Traditionally, courses have been run and owned by faculty employed by the University to teach the course. However, the move to online learning has created a legal and precedent blind spot with respect to content ownership.
Many schools have made agreements with their faculty with regards to pay and ownership for the course. The article cites that many faculty members who have lost their rights through this agreement are less than thrilled.
Professors mostly cite job security reasons for their gripe. If Universities own the course they can hire anyone to teach it and change it. Perhaps not for the better. Furthermore, what use is the professor if their course is taught by another?
However, I’m personally not convinced this is an issue. Experience tells me that once tenured, it is very hard to get rid of a professor unless they wish to leave. This has created a negative incentive system that some Professors have learned to take advantage of. In my studies I have encountered courses that have been outdated by decades or more. Furthermore, as the professor has been teaching the course forever, once they leave the class runs the risk of needing a complete reboot or dying all together as no proper hand-off is made.
Now I do not believe these low-balling professors to be the majority of the whole. Merely the bad seeds which every profession will have. Nonetheless, the system is set up to accrue and create such behaviour.
However, by leaving the course in the hands of the University, things may start to turn around. Professors and the school will be more inclined to ensure the course is updated on a regular basis, as some accountability is enforced.
As for the gripe of other “less qualified” teachers running the course, every student that has fallen asleep in class will agree that this may be a blessing in disguise. High school and elementary school teachers are taught how to teach but our professors, not so much. This has left many a class bored, confused or angered at the teaching abilities of their professors. If a professor refuses to learn how to teach, then how are they “more qualified” to instruct the course?
By hiring trained instructors to teach the course, course content understanding might actually increase. In this setup, it is best to maintain the professor as a technical advisor as students will have questions. However, others might be able to absorb the content better with one trained to teach for all learning styles.
Lastly, the question remains what happens to the professors? On top of the obvious answer (research) professors can stay on as course creators and course advisors. Just as there are incentive programs for the number of papers a professor produces, a similar set up can be made for course creations.
Change is needed in our Universities, and perhaps this is the first step?
This article is the opinion of Shawn Wasserman MASc, BASc.