General Principles
In accord with the recently updated University workload policy (Insert OAA Workload Policy link here), College (see EHE POA), and Department policy (see Dept POAs), the teaching section of EHE’s Faculty Workload Policy are guided by two overarching values: equity and efficiency. All faculty should teach their full assigned teaching load, and the teaching workloads should be equitable across the College. All tenure track faculty should teach a variety of courses in their program area. All clinical track and lecturing faculty should teach a mix of courses in accord with the needs of the curricula, and the enrollments of these courses should be commensurate with the strong teaching focus of our clinical track and lecturing faculty. Departments and programs must also make every effort to utilize their teaching resources as efficiently as possible. Lecturing faculty should be engaged after the teaching resources of all tenure track and clinical track faculty, and GTAs, are fully utilized. Moreover, programs must organize their curricula and plan their course offerings on a schedule that allows for maximum enrollment in their courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels while also offering high-quality experiences for the students.
Teaching Workload
Each year during faculty’s annual review meeting the Department Chair will discuss teaching goals and accomplishments from the prior year and set new goals for the upcoming year. Teaching assignments will typically align with the guidelines spelled out below. However, on occasion faculty may be asked to teach higher teaching loads to meet the unique demands of a program at either the graduate or undergraduate level. Any changes to teaching workload would be voluntary on the part of the faculty member and will accompany either an adjustment in assigned duties or additional compensation.
- The typical regular teaching workload of tenure track faculty in EHE is 40% teaching. This percentage teaching workload aligns with OSU’s recommendation of 40-50% for tenure track faculty. This translates into teaching 12 credit hours per academic year for a 9-month appointment. Clinical track faculty in EHE typically have an 80% teaching workload. This percent teaching workload aligns with OSU’s recommendation of 65-80% for clinical faculty. This translates into teaching 24 credit hours per academic year for a 9-month appointment. Full-time lecturers in EHE typically have a 100% teaching workload. This percentage teaching workload aligns with OSU’s recommendation of 80-100% for full-time lecturers. This translates into 24 credit courses per academic year for a 9-month appointment. All faculty are expected to teach their full load. Faculty with large research responsibilities and those with heavy administrative duties typically have their teaching workload adjusted to account for these extra duties. The principles and process for adjusting teaching workload to account for larger research and administrative appointments are spelled out below. In addition, following the minimum class size guidelines outlined below, faculty should be generating at minimum 24 credit hours per graduate course taught and 75 credit hours per undergraduate course taught. Department Chairs have discretion to cancel classes due to low enrollment and to credit faculty for more than 1 course if they teach a course with a large enrollment (150+).
- GTA assignments are determined by the Department Chair and are based on course enrollment. GTAs will be assigned to support faculty in courses only if the enrollment justifies the expense. Department Chairs have discretion when assigning GTAs.
- Adjusting Teaching Workload: Faculty may be released from 1 or more of their courses for a variety of reasons, including heavy research, service, or administrative commitments. Regardless of reasons, all EHE faculty, except those on 100% administrative appointments, must teach at least 1 3-credit course each academic year. Release from teaching may occur for the following reasons:
- Course Buyout: Because OSU is an R1 university with high research expectations, tenure track faculty can use grant funds to buyout up to 3 courses (i.e., 9 credits) per academic year. The cost of a course buyout is 20% of the faculty’s 9-month base salary. The College keeps 20% of the course buyout funds and the Department keeps 80% of the course buyout funds. As an incentive, faculty receive 16% of the amount returned to the Department in their faculty accounts and the remaining 64% is used to hire lecturers/instructors for courses that the faculty member is not teaching. This process allows tenure track faculty to shift their time to focus more on grant-funded research. Clinical track faculty and lecturers are focused on teaching and are not permitted to buy out of courses.
- Administrative appointment: Faculty on 100% administrative appointment are released from all teaching duties. Faculty with partial administrative appointments receive proportionate course releases so they can spend more time on administrative duties. The details of administrative course release and compensation are spelled out in the EHE Course Relief Practice.
