paid for this time. IT instructors log on to the network
on weekends
to monitor the discussion bulletin boards in their
online classes --
but believe the administration has no idea of the
odd hours they put
in to support their online classes.
Maybe your school has different specific issues, but
chances are,
faculty in some departments at your institution secretly
(or not so
secretly) believe that they work harder, for less
pay, than faculty
in other departments. However, the process of correcting
workload
inequities, perceived or real, can be tricky. After
all, how do you
compare a class in machining with one in business
math?
Perhaps the key is looking at the similarities, not
the differences.
"You can't compare apples and oranges, but at least
we're all
fruit," says Roger Richardson, coordinator for horticulture
technology at Forsyth Technical Community College
(FTCC) in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "There's got to be
something they
have in common to look at." As chair of the faculty
senate,
Richardson headed a committee that investigated workload
issues at
FTCC over the course of a year.
Richardson's committee recognized certain situations
in their system
that weren't reflected in official workload analyses.
For example, a
computer instructor teaching three sections of the
same class has
less preparation time than an instructor teaching
three different
classes. So the committee tried to quantify what they
do as
teachers.
"From our job description, we took the job of teaching
and said,
'What does this involve that can be measured?'" Richardson
says. The
committee broke teaching into three activities: preparation
time,
teaching time (actual classroom time), and evaluation
time. They
then looked at certain variables, such as class size,
to see how
they affected those activities. "Class size doesn't
really affect
prep time, and it doesn't matter a lot in the classroom
unless it
changes the method of instruction. But in evaluation,
grading 10
papers is a lot different from 30," he says.
Once the committee had examined traditional classroom
teaching, they
began looking at alternative ways of delivering instruction.
"That
gave us a way to talk about normal classrooms versus
online classes
versus clinical settings, like in nursing," Richardson
says.
Richardson did the analysis in a simple spreadsheet.
He says, "It
looks like a scary proposition: People said, 'How
would we ever
evaluate that? It's too complex.' But it's very adaptable
to
spreadsheet analysis. There's a number for each variable."
For FTCC, Richardson and his committee started with
numbers
collected by FTCC for a study the statewide community
college system
completed. They factored in low estimates for the
variables not
included in the study, such as 15 minutes of prep
time per
classroom hour and 2 minutes of evaluation time per
student per
classroom hour. The results showed that 18 contact
hours (not to be
confused with credit hours), made up of four different
sections with
three different preparations, plus time for administrative
duties,
requires approximately 42 hours of work per week.
This quantitative analysis of a formerly nebulous
concept, says
Richardson, gives FTCC faculty a way to talk with
administrators
about volatile issues. For example, as FTCC accepts
more students,
faculty members now have a way to demonstrate to administrators
how
changing class sizes changes their workloads. "Administrators
might
think if they can put 40 people in a classroom, or
put 40 people in
an online class that doesn't have physical space,
it's not different
from having 20 people in class. But that's not the
total picture,"
Richardson points out. "There's a lot of work that's
hidden. On
paper, it doesn't look like you're stressing your
folks out, but you
might well be."
Also, as is true in most states, North Carolina's
government is
emphasizing accountability within the educational
system. Richardson
says that this method of analyzing work will be helpful
in
demonstrating that faculty members are indeed performing
their
duties responsibly.
Richardson had hoped that the FTCC administration
would use his
system to review individual faculty workloads annually;
however,
that effort has stalled because of institutional issues,
such as
budget matters and administration changes. Still,
Richardson says,
"Everybody on the committee left with a better idea
of what the
others did, and that helps. After all, what good's
a fruit salad if
it's all the same?"
Richardson has agreed to share his analysis spreadsheet
and some
supporting documents with eDUCATE readers who are
interested
in his methods. For more information, contact him
at
mailto:rrichardson@forsyth.cc.nc.us .