Teaching from the Grave?

[bopper]

I saw this on twitter today:

@AaronLinguini
HI EXCUSE ME, I just found out the the prof for this online course I'm taking *died in 2019* and he's technically still giving classes since he's *literally my prof for this course* and I'm learning from lectures recorded before his passing

..........it's a great class but WHAT

IDK SOMETHING ABOUT IT IS WEIRD

I mean, I guess I technically read texts written by people who've passed all the time, but it's the fact that I looked up his email to send him a question and PULLED UP HIS MEMORIAM INSTEAD that just THREW ME OFF A LITTLE

This prof is this sweet old French guy who's just absolutely thrilled to talk paintings of snow and horses, and somehow he always manages to make it interesting, making you care about something you truly thought could not possibly be that interesting.

It's fucking sad man wtf

Why would you not tell someone that? Do you think students just don't give a shit about the people they spend months learning from?

And like, it's shitty that won't get to thank him for making all of this information so engaging and accessible

I tend to you know...actually talk to my teachers a lot?

Idk man it's just a weird thing to find out when you're looking for an email address.

[mamselle]

Umm...we watch films of long-gone film stars and listen to music recordings of long-dead composers' works all the time...

But I suppose if one thought the prof was alive, that would be aback-putting.

It's kind of nice the student wanted to thank the professor, though.

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

That's amazing!

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess there could be a lot of that these days.

[marshwiggle]

That's amazing!

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess there could be a lot of that these days.

If everything is autograded. It would be a great money machine for the institution in that case.

[research_prof]

Never mind

[Hibush]

That's amazing!

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess there could be a lot of that these days.

If everything is autograded. It would be a great money machine for the institution in that case.

Dead tenured professors are even cheaper than contingent ones.

Covid may be restructuring higher education in more ways.

[Hegemony]

Sort of like ... reading a book. But not how a class is supposed to run.

[apl68]

Well anyway lecturing from the grave.

Unexpectedly learning that the professor was deceased must have been a shock, all right.

[Katrina Gulliver]

Yeah, I saw the thread and it seems that prof was still listed as running that class. It wasn't Professor Living's class, with a note that they'd be using some lectures done in the past by Professor Past. The student had no idea it was being run by a TA, who presumably wasn't getting any credit as instructor of record either.

An instituion I taught at was obsessed with forcing us to film all our lectures, which they claimed was for student benefit but would admit sotto voce it was so they could re-run classes in summer school withouth having to compensate the profs.

[mamselle]

Just did a re-read of this thread title and said to myself, "Well, actually, I teach from the gravestones all the time..."

M.

[Caracal]

Yeah, I saw the thread and it seems that prof was still listed as running that class. It wasn't Professor Living's class, with a note that they'd be using some lectures done in the past by Professor Past. The student had no idea it was being run by a TA, who presumably wasn't getting any credit as instructor of record either.

An instituion I taught at was obsessed with forcing us to film all our lectures, which they claimed was for student benefit but would admit sotto voce it was so they could re-run classes in summer school withouth having to compensate the profs.

I assumed we were talking about some kind of MOOC, in which case, who cares. However, if its a real class at a real campus, that's ridiculous. Couldn't that fall afoul of accrediting agencies if a TA is running the class without receiving credit for it using someone else's lectures?

[Prof_Poirot]

Before this blows up on the internet any more (now that the Chronicle has published a sensationalist article about the issue), I'd like to share some context with you folks.

I'm grading the exams and term papers. I'm the instructor of record for this course.

This is an online course offered through the university and a 3rd party company as part of an online education partnership started 10 years ago. The professor in the lectures was an illustrious expert and beloved teacher at my university. He worked with the company to create and develop this course. The whole organization, readings, assignments–everything is what he put together.

There are two TAs along with myself (Ph.D. art historian) to grade the assignments and exams and give feedback to the students. Although it is online, this is a completely standard kind of survey class with standard forms of assessment in my field. Nothing out of the ordinary in that regard.

My name appears in the first sentence of the first line of the course outline. The second sentence explains that the late professor is the one in the recorded lectures. It's a shame that this student appears to be upset about the passing of the professor, but they missed the parts of the syllabus and registration that list me as the person on the other end of the email address for the course.

By the way, one of my colleagues tells me that a member of our department reached out to the online learning company and told them that the original professor had passed away. They didn't seem to have done anything with that info before the semester started. They've now posted a very nice biography of the late professor that someone in our department wrote.

I've worked at universities where the upper admin would have loved to create recordings of professors and replace us all with underpaid adjuncts or TAs. This is not that kind of school. I'm really fortunate to work here now.

There's plenty in the world to get outraged about these days. This is not one of those situations.

[mamselle]

Quel mystère intéressant....

M.

[the_geneticist]

Before this blows up on the internet any more (now that the Chronicle has published a sensationalist article about the issue), I'd like to share some context with you folks.

I'm grading the exams and term papers. I'm the instructor of record for this course.

This is an online course offered through the university and a 3rd party company as part of an online education partnership started 10 years ago. The professor in the lectures was an illustrious expert and beloved teacher at my university. He worked with the company to create and develop this course. The whole organization, readings, assignments–everything is what he put together.

There are two TAs along with myself (Ph.D. art historian) to grade the assignments and exams and give feedback to the students. Although it is online, this is a completely standard kind of survey class with standard forms of assessment in my field. Nothing out of the ordinary in that regard.

My name appears in the first sentence of the first line of the course outline. The second sentence explains that the late professor is the one in the recorded lectures. It's a shame that this student appears to be upset about the passing of the professor, but they missed the parts of the syllabus and registration that list me as the person on the other end of the email address for the course.

By the way, one of my colleagues tells me that a member of our department reached out to the online learning company and told them that the original professor had passed away. They didn't seem to have done anything with that info before the semester started. They've now posted a very nice biography of the late professor that someone in our department wrote.

I've worked at universities where the upper admin would have loved to create recordings of professors and replace us all with underpaid adjuncts or TAs. This is not that kind of school. I'm really fortunate to work here now.

There's plenty in the world to get outraged about these days. This is not one of those situations.

Still feels off to me.  For one, if you are just recycling old materials & doing no updating or innovation I don't think that's fair to the students.  Two, the students are paying to watch someone else, who isn't you, teach the class.  Yes, I know we are supposed to share our teaching materials, that they technically belong to our department, blah blah blah.  But any student with a question is assuming they could ask Dr. Awesome Art Guy (RIP).   
Ditch the recordings & create your own version of the class.  Unless you are an underpaid adjunct.

[marshwiggle]

Still feels off to me.  For one, if you are just recycling old materials & doing no updating or innovation I don't think that's fair to the students.  Two, the students are paying to watch someone else, who isn't you, teach the class.  Yes, I know we are supposed to share our teaching materials, that they technically belong to our department, blah blah blah.  But any student with a question is assuming they could ask Dr. Awesome Art Guy (RIP).   
Ditch the recordings & create your own version of the class.  Unless you are an underpaid adjunct.

I'm kind of curious about the pay for "teaching" the course. In course contracts that I've seen , the "rate of pay" is directly related to the number of lecture hours. So if the instructor of record is definitively not doing the lectures, then that payment model goes out the window.

Before anyone brings it up, OF COURSE there's a lot more to teaching a course than delivering lectures, but the compensation is generally rated according to the teaching hours, not according to grading, etc. (And if all of the assignments and so on were created by the deceased prof, then the current "instructor" wouldn't even be expected to be doing any course development. What functions would the instructor have to do that couldn't be done by TAs?)