I led TMCC’s last contract negotiations, and as part of that process, I reached out to members of the bargaining unit asking for items they’d like to see us address. Among the many suggestions we received was the need to be notified if a supervisor was entering our online classes to observe us for teaching evaluations. Many faculty found that they had been observed without ever seeing a supervisor enter the course.
More research uncovered two separate kinds of CANVAS access: Account Level Access and Course Level Access. Faculty have Course Level Access which means that only assigned courses or courses they are invited to by the teacher of record are available to them. Web College has Account Level Access so they can swoop in and rescue us unseen. Recently, our supervisors started using Account Level Access to observe faculty.
We went into the negotiation room wanting all teaching observations to include notification to the instructor. We pointed out that even when live classes included an unscheduled visit, faculty could still see the evaluator in the room. In online classes, it was becoming more and more common for faculty to not even know someone was in the course evaluating them. It felt like spying, and resulted in some unfair observations because faculty could not guide the visitor to how the course works.
Our negotiation teams last time worked really well together, and the administration team understood what we were saying and helped us draft language to address the issue we raised. Their main counter concern was being able to enter a course in the case extraordinary circumstances: if there was a complaint about faculty or students that posed an imminent threat, or if a faculty member left the college or died, that sort of thing.
After much debate about using Course Level Access vs. Account Level Access, the following language was drafted and ratified in the contract:
12.5 Academic Faculty Observations
- All course modalities are subject to scheduled teaching observation and evaluation. Observers shall use the Observation of Teaching Effectiveness form to provide written feedback to the faculty member in a timely manner.
- The evaluator or designee will conduct a scheduled classroom observation of each full-time tenured faculty member at least once every three (3) years and each tenure-track and full-time temporary faculty member once per year. Zero Rank faculty will be observed every other year or as deemed appropriate by the evaluator.
- The Department Chair/APC/APD/Director will conduct a scheduled classroom observation and evaluation of all tenure-track and full-time temporary faculty once a year.
- Unscheduled class visits may be conducted in extraordinary circumstances in response to concerns or complaints based on reasonable cause involving a faculty member. TMCC- NFA shall be notified prior to any visit and must maintain the confidentiality of the matter. Unscheduled class visits should never utilize the Observation of Teaching Effectiveness form, but the faculty member should be informed in writing about the nature and results of the visit.
We decided against writing Level Accesses into the contract because any specifics like that are problematic. If we change learning management systems, for example, and access to courses is different in the new system, that clause becomes an impediment in the contract. So, we let Faculty Senate know about the change we made and explained how it opened the door to a procedure change that would forbid account level access except in the case of extraordinary circumstances. The Web College Committee drafted a resolution in Spring of 2023, and Faculty Senate approved it in May of that year. Ultimately, the President and Vice President of Academic Affairs signed the Web College’s resolution.
Upon return to campus in Fall 2023, faculty teaching online classes found that Account Level and Sub-Account Level Access with the same privileges had been granted to Supervisors, Department Chairs, and Program Directors in violation of the resolution by Faculty Senate, and in breach of the TMCC-NFA Contract. Supervisors now had on demand access to online classes and had also granted it to Department Chairs who have no duty to evaluate full-time tenured faculty. They only have a role in evaluating Tenure-Track and non-permanent faculty including part-timers.
We brought the issue up to the new Web College team and asked that standing Account Level and Sub-Account Level access be limited to Web College personnel. Web College agreed and started to make the change. Then, the President’s Planning Council put the issue on their agenda. All movement to rectify what we hoped was an oversight was stopped. It is now being debated and shuffled off to a sub-committee of the Planning Council, but for the NFA, the matter is very clear. Account Level and Sub-Account Level access should only be granted “in extraordinary circumstances in response to concerns or complaints based on reasonable cause involving a faculty member.” The contract does not allow such measures for student endangerment that does not involve the faculty member. Faculty Supervisors argued in Planning Council that they needed that access to protect faculty and students. If an issue involves a student but not the instructor of record, asking faculty for Course Level Access is an appropriate way of handling it. Otherwise, the contract includes their right to use Account Level Access for a specific and extraordinary case. Though arguments were made that they can’t get access at night or over the weekends, the new Library Director said it could be done.
Having standing Account Level Access is tantamount to parking an ambulance outside my office door just in case I die in my office. We don’t have to go into how much such an ambulance on constant watch for one faculty member might cost to see how over the top that scenario is. Online classes are still classrooms, and unless there is a specific and compelling reason, Only Course Level Access should be granted through a request to the faculty member unless a special circumstance warrants Account Level Access. And even then, that access should be terminated once the issue is resolved. The idea that faculty members need 24-7 monitoring by their supervisor negates one of the core principles of Shared Governance, that teaching and classroom management is up to the faculty member who is an expert in their field.
There was a lot of talk about trust at the Planning Council meeting. Perhaps, we need to trust our faculty to do their jobs.
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