Many institutions provide required adjunct training before teaching. However, any gap between training and the first course can cause reduced information retention. In addition, the technologies and policies supporting online education are constantly evolving; any gap of time also means the training is soon outdated. What can be done?
Online education is growing; so is the use of adjuncts. How do you prepare new adjunct faculty to teach online? Many institutions require new online adjuncts to complete training prior to teaching their first course for the university. However, there is often a gap of time after completing that training and beginning to teach the first course due to instructor availability, course scheduling, and myriad other issues. As a result, this gap of time can lead to the new adjunct forgetting important information. In addition, online education and the technologies and policies that support it are constantly evolving so any gap of time can mean the new adjunct was trained on outdated tools or policies. What can be done?
Our institution currently has over 1,000 adjuncts, with approximately 100 new adjuncts starting each year. We require all new adjuncts to complete extensive faculty development prior to teaching their first online course; however, we found there was often a gap of many months between completing this faculty development and beginning to teach their first course. From our perspective, the ideal length of time between completing training and beginning to teach is approximately one month – this gives plenty of time to complete final course set up and preparation, but not so long that the information learned is forgotten or outdated. However, this initial faculty development process is a campus-wide process that involves multiple departments – the Academic Colleges, our Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, Human Resources, Academic Affairs, Centralized Scheduling, our Faculty Quality Managers, and the Academic Technology Support team. Thus, changing this process would be a major undertaking.
To begin, our Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence began with a step we could control within our department – outreaching our new adjuncts immediately prior to their first term teaching, as well as following up midway through their first term. During our outreach, we ask if they have any questions, remind them of where to locate refresher information, and encourage them to contact us if any issues arise. This outreach has been immediately successful, leading to a dramatic increase in the amount of return communication driven by faculty, as well as a dramatic increase in the faculty visits to our virtual resource center.
While this was a change in our process, we are continuing to explore improving our process from a campus level. What would an ideal initial faculty development offering look like? How would it be offered? Currently, we hope to change our hiring/scheduling process to have new faculty begin the faculty development process after receiving their first teaching contract. They then will be able to orient themselves to their specific course template and complete all required pre-term tasks with our support and supervision. Then, the second-part of this reimagined faculty development process will include mentoring during the first half of their first term.
This is a major process change, and one we are currently in the middle of. As part of the session, we will discuss things to consider, our lessons learned so far, and where we hope to be with our initial faculty development 3, 6, 9, and 12 months into the future.
Each institution prepares their online adjunct faculty differently as well; as a result, this session will not only address the presenter’s institution’s approach, but there will be plenty of time for reflection and idea sharing.
The session schedule will be as follows:
Educate:
0:00 – 0:05 Presenter/Institution Overview
0:05 – 0:10 Where we’ve been with faculty development/our issue to solve
0:10 – 0:20 What we’re doing to address this problem/What the literature says
0:20 – 0:25 What we’re working towards for new processes in the future
Individual Reflection
0:25 – 0:30 Individual Reflection – Participants will be asked to reflect on the following:
- What is the optimal process for faculty development for new online faculty?
- What is a realistic process at my institution?
- What would be the first, second, and third steps you’d take to change the process at your institution in order to help close the gap?
As they reflect, they will share their responses on a shared Padlet page created for the presentation. This will allow them to put their thoughts down digitally.
Group Reflection
0:30 – 0:32 Using the Padlet “Like” button, participants will be asked to quickly scan the results and like 3-5 comments that stand out to them.
0:32 – 0:40 The presenter will address the most liked comments and ask for additional information from the contributors who shared this comment.
0:40 – 0:45 Questions Answers/Session Wrap-Up
At the end of this sessions, participants will be able to:
- Discuss the “optimal” process for faculty development for new adjunct online faculty.
- Identify actionable steps that could be taken at the participants’ institution to help close the gap.