Colleagues,

While I think the university shutting down was necessary to protect potentially vulnerable populations, we need to be careful about how proceed with our classes. Here are some thoughts in the tradition of critical theory. I write this as someone who teaches online and designed a well-received online course.

We're witnessing how crisis capitalism has a way of massively shifting our day-to-day existence. The fact that so many are willing to create online course materials without compensation or course reductions speaks to hegemony. Antonio Gramsci argued hegemony is so powerful because we consent to the processes that oppress us and/or others. We're consenting to a change in the education system.

I’ve heard many colleagues fret in the past about the move to online teaching. Generally, I understand and share many of the same concerns, but see the benefits to making education more accessible. There is a huge benefit for single parents who work full-time but want to finish their education. Or people with crushing anxiety who feel uncomfortable in a traditional classroom setting. Or people who travel for their job, but want to receive a college degree. This move online to deal with coronavirus does not affect those students in any direct way.

What is happening is a massive amount of unpaid labor to convert our in-person classes online without any resources. There is no information about what happens to these materials you develop after you develop them. The normal process for developing online classes at UTA involves working with the Center for Distance Education, extra pay, and/or receiving course load reductions because online courses are a huge labor undertaking to be done well. When you complete these, there is a copyright agreement. Developing novel course materials on your own and handing them over to the university has been a hard fought issue over the past two decades. What happens when the crisis is over? Do we return to normal or will we have lost control of our intellectual labor? Will universities decide that if it worked during a crisis, it can work any time? Will we be shut down during other periods because our students succeeded through the coronavirus shut down?

The problem is the system appeals to our heartstrings. We want to do right by our students. We want to navigate the crisis by teaching them and (hopefully) making them better people. To do so, we try to be better people and put our apprehensions about the process aside. However, this is how hegemony functions. We feel we need to do it. It’s also worth noting that students did not consent in this process. If they didn’t sign up for online education, they may have a number of reasons for choosing on campus classes. Another function of hegemony is for some to consent and force their will on others.

There’s the move by some education companies to provide free resources to faculty moving courses online. This can be useful, but be careful. They will return to charging for this material because they are not making the materials open access. The move reminds me of Nestle providing a month’s supply of free formula to poor populations in the global south. When these mothers ran out of the formula supply, their breastmilk already dried out, forcing them to pay for formula. Education companies provide these resources free to hook us – most of us won’t continue using, but enough will begin using these features for these companies to make huge profits from our time in need.

As far as my plan. I created an online version of my Introduction to Popular Culture course in collaboration with CDE. For this course, I will make the modules available to my students on a week-by-week basis (notes, discussions, powerpoints, quizzes and exams). For my upper-division Science & Technology in Society course, I’m changing the syllabus to require reading responses and discussion boards. I’ll comment in the discussion and grade their posts. The idea is to get through a bad situation and hopefully teach them something.

Here’s also an article I saw in the Chronicle this morning: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Academe-s-Coronavirus-Shock/248238?key=4hnbV5pI8DX5eMPXF6nV_YqJsRMbo0ItFsZ1aXo32R2-5YfxpN4efHVkJv8AI4RAYjJ3aC01b1lBX3BkT0t2M2dqQkRVaTF2VTh6eFR3RlMwSXgyN3o2c09OQQ

Please feel free to discuss and /or circulate.

Best wishes,

David

Dr. David Arditi

Associate Professor of Sociology

Director of the Center for Theory

University of Texas at Arlington