Free Excerpt Online Teaching for Adjunct Faculty: How to ManageWorkload, Students, and Multiple Schools
With
the recent trend in schools' cutting classes for adjunct faculty, adjuncts are
resorting to teaching fewer classes at each of more schools. Gone are the days
when we could teach at just one or two schools and have enough classes to make
a decent income. Some adjuncts are teaching for fifteen or more schools while continuing
to apply to new schools so there are enough classes in reserve when classes are
inexplicably cut from their course load. Scheduling can be a nightmare and
mistakes can mean losing classes. Managing workload, large classes, and
multiple school schedules is vital to preserving an adequate course load and
maintaining financial security. There really is no choice for most adjuncts and
teaching ten or more online classes requires new strategies to manage
workload so that each class takes no more than 2-4 hours a week. This guide
provides online faculty with strategies and tips to streamline workload and manage
large classes, with a chapter addressing the unique challenges in managing classes
and schedules at multiple schools.
The
consequences of recent trends in schools' cutting classes for adjunct faculty
is that most adjunct faculty must now teach one to three classes at each of
several schools to maintain the salary they have been accustomed to in previous
years. Gone are the days when we could teach at just one or two schools and
have enough classes to make a decent salary. I remember teaching at only two
schools for quite a few years and making between $50K and $65K per year, with a
maximum of 8-10 classes, many of which were multiple sections of the same
class, and all of which I had taught for several years. Those days are over now
for adjunct faculty.
Some
adjunct faculty are currently teaching for 10 or more schools and are applying
constantly for new job openings, hoping to get just one more class or, if
they're lucky, two more classes. Often this seems like "feast or
famine" where we have too few classes or, in some cases, it all hits the
fan and we end up teaching for 10 or more schools with a total of 15 or more
classes. We cannot really decline teaching offers because there is no guarantee
that the next term we will be offered any classes from any given school.
Adjuncts have to keep classes in reserve at all their schools to make up the
difference when some of the schools inexplicably cut classes for one or more
terms.
Adjunct
teaching has never been secure, but it is far more insecure now than in
previous years. What happens is that adjunct faculty are trying to find ways to
balance many different classes and many different school schedules, which can
end up being very confusing. I know faculty who have lost jobs because they
forgot something important in one of their classes. "Important" in
one case was giving a mid-term exam; in another case, an instructor forgot to
grade final research papers. Some faculty have told me they have forgotten to
"show up" at synchronous class lectures or faculty conference calls.
You may
be shaking your head and thinking, "How in the world could someone forget
something like that? You must be teaching too many classes." See, here's
the thing though: it is not a case of teaching too many classes; it is a case
of teaching for too many schools. We have all taught 10 or more classes at the
same time, but teaching that many classes at 10 or more schools is a relatively
new phenomenon. I know a few adjunct faculty who are teaching one class at each
of three local colleges on campus and, at the same time, juggling one class at
each of as many as fourteen online schools. And they are making only about
50-60K per year in salary. There really is no choice for most adjuncts and,
obviously, some new strategies come into play to manage all those different class
and school schedules.
