone that academic degrees is the same as job experience instead of networking and leveraging observed experience for one of the 70+% of jobs that are never advertised.
I have to confess I stopped reading a lot of threads of gloom of people with unrealistic expectations on the old CHE. I suspect that the people who on the "death march" are over represented on the fora. There are some people at least where I am who seem to have been adjuncting for a couple of decades, but I've no reason to think that they have unrealistic expectations. They have their reasons for doing it. And while a bunch of gigs without benefits is never ideal, they seem to be ready to accept their situations. I did know one person who thought that being an adjunct would lead to a full time job, and he was a smart guy with multiple degrees, but he seemed to have some emotional deficits and personal issues that meant that he was not good at reading social cues or coping with problems. The last I heard of him, he was working as a doorman in an apartment building. If our OP in this thread is real, then I wonder if a similar fate is in store for them.
Quote from: downer on November 26, 2019, 10:35:45 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on November 26, 2019, 04:45:23 AM
Quote from: downer on November 25, 2019, 11:03:42 AM
"hamburger" is that the stories are credible enough, but it is the deadpan reporting of them and the total lack of appropriate response
This is exactly what death-marching as an interchangeable, warm body cog looks like. This is why I use those particular terms to characterize the problems of adjuncting. Why do administrators think they can continue to pay peanuts, treat people badly, and still have classes covered? Because hamburger's situation is not rare down at resource-strapped institutions nor are hamburger's reactions to the situation rare.
People who are professional fellows or have a good enough part-time job don't have an adjunct problem, although they may desire more stability, better pay/benefits, and different working conditions. A union or individual negotiations may help those folks get those better conditions. The only solution to this kind of death-marching, even limited to just one institution, is quitting for the individual.
downer, you claim to have 7500 posts on the CHE fora. I have to wonder how you missed threads like this every term where we had people who posted asking for advice in these situations (students who couldn't do the work, very low pay or even missing pay, and unsupportive administrators for student problems) and then claimed they couldn't leave or even were angry at us for pointing out the realities.
For years on the fora, we had the recurring discussions of these death-marching adjunct situations as being akin to domestic violence with people asking for advice on how to improve the situation and then not taking the one action that will fix it (i.e., leaving the individual situations).
This situation is not limited to academia. I am a regular reader of the Dear Prudence column in Slate. (https://slate.com/human-interest/dear-prudence) The commentariat there routinely roll their collective eyes over people who ask questions that can be summarized as "what are the magic words to make other people change so I can stay exactly the same, but my situation improves immensely?"
Dan Savage has written a blunt sex advice column for decades now in which DTMFA (Dump the Mother Fucker Already) is standard advice: (even cruder language in link) https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=30928
I believe that hamburger is a real person who is death-marching and feels trapped because the other options seem worse, just like the abused spouse who fears not being able to make a clean break and will end up worse off for trying. However, while domestic abuse victims are right to worry about physical violence by the abuser for trying to escape, academics don't really care who stays or goes and won't chase anyone down (as long as grades are submitted on time and materials are left in the admin's office). People can leave and improve their situation, but just deciding to leave won't immediately change anything.
Getting a good professional job may take years if one is geographically constrained, death-marching for more than a term or so, and continues to have the mindset that good jobs are a matter of applying to job ads with the hopes of convincing someone that academic degrees is the same as job experience instead of networking and leveraging observed experience for one of the 70+% of jobs that are never advertised.
I have to confess I stopped reading a lot of threads of gloom of people with unrealistic expectations on the old CHE. I suspect that the people who on the "death march" are over represented on the fora. There are some people at least where I am who seem to have been adjuncting for a couple of decades, but I've no reason to think that they have unrealistic expectations. They have their reasons for doing it. And while a bunch of gigs without benefits is never ideal, they seem to be ready to accept their situations. I did know one person who thought that being an adjunct would lead to a full time job, and he was a smart guy with multiple degrees, but he seemed to have some emotional deficits and personal issues that meant that he was not good at reading social cues or coping with problems. The last I heard of him, he was working as a doorman in an apartment building. If our OP in this thread is real, then I wonder if a similar fate is in store for them.
The strategy of the head uses is to let me teaches the new course next semester and using the idea that it is a professor's job to create new assessments, she does not have to pay me a penny besides the number of teaching hours in class.
I am the only one in the department in my area. Meanwhile, she has been advertising to the public about open part-tme position developing and teaching course in my area! Colleague said that the department does it to create competition and that once they have found somebody who can do the job, they will hire that person instead of me.
Quote from: hamburger on December 09, 2019, 08:26:22 PM
Colleague said that the department does it to create competition and that once they have found somebody who can do the job, they will hire that person instead of me.
Yes, that's likely to happen. How's that job search going?
Quote from: polly_mer on December 09, 2019, 08:59:37 PM
Quote from: hamburger on December 09, 2019, 08:26:22 PM
Colleague said that the department does it to create competition and that once they have found somebody who can do the job, they will hire that person instead of me.
Yes, that's likely to happen. How's that job search going?
Applied for some jobs but still waiting for decisions...
