The locus of economic responsibility for the low pay and over-crowded classrooms experienced by adjunct college and university instructors teaching college classes at traditional post-secondary academic institutions does not lie at the feet of the individual college teachers with earned graduate degrees, a Ph.D. or master’s degree, and they should not accept the current situation as one that cannot be managed effectively in favor of the college teacher. The truth of matter is that college administrators at traditional schools decided some time ago it wasn’t necessary to pay college adjuncts a significant amount of money for teaching college students. Currently, seventy percent of the college faculty is comprised of overworked, underpaid temporary academic laborers who have no say whatsoever about the conditions under which they teach college students. Understandably, there is a great deal of frustration and anger on the part of college instructors who are not able to earn a living wage from teaching in the physical college classroom. For these individuals there is a viable alternative, and this alternative is the result of distance education technology and the ease with which it allows the production of online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs.
It is time for college teachers to take advantage of the economic potential presented by accredited online college degree programs. As traditional colleges and universities run out of budget funds they are turning more and more to the successful academic models currently deployed by for-profit colleges that offer their student populations the opportunity to learn a library science degree online, enroll in online law degree programs and enroll in online nursing schools. As the traditional colleges, community colleges, technical schools and state universities rollout new online degree programs the need for qualified online adjunct instructors will skyrocket. Personal technology in the form of laptop computers, for example, has never been cheaper and it makes it very cost effective for a college teacher who wants to become an online adjunct instructor with a teaching schedule filled with as many as a dozen or more online college classes to become empowered by merely logging onto the Internet. It should be understood by every adjunct college teacher wanting to earn a living wage by teaching college students that there is no need for a magic academic wand to become an online college faculty member.
The most effective search and application strategy for finding accredited online college degree programs to teach for is to visit daily some of the over five thousand websites maintained by colleges, universities and for-profit colleges. On the first page of each one of these academic websites is a link that will allow the prospective online adjunct instructor access into the faculty application portal. Once in the faculty application section is only necessary to use the digital interface to submit the academic credentials required by every online adjunct instructor placed in online college classes. It will take some time for a response to be received from a online degree program by a prospective online college teacher, but this is primarily the result of the onslaught of applications for online faculty positions received every day by academic institutions with online degree programs; after all, there are growing numbers of college teachers who want to teach online for a living. Today, it makes a great deal of sense to apply first tw for-profit colleges that offer the online bachelor degree online master degree since the schools have been in the business of distance education for the most part of the last decade and they have a very well-developed interchange in place for hiring online adjunct instructors to teach their students enrolled in online college course.
An online college instructor can easily teach ten or more online college courses at one time by utilizing effective time management techniques and constantly improving the necessary computer skills. In order to manage the teaching responsibilities and administrative duties inherent in online teaching full time it is vital to understand how the Internet works and how to navigate between various academic interfaces every day and still meet the grading and student interaction deadlines. However, even a very traditional college instructor who does not know a laptop computer from a doorknob can learn how to teach online with the right level of determination and focus. After all, if an individual can earn a Ph.D. or master’s degree it is possible to master teaching online college courses.
Additionally, an online adjunct instructor has the freedom to travel to any geographic at will. This means that if an online college teacher with an online teaching schedule containing eight to ten online college courses wants to teach the courses from a beach in California it is possible to do so just by traveling there. Further, it is also possible to apply to accredited online college degree programs that are hosted by college and universities that exist thousands of miles away from the online college teacher. So, if an online adjunct instructor is dissatisfied with one online degree programs it no harder than logging onto the Internet in order to apply for online faculty positions with another school. As any traditional adjunct instructor working for a physical schools will readily attest, the ability to move wholesale from one college or university to another is simply not possible since physical academic institutions can only offer physical college classes to students who live nearby the schools’ campuses. Thus, the college teacher working on an adjunct basis at a physical campus must either accept the classes proffered for do without a paycheck.
There can be no doubt that teaching college students as a career is a valuable use of a graduate degree, but the issues of how to live on the pay that traditional adjunct earn comes up over and over again as a very real economic issue for contemporary academics. To put a find point on the online teaching argument, it is possible to earn a good deal more by teaching online college courses than it is possible to earn over a calendar year by teaching in a physical classroom. If nothing else, the vast majority of online degree programs offer college students online courses straight through the summer months. By doings so, the online college degree programs provide academic employment all year long. With that in mind, the year-long streams of online adjunct income from back-to-back online adjunct jobs make learning as much as possible about teaching online worth the effort. Every traditional college adjunct instructor who is not earning enough to make ends meet by teaching in a physical college classroom for traditional colleges, community colleges and universities should take a hard look at how much more income can be generated by online teaching on a full time basis. Further, the dual benefits of personal and professional mobility resulting from the portability o the online college degree programs and the scalability of the online teaching schedule are not to be ignored by today’s college adjunct.
It takes a great deal of determination and intellect to earn a graduate degree. The people who have the wherewithal to manage such an academic journey and successfully survive it are due a decent income. The way to acquire that living is by teaching online for a variety of accredited online university degree programs that offer today’s college students a chance to use their personal computers to earn an online bachelor degree or an online master degree. With personal technology as ubiquitous as it is today, college teachers should fully understand there is no need for a magic academic wand to become an online college faculty member.
No comments:
Post a Comment