- Faculty Professional Leave and Special Assignment: The details for applying for an FPL or SA are outlined in each Departments APT documents and are consistent with OSU policy. Faculty on FPL are released from all duties (teaching, research and service) during their leave. Faculty on SA are typically released from all teaching during the 1 semester they are on SA but retain all other duties. The details of the SA are determined by the Department Chair in collaboration with the faculty. No more than 10% of faculty in a department may be on SA in a given semester.
- Teach another course in the current or subsequent semester. Chairs may give the faculty the option of making up for cancelled courses by teaching during the summer term if courses are available to teach and they meet enrollment minimums.
- Complete a special teaching assignment. This can include developing a new in-person or on-line course, revising a course, developing new curricula, develop an on-line version of an existing course, develop new program or certificate materials.
- Complete an administrative assignment.
- Be offered the option to buy out of the course with grant funds or other funds.
- Mandatory 2-hours meeting with an EHE instructional designer for all instructors developing or revising an asynchronous course.
- All online instructors must complete the Online Standards for Instruction modules offered by EHE’s CDLI. This program is research based, takes approximately 3 hours to complete, and is offered asynchronously.
- All instructors in a 100% online EHE program must complete the EHE Digital Educator certificate. This certificate is research based, takes approximately 12 hours to complete, and is offered asynchronously.
Course Enrollment Targets
Adequate class sizes are necessary to make course and program offerings economically feasible for EHE. Undergraduate courses shall have a minimum of 25 students enrolled and graduate courses shall have a minimum of 8 students enrolled. Minimum class size guidelines are the same for tenure track faculty, clinical track faculty, and lecturers. Courses that do not meet these minimum enrollment levels may be cancelled as determined by the Department Chair. Exceptions will be made for courses that are required for accreditation purposes and those that need to be offered for students to make timely progress in their program or graduate on time. Thus, Department Chairs have discretion when deciding to offer a course that does not meet the minimum enrollment levels. The academic programs will plan their curricula and schedule of course offerings to maximize course enrollment and avoid offering duplicate courses with low enrollments while also maintaining high-quality experiences for our students. If a course is cancelled due to low enrollment, faculty will be assigned another course to teach that semester if possible. Otherwise, the department chair will decide how the faculty will make up for the cancelled course. The options could include:
Department Chairs are responsible for all course assignments including the decision to cancel a course due to low enrollment. Each Department must monitor course enrollments in anticipation of each semester and make decisions about cancelling low enrollment courses. The EHE Data Analytics group will provide updated course enrollment data to the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs for monitoring purposes. Keeping in mind the values of equity and efficiency, each semester the Department Chairs shall submit a report to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs that lists all the courses offered, the instructor, and the GTA, if applicable. The report shall also include the list of courses cancelled due to low enrollment, alternate assignment given to the faculty member, and a justification for any course offered with enrollment below the minimum levels. Finally, the report will include a list of faculty who receive a course release that semester and the reason for the course release. The ADAA and Department Chair will meet to discuss each report and the ADAA will document the content of the report from the Departments each semester.
Teaching Professional Development for Asynchronous Course Development
EHE’s Center for Digital Learning and Innovation (CDLI) have developed resources for all EHE instructors who develop and teach asynchronous courses. These resources were developed to address problems with poorly designed asynchronous courses, online courses launched without a planning phase, and to improve our US News and World Report Rankings. The resources are: Online Standards for Instruction teaching modules, a Digital Educator Certificate and individualized services of EHE instructional designers. Recognizing the increased asynchronous course offerings in EHE and the need for high quality instruction, EHE is requiring professional development for all instructors who develop an asynchronous course and those who teach in programs that are 100% online. These professional development requirements will also improve the US News and World Report rankings for our EHE programs. The required professional development are:
T. Snyder, 1-30-2025