Quote from: hamburger on December 09, 2019, 09:04:22 PM
Quote from: polly_mer on December 09, 2019, 08:59:37 PM
Quote from: hamburger on December 09, 2019, 08:26:22 PM
Colleague said that the department does it to create competition and that once they have found somebody who can do the job, they will hire that person instead of me.
Yes, that's likely to happen. How's that job search going?
Applied for some jobs but still waiting for decisions...
That's a start. How is new skill acquisition going? Networking? Professional advice on your materials for a different type of job?
Quote from: glowdart on October 27, 2019, 09:42:06 PM
I've never been paid to develop a course, but like most of us in the humanities I do this all the time. Syllabus design can take 5-6 or 20-30 hours of reading selection, if you know the field well. I don't know what folks in textbook fields do. Assignments & lectures then require that you read you materials and conduct research and figure out how to pull it together. I can do this in 3-4 hours for a 75 minute class session, assuming I have no existing notes, but so sometimes it will take a lot longer.
If I were a full time professor like before in other universities, I would have no complain. In this school they treat me like a call girl. When they needed me, they gave me less than a day of advance notice and expected me to get everything ready. When they did not need me, they just kept postponing until the semester had started and just told me that they had nothing for me and would keep an eye next semester.
Quote from: hamburger on December 09, 2019, 09:19:56 PM
Quote from: glowdart on October 27, 2019, 09:42:06 PM
I've never been paid to develop a course, but like most of us in the humanities I do this all the time. Syllabus design can take 5-6 or 20-30 hours of reading selection, if you know the field well. I don't know what folks in textbook fields do. Assignments & lectures then require that you read you materials and conduct research and figure out how to pull it together. I can do this in 3-4 hours for a 75 minute class session, assuming I have no existing notes, but so sometimes it will take a lot longer.
If I were a full time professor like before in other universities, I would have no complain. In this school they treat me like a call girl. When they needed me, they gave me less than a day of advance notice and expected me to get everything ready. When they did not need me, they just kept postponing until the semester had started and just told me that they had nothing for me and would keep an eye next semester.
So, are you going to continue to be their call girl or will you do something else that will benefit you?
Quote from: polly_mer on December 09, 2019, 09:41:46 PM
Quote from: hamburger on December 09, 2019, 09:19:56 PM
Quote from: glowdart on October 27, 2019, 09:42:06 PM
I've never been paid to develop a course, but like most of us in the humanities I do this all the time. Syllabus design can take 5-6 or 20-30 hours of reading selection, if you know the field well. I don't know what folks in textbook fields do. Assignments & lectures then require that you read you materials and conduct research and figure out how to pull it together. I can do this in 3-4 hours for a 75 minute class session, assuming I have no existing notes, but so sometimes it will take a lot longer.
If I were a full time professor like before in other universities, I would have no complain. In this school they treat me like a call girl. When they needed me, they gave me less than a day of advance notice and expected me to get everything ready. When they did not need me, they just kept postponing until the semester had started and just told me that they had nothing for me and would keep an eye next semester.
So, are you going to continue to be their call girl or will you do something else that will benefit you?
I applied for some jobs over the holiday but no respond yet.
The new semester will start in two days. Yesterday, I asked them my teaching duty and the contract as everything was unclear. They said that they only have one course (this new one) assigned to me and if something else comes up, they would let me know. As for the contract, they mentioned that they were working on it. As far as I recall, last Fall, they gave me the contract after I taught for two weeks. As the new department head said, developing new assessments is the job of a professor. So, she did not pay me and expects me to do it on the fly starting next week.
Then I asked another department if they have anything for me. The hiring manager asked me to let her know if I will be working for another department as she does not hire people so that they get health benefits and under the protection of the union. People who teach 2-3 courses have such benefits. I heard from the union that there is no rule for teaching in more than one department. They mentioned that administrators either don't know the rules well or they like to mislead employees by making up their own rules to save money which has happened often. I just told her that my home department "planned" to have me to teach one course but there is no contract. So I am available. She then told me that she has one course for me but since only a few people have registered, she is not sure if it will run. She would let me know if the course would open later.
So, if I continue to teach here, nothing will change. I just work like a call girl on standby every semester.
I have never worked for a place that does not offer a contract before the first day of work. Since they have not even made a contract and all the terms and conditions are unknown, I still have tomorrow or early Monday to decide if I am going to work for this department with no health benefits nor protection from the union?
OK.
Will the paycheck for the one class be worth your time to teach the class or are you better off doing something else? My bet is you'd be better off taking a minimum wage job doing something else and continuing to look for professional work, but only you know what your bank account looks like.
I will say that I've certainly had the problem that specific jobs take so much time and energy that I had trouble devoting enough time and energy to make my job search successful. Previous narratives regarding this employer indicate this is likely to be the case this term.
As an aside, in the US, the threshold for having to pay benefits including health insurance is number of contracted hours per week for the institution that constitutes being at least half time. It doesn't matter at all how those hours are allotted by institutional unit; the question is whether the person is employed at least half time by the employer. That money comes from somewhere and there's often a huge difference between finding the money for one course at $2000 and one course at $2000+1/3*prorated benefits.
