Number of hours required to develop a new course?

[hamburger]

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...

[polly_mer]

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?

[hamburger]

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.

[polly_mer]

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?

[hamburger]

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?

[polly_mer]

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.

[hamburger]

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.

[polly_mer]

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?

[marshwiggle]

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.

[polly_mer]

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.