Online Adjunct Survey Results

Online Adjunct Survey Results

While January’s survey only elicited a dozen responses, I want to thank those of you who were able to participate. 

Here are the long-awaited results! 

Q1. How long have you been an online adjunct or part-time online faculty in higher education?

90% of respondents were seasoned educators who have been adjuncts for more than 2 years.  

Q2. How many higher education institutions employ you as an online adjunct or part-time online faculty member each year (January to December)?

67% of respondents teach online for only one school.

Q3. How many higher education institutions employ you each year (January to December) as an adjunct or part-time faculty for location-bound blended courses with both online and in-class elements?

Likewise, 67% of respondents who teach in the blended modality only service one school. 

Q4. What length are the courses you teach at colleges and universities in the online and blended modalities? (Choose answers closest to your term lengths and choose as many answers as apply.)

The term lengths really vary for our adjunct respondents with a 5-week term being the most popular.

 

Q5. On average, how often does your employing university contact you with available faculty development opportunities?

While a couple of respondents never receive faculty development opportunity notifications, most are engaged by their schools at least 2 to 3 times per year, and many are invited monthly. 

 

Q6. On average, how often have you been able to participate in the faculty development training offered by your employing institution?

Our respondents seem to find the time to participate in faculty development programs at least once or twice in a three-year period, with most attending more than twice a year. 

 

Q7. In what area of your work as an online adjunct or part-time faculty member would you like more training or better guidance? In other words, in your opinion, what is missing?

• More pedagogical applications of Learning Management Systems with useful strategies
• How to incorporate interactive, engaging technology into the classroom
• Specifics on grading writing assignments and how to correct APA without putting red all over the paper
• Embedding videos
• More involvement in curriculum development
• More opportunities to improve facilitation skills

Q8. What is the highest degree you have attained?

The majority of adjunct respondents hold a Masters Degree.

 

Q9. In what discipline or field do you teach online or blended courses? (Feel free to share course names or multiple disciplines.)

• Communication
• Education
• Computer Science
• IT Management
• Business
• Counseling/psychology
• Humanities
• General Studies
• Economics
• History
• Political Science
• Urban Studies
• Patient records and basic health

Q10. What is the highest number of courses you have taught online at the same time, or had running simultaneously? (even if it was just for a few days of overlap...)

Wow! Nine classes at once is the largest load recorded through this survey, with 27% of respondents having covered six at their busiest. However, the majority of adjuncts here have maxed-out with teaching two classes at once. 

Thanks again to those who fit the survey profile and took the time to lend their voices!

We had a wide variety of term lengths and disciplines represented. The adjunct faculty respondents held at least a Master's Degree, have predominantly taught within higher education for more than two years, and teach in both the online and blended learning modalities. We learned that the majority of institutions are offering faculty development opportunities to adjunct instructors and many are participating three or more times a year. Those of us who design enrichment workshops can use the list of "wants" as a guide for future offerings.

Please take the time to complete our shorter 5-question February Survey about why you teach. We will reveal those results on March 6th in the Weekly Wrap-Up. 

Join me next week as we explore APPRECIATION and how it is expressed within the ranks of higher education faculty and administration. On Make-It Monday we will begin development of our online Professional Learning Network (PLN) by reviewing how to become a member of interest groups and professional organizations. 

See you then, 

Melynda

@Melynda_Conner

#TCBHigherEd