Suppose that your usual teaching assignment for, say, the spring semester has been given to an adjunt faculty member because you have other teaching responsibilities. Now suppose that the adjunct asks you for your course prep (syllabus and overheads).
Do you give it to him/her? Would it matter if the adjunct were a former student (of the graduated-but-unemployed so now a visiting professor variety)?
I gave it up, but I felt a little put off.
Monday, October 15, 2007
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24 comments:
AP,
Release your notes under the GPL 2.0. Your replacement will have to mention you on every hand-out, presentation, and class.
Heh.
Seems like sharing a syllabus is pretty standard; it gives the new person a chance to make sure their practices are reasonably in line with past practices. In my department, we have them all on file, or are supposed to.
But other prep? Is the course that standardized?
I've given out my actual lecture notes before. I've benefited from other people's, so I can't not do it.
The syllabus is fair game. The other material, that's their problem, iffn you ask me.
I agree. Syllabus is OK...but the former student will have to come up with his/her own teaching methods & lesson plans. THat's the only way one really learns how to teach. (Oh, and asking for advice is also OK.)
In my program, sharing a syllabus is pretty normal, as is sharing slides/materials. Essentially, we tend to put each other in a Blackboard site and say "take what you want" -- but we don't offer up materials we don't put on Blackboard or offer help making sense of the materials. And we credit each other on the syllabus or slides or whatever (adapted from ...).
I've benefited from other people's syllabi, and shared mine (publicly, on the web, with everyone), but I have a hard time imagining teaching from someone else's lecture notes: It would feel so artificial, so unnatural, and nothing would come out right.
When I was an adjunct, syllabi were department-owned. I was often told to "go ask [the previous instructor]" for other material, but I always thought that was inappropriate. This tended to mean I had a lot more course prep than someone who had a course handed to them in toto.
I think a lot of administrators believe that everyone should be collegial and share, et cetera, but the truth is that we all create our own intellectual product and we should have *some* ownership of it (even though most universities now like to make claim to anything the profs create).
I think what you did should count as "good karma" [also known as "paying it forward," "networking," or whatever other trite rhetorica elide is in fad now]. Sharing the syllabus seems standard, but anything else you [and the adjunct] should see as a gift. Also, you might want to expect the adjunct to come seeking advice at some point.
And also...keep in mind the adjunct is probably being paid a fraction of what you're being paid, so your kindness might be appreciated.
Sharing? Yes, definitely. Having to prepare our own materials from scratch every time just adds to the collective teaching workload we academics have.
However you can always ask that due credit is given for your contribution to the materials.
I have both asked for and given materials for course prep. Especially for a former student, I would give it (and likely would offer) my materials. Why should we all reinvent the wheel all the time?
Very complicated question...
In most of my courses it is expected that powerpoint or some such will be made available to students. Easy answer, give stuff to your follower. But it is yours and should be acknowledged if used.
For material that goes up on some sort of a university web site, though, it is a problem as to who owns the (ugh) intellectual property. We are currently involved in a big struggle over a new copyright policy over this stuff at BigU.
Now whether someone who has their head chopped off by an institution should meekly hand over their teaching materials - that is a completely different matter.
Ciao, Bonzo
ps. Congratulations on your chili pepper.
I just point them to the website of the last time I taught the class, which has a syllabus and daily course outline.
Regardless, most faculty who do lecture with PowerPoint don't mind sharing as long as credit is given.
I have a colleague at another school who was scolded by a more senior faculty member for asking to show in lecture a single *published * explanatory diagram from a paper the senior faculty member had published 20+ years ago. He said "couldn't you make a better one?" Some will always be petty ...
I COULD provide my lecture notes to someone who asked, but I'd be laughing. Nobody can read my handwriting ... (I don't lecture with PowerPoint -- it puts the kids to sleep too fast)
I agree that sharing a syllabus with a current colleague is a nice gesture, but asking for power point slides is pushing it.
