[ARCHIVED] Paying Teachers to Create Learning Materials?

[courtney_cohron]

Recently our district visited another school district who paid a group of teachers to create lesson materials and another group of teachers and administration to review and approve created materials. They had a very detailed plan that encompassed course design, a review process and timeline of roll-out. I was just curious as to whether any other school districts have thought of the idea of paying teachers to design and or create course materials?

[jfribush]

It depends on your union.  In the last two districts I worked for designing all new courses was not part of our job.  If it was extra work we were paid for it.   If you're just making supplementary course materials for the classes you're teaching, then that was regularly expected.

[cstevenson]

Our district provides subs for teachers so that they can attend collaborations where master & extended learning program (ELP) courses are created.  We have even paid teachers hourly over breaks to complete our ELP courses. 

[bgibson]

https://campustechnology.com/research/2016/0405/magazine_aprilmay/asset.aspx?tc=assetpg&tc=assetpg

Campus Technology Magazine vol.29 no. 5

“How to Go Textbook Free”

The article is about how the University of Maryland University College has developed a system for providing course materials (replacing textbooks) in ALL courses for ALL students both for Undergraduate and soon to be Graduate students.

Seems that there is a small core group of faculty who “manage and design and do quality control” of the programs, while a larger adjunct faculty group actually teach.    They have modularized the content, and every session (no longer semesters) they have an opportunity to update & tweak the materials, instead of waiting every couple of years.

An interesting comment made by Matt Prineas, UMUC, was, “Our project was from the beginning about making the materials available at no cost to the students.  That doesn’t mean no cost to us.”

---

What processes might you use in developing and maintaining these materials? “Scrum” comes to mind. A team, individuals with various talents, coming together regularly, in a timed structure, assisting one another with overcoming obstacles to successful completion of this iteration.

“Towards the Establishment of an Agile Method for OERs Development and Delivery”

https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/fie/2013/9999/00/06684882.pdf

Process roles: Customer/User, Project Manager, Instructor Designer, Instructor, Domain Expert, Developer, Tester

---

Might be an opportunity for faculty/teachers to become part of a development team, not just for their district or institution, but larger, Global even;-?