DataCamp has a standard contract for all of its premium courses, which we think is one of the best in the industry. Its terms are outlined in plain language below; please see the sample contract for the legally-binding wording.
We recognize that expectations for contractual terms may vary based on jurisdiction and personal background, but given the diversity among our instructors, we aren't able to make case-by-case changes in most cases. The major exception is if you need disclaimers added because you are a government employee doing this work on your own time; if you are in that situation or a similar one, we'd be happy to talk about ways and means.
DataCamp's contract with authors is broken into two parts to simplify future agreements: a master agreement governing our relationship, which you only need to sign once, and a content exhibit with project-specific details. The latter is a shorter document, and you will need to sign one copy for each course, project, or other piece of work you do with us (not least because it includes delivery dates).
The contract's key features are:
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You grant us a perpetual non-exclusive license to use the material that you develop for us. The "non-exclusive" part means that you can use the material elsewhere, e.g., in other courses or workshops. However, if you provide it through another online course platform, your revenue share from DataCamp may be reduced.
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We pay you an advance upon delivery of the course, and then pay a royalty each quarter based on how many people complete the course. once the advance has been fully paid out. We're happy to talk one-to-one about the amounts, and paying for course completions helps maintain a focus on course quality and engagement.
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The contract defines a timeline for delivering materials (typically six months for a full course, and less for projects and other kinds of content). We are happy to negotiate extensions if real life gets in the way, but if it appears that your other commitments aren't going to let you complete work in a timely fashion, or if the quality of what you deliver doesn't meet our standards even after we have given you feedback and a chance to make corrections, we may give notice that we are terminating the contract.
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We're allowed to make reasonable changes to the material, but we need your approval for anything major. If the final result doesn't meet our standards for quality, or if we decide not to use the material for any other reason, we will let you know why; if you choose not to make the fixes we ask for, we shake hands and go our separate ways.
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After the course has launched, we may ask you for updates. If you agree to make them, the work is covered by the pre-existing contract. If not, we can bring in someone else to do the updates and split the revenue between you and them according to the proportion of work done.
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Liability is limited in both directions with an exception in the case of infringement of intellectual property rights. We take IP rights seriously and we expect the same from course instructors we collaborate with.