I had a similar situation earlier this semester. I just started a tenure-track job at a new school after spending a year as a visiting at my undergraduate institution. My UG institution was quite open with the fact that I wasn't being considered for a tenure track position because I wasn't "diverse". I was the only person at the institution in my sub-field, but they were openly courting minorities only, regardless of sub-field. I didn't raise a stink, but needless to say I'm very unhappy with UG institution.
Shortly after settling into my new school, the brand new "diverse" faculty member at my UG institution contacted me to ask for all of my teaching materials. My discipline is rather small, but I've never even met this person. Probably petty of me, but I didn't respond to the email.
I have no problem with this scenario. If the instructor is any good, he or she will use your stuff as a general guide for developing his or her own material. If he/she is too unprepared or lame to adapt your work beyond recognition, then better the students be taught from your second-hand materials than from whatever the instructor can cook up fresh.
I don't see the syllabus or even the PowerPoint as a problem. In my experience, the PowerPoint is usually so idiosyncratic to the accompanying lecture notes (which are probably of minimal use to anyone else) that they're helpful for concrete examples and structure, but I always end up writing my own slides. My program (I'm a doctoral student) is pretty open about sharing teaching materials, and I've passed stuff up the chain as well as received it. I think any break we can catch is helpful, and I can't imagine someone who just wholesale appropriates your prep without personalizing it doing a very good job of teaching the class.
As I a grad student teaching for the first time, I asked everyone I could track down for their lecture notes/Powerpoint slides. (Syllabi were easy; I had TA'd for most of them, or they were already online.) By the time I mushed them all together and added my own examples and adjusted things to the textbook I was using, I think it the slides were pretty much unrecognizable, as Ian said above, although they did help me get started.
Then again, I come from a "teaching is for suckers" kind of R1 department - if I hadn't asked for my advisor's notes, he would have thought less of me for wasting my time reinventing the wheel. Is it possible some of your colleagues have passed that message on to this new alumnus/a?
Thanks for all your comments. Of course I should turn the notes over. I do it for my colleagues all the time. This is the first time an adjunct has asked me for my materials, and I feel bad now that I would discriminate between adjuncts and colleagues like that.
I think most of my angst stems from territoriality. I worked hard on those notes. I don't want to just give them away (and maybe someone else teach the class as well as I do).
I am sure that no one could teach it as well as you do...
Bonzo
Before I was tenured and especially while I was still in one-year positions, I was reluctuant to share. I remember in particular being asked to give stuff to someone at another institution so they could set up a gender/sex course with their new person, when they did not even interview me! I said yes and then said no, when I thought about it. I am so happy with that decision. Figure it out yourself! Now, however, I am happy to help out, especially someone nice whose position is precarious.
Boy, this really hit a button, didn't it?
I like the "release under GPL" suggestion best! I always share my materials because the state paid me to make them, so I feel that they belong to the state, not just to me.
But I like seeing my name on them, especially as once a colleague used my notes (apparently word for word) and then I got accused of "plagiarism" because my notes the next semester were identical to his....
Then there was the case where we were having a little fight about who was to get an advancement, me or Mr. X. Of course, since he was male, it was for him, except he had never taught course Z that was necessary for this advancement. Need I note that I designed Z and had taught it ever since? The dean just assigned Mr. X to the course (and me to some horrible, boring course) and then Mr. X came to me to "get my materials". I refused, and this is the only time I have ever refused such a request.
Share and share alike - and use GPL or a Creative Commons license.
I think sharing the materials was a fine and honorable thing to do.
Syllabus, yes. That's typical. Everything else? Depends on how much work I put into it and whether the adjunct would be crediting my work. Simply parroting my course? Not cool.
I'd be a bit annoyed about their even wanting the overheads. But imagine how much less than you they're paid and take pity.
Early in my career I tried using another person's syllabus, notes, slides, the whole shebang. It became very clear very quickly that my course was going to be worth nothing if I did not put a great deal of thought and work into it myself. In the end, the course I taught was decisively mine. I am still very very grateful to the faculty member who got me started with her materials.
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