There is still much to be learned about the costs and benefits associated with technology. Each institution must find the right balance in combining traditional practices and materials with new ones. Distance education also means new union contract issues, such as evaluation, student contact, workload, and compensation. Other contracts establish a labor-management committee and defer bargaining on the specifics until there is more information. In most cases, faculty members cannot be forced to teach telecourses and the courses are not used to fill their regular teaching load.
Some contracts limit telecourses to non-credit classes out of the mainstream curriculum.
The rate of pay for these courses is often a lower rate, either the overload rate or part-time hourly rate. As the use of technology grows and telecourses become part of the regular course loads of faculty, compensation will become an issue. Another issue related to compensation is class size. There is no consistency between contracts on this issue. It is possible for enrollment in telecourses to be very large.