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November 10, 2008, 11:03 AM ET
U. of Iowa Limits How Many Extra Online Courses Professors Can Teach
After paying $1.76-million in “overload” bonuses last year to professors who taught online courses in addition to their regular duties, the University of Iowa has limited the number of such courses that faculty members may teach and capped student enrollments in the courses, The Des Moines Register reported.
The changes came after the newspaper requested records of overload pay to professors at all three of the state’s public universities. Besides teaching online courses, professors can earn overload pay by teaching regular classes or providing other services. Together, the three universities spent $2.72-million on such pay in 2007-8, the Register reported, with the money coming from a combination of tuition, registration fees, and grants.
At the University of Iowa, which paid the largest bonuses, 14 professors received overload pay in excess of 30 percent of their base salaries, the newspaper said. Wallace Loh, the university’s provost, defended the use of overload pay as more cost-effective than hiring additional professors. Still, he decided in September to limit the number of extra online courses a professor may teach to one per semester.
Mr. Loh also capped enrollments at 36 students per online course because professors are paid for those courses according to how many students they teach. Last year the rate was $280 per student. —Charles Huckabee
Categories: Salary-and-benefits
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