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INTRODUCTION
Curriculum planning and development is an ordinary expectation of faculty at The College of St. Scholastica (Faculty Handbook, policy C-1 “Individual Responsibilities” 1b, planning and preparing classes and 2b supporting curriculum development). Therefore, curriculum planning and development activities are part of faculty members' routine teaching and service work. As such, they are usually compensated as part of the routine work of faculty members without either load credit or overload payments.
In some cases, however, the College is interested in the timely development or revision of curriculum or in acquiring the intellectual property associated with curriculum development and will compensate faculty members with either load credit or overload payments.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The College of St. Scholastica owns all materials created under this agreement, and all rights to future use per the College’s policy included in Appendix A of the College’s IP policy document.
Rights to future use are therefore granted at the discretion of the College. The College explicitly grants to the SME the right to use the component ideas in this course and the right to develop other instruments that give concrete expression to these ideas (including course objectives, means of evaluation, means of instruction, means of discussion, and communication, and so forth) so long as the specific forms of these instruments do not duplicate those in the course itself. The College grants no other rights to the SME.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PAYMENT POLICIES
Circumstances in which such payment is appropriate are:
- New programs/courses: when the College hires faculty members to develop a curriculum before student enrollment. This is typically done in the case of new programs with extensive accreditation or regulatory requirements. In such cases, compensation is part of a faculty member’s regular salary, with load credit assigned to the curriculum development activities. Usually, this salary will be included in the initial program development budget.
- Consistency across formats: when the College must promote consistency across course sections or formats by sharing the intellectual property for a course that is expected to be offered multiple times per year by different instructors in different locations or formats, a stipend may be offered (see Curriculum Development Payment Procedures below).
Circumstances such payment may be appropriate are:
- Completing a major curriculum revision that requires a coordinated effort across many faculty members. Providing a curriculum or project coordinator with load credit for the work may be appropriate. It may also be appropriate to provide selected faculty members with a stipend if they participate in the project at a level beyond what would ordinarily be expected.
Circumstances in which such payment is not appropriate:
- Revision and updating of isolated courses by faculty members who expect to continue to teach the course.
- Development of new elective courses that are not integral to a program, not “required” electives, or not expected to provide a return on investment that would justify the expense.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PAYMENT PROCEDURES
- New program development proposals should specify if curriculum development payments or release time are requested and should be included in the proposed budget.
- Payment can be made under two different circumstances:
- When the College wishes to share the intellectual property for a course, a formal contract must be executed (Intellectual Property Agreement) that specifies the deliverables and payment schedule in advance of any work being done on the project—the department chair and dean must sign off on the project before work is begun. A central repository of intellectual property contracts should be maintained in the Academic Affairs office.
- When a department chair wishes to pay for curriculum development without sharing the intellectual property, this should be discussed with the dean and agreed to by the VPAA before making promises to faculty members. This is done very infrequently and is not a normal procedure.
- Regardless of whether the College acquires the intellectual property for a course, clear deliverables should be established in advance, and the faculty developer will meet the quality expectations outlined for CSS courses. Payment is not made until the work is completed satisfactorily.
- Curriculum development budgets should generally reside within departmental budgets. Department chairs should plan budgets with curriculum development needs in mind. Payments, through load credit or overload, must fit within the departmental budget.
- For curriculum development work that requires the assistance of instructional designers, the department will work with the Director of Academic Technologies to schedule the work.
Development of New Programs.
Load credits or overload credit for curriculum development mirrors the time expectations for other types of faculty work. The expectation is that 1 credit of load equals approximately 48 hours of work. The exact specifications of these contracts will be worked out with the department/program chair and dean.
Development of New Courses.
The development of an on-ground or online course that has not previously been developed for or taught through a learning management system shell.
Assumptions:
- Course Rubric standards will be met.
- The College and the faculty member share intellectual property.
- 100% of existing course content is updated or modified.
Deliverables:
- Completed syllabus, using the syllabus requirement in the Faculty Handbook (H-11).
- Completed course site in LMS.
- Completed Course Plan
- A mapping of course objectives/outcomes to either program or college outcomes as defined by CLO
Payment structure:
- 3-4 credits = $4360 (undergraduate)/$3975 (graduate)
- 2 credits = $2180 (undergraduate)/$2650 (graduate)
- 0-1 credits = $1090 (undergraduate)/$1325 (graduate)
Major Revisions to an Existing Courses.
An existing online course has not been taught or updated for a significant time. The department chair/program director and dean must review and approve the rationale for the updating or redesign.
Assumptions:
- Course Rubric standards will be met.
- The College and the faculty member share intellectual property.
- More than 50% of the course content is updated or modified.
Deliverables:
- Completed syllabus, using the syllabus requirement in the Faculty Handbook (H-11).
- Completed course site in LMS.
- Completed Course Plan
- A mapping of course objectives/outcomes to either program or college outcomes as defined by CLO
Payment structure:
- 3-4 credits = $2180 (undergraduate)/$1988 (graduate)
- 2 credits = $1090 (undergraduate)/$1325 (graduate)0-1 credits = $545 (undergraduate)/$663 (graduate)
Appendix A
Extracted from
The College of St. Scholastica
Faculty/Staff Procedures Manual
Section G
Intellectual Property Policy
Issued By: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty
Approved By: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty
Effective Date: October 2004
Revised:
IV. Ownership of Intellectual Property
C. COLLEGE JOB REQUIREMENTS, OR SPECIAL COLLEGE SUPPORT RESULTING IN COPYRIGHTABLE MATERIAL
The College will retain ownership of the copyright in work in the following circumstances:
2. Specially-commissioned or supported projects
The College has and will enter into special project agreements with faculty and external vendors to develop specific products, courses, online courses, videos, software, etc., for general use by the College. These authors are distinguished by being compensated with money, specific released time, or specially designed resources provided as consideration for such materials. Contracted courses, web sites, software, videos, etc. developed under such an agreement shall be owned by the College, e.g., an online course maintained on the Web or CD Rom.
A mutually satisfactory written agreement will be made in advance between the faculty member and the College for payment for such things as writing an online course, creating commissioned artistic works, or writing software. Said agreements will state that the College owns the copyright, and thus the right to determine future use.
When the College plans to use, update or make derivative works from an intellectual property for which it claims an ownership interest, the creator of the intellectual property shall be afforded the right of “first refusal” to participate in the use or creation of new versions of the intellectual property, provided the creator is employed by the College and is fully qualified and eligible based on documented past performance. The creator, for example, shall, at the discretion of the College, have the right of first refusal to teach one, but not necessarily all, sections of an on-line course in which the College has an ownership interest or license to use. If the creator declines the opportunity to participate in the use or creation of new versions of the course, the College may offer the opportunity to another qualified and eligible individual. The College does not consult former employees on reuse or revision of intellectual property except as otherwise provided by separate written agreement or waiver which is executed by a duly authorized officer of the College.
If a faculty member has created an online course considered to be owned by the College, and if that faculty member is subsequently employed by another institution, the faculty member is able to use the component ideas, exams, and instruments of the course, as long as the specific form of the course is not duplicated.
On occasion, the College may grant its copyright to an individual. In advance of undertaking College-related work in which an individual wants to own the copyright, the individual and the College shall agree in writing about copyright ownership.