Can college professors work from out of state?

[md-2000]

@Francis_Vaughan

Writing a textbook and mandating it for your own courses swiftly leads to all manner of conflicts of interest and ethical questions.

My Statistics prof wote the textbook for the course(s) - it started with the basics, then the second and third part of each chapter explored the topic in more depth and complexity. As a result he could recommend the text for 3 different levels of courses. And it became the accepted textbook because oddly enough, he was the head of the department. (But that wasn’t the ethical problem he was investigated for at the time…)

@Chronos

You’re a member of the department, and could at least theoretically ask to change the standard textbook to a different one (though I do know firsthand how much institutional inertia can go into questions like that-- “We use this textbook because it’s the one that lines up with how we teach the course, and we teach the course that way because it lines up with the textbook we use. And by ‘lines up’, we’re ignoring the fact that we always do chapters 6 and 7 before chapter 3 and then skip chapter 5.”).

The other problem is that the text is settled on and ordered (in those days) months ahead of time to be in stock at the start of the semester.
OTOH, the prof for one course needed a secondary textbook - and it was promised and nevery arrived. By a month into the course, most students had borrowed the book from the librabry, then gone over to the Engineering Student Society where photocopies were 5¢ each, and got the necessary text for $2.

@Chronos

Eh, at least with online content systems, you’re actually getting something for that price you’re paying. Some of them are good enough to be worth it.

Or less… one website mentioned books that included an online content password. Good for one semester, one course, and included things like online tests or execises that could only be done once, and the link expired at the end of the semester. You paid very high dollars for something that was mostly useless afterwards, no resale value, thus feeding the exorbitant textbook scam industry.

[JKellyMap]

@Little_Nemo

Do professors oppose remote classes? It seems like a dangerous slope for them

I’m expected to teach one remote class every two years. I pretty much hate it — mainly because it’s too easy for ME to fall behind (on feedback to students, etc.). If I get overwhelmed with other duties (face-to-face classes, other work, other real-life stuff…), it’s simply too easy to make “keeping up with the online class” the lowest priority (just as it is for some of the students).

One semester, I said to myself, “that’s it — I’m going to PROVE to myself that I can keep up with my online course!” — and I DID it! But it was exhausting, Literally everything else in my life had to suffer a little that semester, just so I could finally do that one thing right.

(This was for an ASYNCHRONOUS online course, where you have stuff they need to do each week, but you don’t meet face-to-face by zoom together as a class — though I do meet each student one-on-one, twice during the semester.
When I taught SYNCHRONOUS online classes during COVID, I didn’t have the same “low priority, fall behind” problem — but they kind of sucked in other ways).

[TokyoBayer]

I had a professor who required us to use his textbook, but he gave us cash back for the amount of his royalties, which was $5 on a $50 book, if I remember correctly.