intertext

I can understand you being confused, because I think it varies from college to college and even from department to department, and then of course universities are different again. But at my college, a "normal" full time teaching load is four courses per term, and for each course that usually means 3 hours in the classroom per week and about 1 or 2 hours office hours (per course). Actual course allocation, that is who gets the "choice" courses - everybody has to teach some amount of 1st year composition ever year - is sometimes by seniority, sometimes by choice. Our department has quite a democratic "no hogging" policy that if you've taught a specialty course (like the 2nd year ones I'm teaching now) for two years you have to give it up is someone else wants it. In practice you usually get the courses you want because the more specialized ones are tough to prep, and in fact we sometimes have trouble filling them if someone goes on leave or gets sick or something. I'm a DE specialist as well, and I choose to do the online courses because I like the flexibility they give me in terms of hours (and I like the technology) We don't usually have people lining up to teach those, but they are much in demand with students.

And thanks - I think it's me and my hip :)