It is never easy for intellectuals such as college instructors to move from one sort of academic employment situation to another without thinking a lot. Thinking is what intellectuals do, but there comes a time when action is preferable to thinking and finding online adjunct employment is one of those instances. Online bachelor degree programs and online master’s degree programs are enjoying a high degree of popularity now since many of the new and returning college students are quite pleased with the idea of earning online elementary teaching degrees, online healthcare degrees or an online special education degree from their personal computers. This especially true for non-traditional college students who have little extra time for driving to a remote location at odd hours given their family responsibilities and employment obligations.
Since all accredited online college degree programs are accredited by the same post-secondary supervisory boards as traditional degree programs, it is necessary for the college and universities to have an academically qualified teacher in the online classroom. However, there is a technical element present in teaching online college classes that is not required for teaching college classes on a physical campus. That technical element is the ability to successfully navigate various digital interfaces on the Internet using a personal computer. There is also a need for serious time management techniques and skills because it is possible to actually have ten to twelve online college courses to teach every day and without the time management in place it would be very easy to become bogged down in grading and administrative tasks and fall behind on deadlines.
Even with these requirements online adjunct teaching is a very liberating experience because it put the online college instructor in control of the teaching schedule. Typically, at a traditional college or university an adjunct instructor must wait around for the department heads to finish taking care of the full time faculty members before being assigned a few classes. The summer months are the worst in terms of available classes because nine times out of ten there are no classes available for part-time college teachers and they wind up living on stone soup by August. Teaching online for multiple online college degree programs reverses that situation.
An online adjunct instructor markets a technical and academic skills set to over five thousand technical schools, community colleges, state universities, for profit schools and four-year colleges. If an online adjunct want to earn more money from online teaching it is matter of applying to additional online degree programs. If an online college instructor wants more free time the solution is to decline offered online college courses. If there is something unrewarding or unpleasant about the online adjunct income of one college or university, it is only a matter of marketing to other post-secondary institutions in order to solve the problem without any subsequent loss of income.
Distance education technology will drive post-secondary education into the future, and the individuals who master the necessary skills and acquire the necessary education will be able to locate online college jobs for themselves, so stop thinking about teaching online and go find some online adjunct employment.