Quote from: polly_mer on January 05, 2020, 07:57:07 PM
OK.
Will the paycheck for the one class be worth your time to teach the class or are you better off doing something else? My bet is you'd be better off taking a minimum wage job doing something else and continuing to look for professional work, but only you know what your bank account looks like.
I will say that I've certainly had the problem that specific jobs take so much time and energy that I had trouble devoting enough time and energy to make my job search successful. Previous narratives regarding this employer indicate this is likely to be the case this term.
As an aside, in the US, the threshold for having to pay benefits including health insurance is number of contracted hours per week for the institution that constitutes being at least half time. It doesn't matter at all how those hours are allotted by institutional unit; the question is whether the person is employed at least half time by the employer. That money comes from somewhere and there's often a huge difference between finding the money for one course at $2000 and one course at $2000+1/3*prorated benefits.
I considered to quit in the middle of last semester (like the full-timer I replaced last year) but I was advised not to do that as it would look bad on me if I wanted to stay in this department. However, today is the first day of class and they have not even sent me a contract to consider. So, in case I decide not to be abused by this department and the students anymore, I can just tell them that I decide not to teach and not show up in class? Since they have not sent me a contract and I have not signed anything, I am not breaking a contract nor obligated to show up in class. Am I correct? If they complain that I give last minute notice, isn't it their fault as they are the one who does this? If I show up in class today but quit next week regardless of whether a contract is offered, then it will look bad on me?
I am the only specialist in my area. I don't know why they continue to put on an advertisement to find somebody to teach my courses. Two senior colleagues told me that once they have found somebody willing to do the job at a lower rate, they will not hire me.
I also heard that it is difficult for this college to keep PhD holders. For example, in my department, two professors with a PhD recently resigned after working there full-time for 2-3 years. I heard that whenever the department needs to apply for a new program and the government requires that they list the number of PhD holders in the department, they count people like me. Giving people like me one course to teach is the cheapest way to do it.
Several colleagues have told me that everything in this CC is about business. Academic qualifications, teaching and research experiences don't count as much as other unwritten factors in hiring.
You absolutely can contact the department chair and decline to teach this class, even today on the first day of classes.
You don't need to preserve your reputation with this department because you aren't going to teach there any more and thus don't need their good will.
The department will figure out something related to this class and that's not your problem.
Now, what are you going to do instead with all the time and energy you just freed up? How about sending out some more job applications?
Quote from: hamburger on January 04, 2020, 12:33:59 PM
The new semester will start in two days. Yesterday, I asked them my teaching duty and the contract as everything was unclear. They said that they only have one course (this new one) assigned to me and if something else comes up, they would let me know. As for the contract, they mentioned that they were working on it. As far as I recall, last Fall, they gave me the contract after I taught for two weeks. As the new department head said, developing new assessments is the job of a professor. So, she did not pay me and expects me to do it on the fly starting next week.
Then I asked another department if they have anything for me. The hiring manager asked me to let her know if I will be working for another department as she does not hire people so that they get health benefits and under the protection of the union. People who teach 2-3 courses have such benefits. I heard from the union that there is no rule for teaching in more than one department. They mentioned that administrators either don't know the rules well or they like to mislead employees by making up their own rules to save money which has happened often. I just told her that my home department "planned" to have me to teach one course but there is no contract. So I am available. She then told me that she has one course for me but since only a few people have registered, she is not sure if it will run. She would let me know if the course would open later.
So, if I continue to teach here, nothing will change. I just work like a call girl on standby every semester.
I have never worked for a place that does not offer a contract before the first day of work. Since they have not even made a contract and all the terms and conditions are unknown, I still have tomorrow or early Monday to decide if I am going to work for this department with no health benefits nor protection from the union?
Did this strike anyone other than me as a subtle attempt to get someone to quit without explicitly saying so? In other words, what seems like disorganization may be intentional heel-dragging to make conditions so bad that the person would just get fed up and walk away. It avoids the awkwardness of having to explain why you don't want to rehire someone.
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 06, 2020, 06:29:15 AM
Did this strike anyone other than me as a subtle attempt to get someone to quit without explicitly saying so? In other words, what seems like disorganization may be intentional heel-dragging to make conditions so bad that the person would just get fed up and walk away. It avoids the awkwardness of having to explain why you don't want to rehire someone.
Nope. This looks a lot more like not putting in any effort to retain someone who isn't wanted, but fills an empty slot when the overwhelmed chair is desperate enough.
If I remember the saga correctly, hamburger was not offered anything after the first semester of teaching for these folks and then was contacted to fill in for the person who quit mid-semester.
hamburger has mentioned applying for multiple full-time jobs at this place and not being even called for an interview. The story related to incomplete applications every time is more indicative of the subtle "you're not getting the job; stop applying" than holding off on a contract until the very last minute every term.
These folks don't want hamburger, but are having trouble getting someone else to take the courses. Thus, hamburger keeps getting the call when there's nobody else readily available indicating that hamburger at the last minute is better than nothing. There's confidence that hamburger will take a crap assignment at the last minute and then someone else can change the grades to be "right" after the term.