Faculty should be compensated for the development of DE courses, for the implementation of distance education courses, and for the revision/updating of distance education courses caused by significant changes in technology. Faculty should have the option of taking compensation as a monetary stipend, release time, or other form of compensation such as equipment.

Many colleges have argued that since they do not provide extra compensation for faculty development of educational materials in on-campus courses, they should not be expected to provide extra compensation for DE courses. Further, they argue that the teaching of all courses, DE or otherwise, is built into our salaries.

We strongly encourage bargaining units to resist these arguments. Both the development and teaching of distance education courses require a great deal of training, skill, pedagogical and technical innovation, and extra time and energy that deserve to be compensated above and beyond a faculty member’s regular compensation.