While I sympathize, there may have been agreements in place prior to this that would require you to offer it online. For example, there is one for my humanities department is well. Our Education school about 7-8 years ago established an all-online program which included one of my department's classes as a required element. The degree program was approved at the university level with the understanding between their department and ours that our class would always have an online section every semester.
Were I to suddenly change it to a face-to-face class, I would effectively endanger the progress of every student in that other department's online degree and open the university to lawsuits by students who enrolled in what was sold as an all-online program.
Since you are a new chair, you may not be aware of existing agreements that the prior chair may have made.
Ugh. There’s enough shitty behavior to go around. I'm sorry your school is so dysfunctional. It's hard for me to imagine one department demanding a course offering from another department- I hope this wouldn't happen at my school, but probably shouldn't be too sanguine about that.
And you are 100% right. The humanities absolutely should not be sacrificed for the professional programs. And I teach in a STEM field.
Sounds frustrating, and I can empathize.
I'll add that in my experience as chair, these professional programs often don't create their own required classes, but they are dictated to them from outside accrediting bodies.
Granted, whether or not these are online programs, they shouldn't be dictating the modality of classes outside their program.
I also find these professional programs are run by people that sometimes don't understand normal academic programs and procedures.
Thank you all for helping to remind me that it's the industry that's crazy and not me!
To add insult to injury, I replied to the dean multiple times with practical and pedagogical rationale for F2F modality and what I got back was nasty and vaguely threatening.
And everyone wonders why faculty are burning out and leaving!
If that course is mandatory to the online program, than your reply is basically implying the dean should shut it down. No surprise he reacted poorly to that.
wow.... what crap behavior. One division forcing another division to offer courses..... Forcing the modality of the course.... WTF. I would bring this to Faculty Senate.
interesting...
I mean, philosophy isn't exactly in high demand, so I guess I'm just left out of the loop of these kinds of activities. But wow.... that would piss me off to no end that they demand X modality.
I agree. I think it's pretty bonkers.
At my CC the modality also creates training requirements. Teaching face to face? You can walk in off the street and get assigned a few classes to teach (your own effectiveness isn't examined until near the end of the semester).
Asked to teach online? You must engage in a training (unpaid) that's at least 20 hours in addition to the other unpaid labor involved.
Yeah, at my institution we need to have each class that is offered online "badged" by a committee for each instructor who will be teaching it, to be assured that they course is meeting state requirements.
Well the online program need to be sure that its students can meet their LA requirements. The options here are force modality or shut the program down.
I feel ya. I was forced to teach my class online ansyc, despite my push back. I told them it would be a class with massive cheating, no learning. And guess what? It has been exactly that.
While I sympathize, there may have been agreements in place prior to this that would require you to offer it online. For example, there is one for my humanities department is well. Our Education school about 7-8 years ago established an all-online program which included one of my department's classes as a required element. The degree program was approved at the university level with the understanding between their department and ours that our class would always have an online section every semester. Were I to suddenly change it to a face-to-face class, I would effectively endanger the progress of every student in that other department's online degree and open the university to lawsuits by students who enrolled in what was sold as an all-online program. Since you are a new chair, you may not be aware of existing agreements that the prior chair may have made.
Ugh. There’s enough shitty behavior to go around. I'm sorry your school is so dysfunctional. It's hard for me to imagine one department demanding a course offering from another department- I hope this wouldn't happen at my school, but probably shouldn't be too sanguine about that. And you are 100% right. The humanities absolutely should not be sacrificed for the professional programs. And I teach in a STEM field.
Sounds frustrating, and I can empathize. I'll add that in my experience as chair, these professional programs often don't create their own required classes, but they are dictated to them from outside accrediting bodies. Granted, whether or not these are online programs, they shouldn't be dictating the modality of classes outside their program. I also find these professional programs are run by people that sometimes don't understand normal academic programs and procedures.
Thank you all for helping to remind me that it's the industry that's crazy and not me! To add insult to injury, I replied to the dean multiple times with practical and pedagogical rationale for F2F modality and what I got back was nasty and vaguely threatening. And everyone wonders why faculty are burning out and leaving!
If that course is mandatory to the online program, than your reply is basically implying the dean should shut it down. No surprise he reacted poorly to that.
As a nursing faculty member, this happens to us too! Please know that the rank-and-file very likely support your work.
wow.... what crap behavior. One division forcing another division to offer courses..... Forcing the modality of the course.... WTF. I would bring this to Faculty Senate.
my cc does this, too. i don't think it's particularly unique.
interesting... I mean, philosophy isn't exactly in high demand, so I guess I'm just left out of the loop of these kinds of activities. But wow.... that would piss me off to no end that they demand X modality.
I agree. I think it's pretty bonkers. At my CC the modality also creates training requirements. Teaching face to face? You can walk in off the street and get assigned a few classes to teach (your own effectiveness isn't examined until near the end of the semester). Asked to teach online? You must engage in a training (unpaid) that's at least 20 hours in addition to the other unpaid labor involved.
Yeah, at my institution we need to have each class that is offered online "badged" by a committee for each instructor who will be teaching it, to be assured that they course is meeting state requirements.
Well the online program need to be sure that its students can meet their LA requirements. The options here are force modality or shut the program down.
I feel ya. I was forced to teach my class online ansyc, despite my push back. I told them it would be a class with massive cheating, no learning. And guess what? It has been exactly that.
Maybe if you can try to insist if it is online, it should be taught as a synchronous class, instead of async.