Online Teaching Blog

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I love politics. I love reading about it; I love talking about; I love teaching it. In our hyper-partisan world today, though, it can be hard for instructors to teach it without worrying about accusations of bias, or getting into political arguments with students. Given that American Government and other Political Science courses are quite popular as online courses at US universities, instructors need to approach the topic with some idea of how to teach it with integrity.

The great promise of online higher education was that it would expand access to people who could otherwise not access it. Higher education, once reserved for the children of the elite, came into mainstream access in the United States with the passage of the GI Bill in the mid-1900s. Globally, though, higher education remains a possibility for only the smallest number of people. At the same time, we know that education creates more stable societies, improves economic opportunities for individuals, and provides skilled employees for companies and organizations. With the advent of online education in the late 20th Century, the hope for greater reach of university instruction seemed like a sure solution of the problems with its limited reach.

The Adjunct’s lifestyle

I work an average of 60 hours a week for my normal job (that’s being kind to myself) plus an additional 20 plus hours when I am teaching, and another 20 plus hours a week working on things like my side hustles, writing, researching, and yes looking for my next “opportunity”. Opportunities that are part of the adjunct’s lifestyle include looking or applying for more online teaching gigs, entrepreneurship/passive income ideas, conferences to submit papers to, and anything in general that theoretically will enhance my life. All these opportunities mainly for monetary and/or career enhancement in the hopes of achieving a more “free” and independent lifestyle.

Working with higher education faculty on a daily basis, I hear the struggles they encounter with technology, such as setting up classroom projectors, using smartboards, creating screencast or videos with Office Mix, creating blogs using Google Blogger, creating and deploying online gaming surveys with Kahoot, hosting online chat sessions with Blackboard Collaborate or WebEx, and the list goes on. The illustration I want you to cogitate is the intersection of teaching with technology, which requires adequate technology plus content and pedagogical knowledge. This is where instructional methods get murky as technology based learning becomes more prevalent for faculty in higher education institutions.

Keeping up with academic tools and resources can be difficult, due to competing demands on our time and resources, as well as the plethora of applications and materials available. This article will highlight 7 FREE tools and resources that can be accessed by educators to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of student engagement and course delivery.

One of the most nerve-wrecking experiences that a student can experience is waiting for feedback from an instructor. The student has done her best in completing the assignment. She has taken care to remember key rules and points in composing the assignment, because these will be valuable not only in the current assignments being completed, but in future assignments and even in her future career. Providing effective student feedback and guidance is imperative.

A lot of time and effort is spent on obtaining an online teaching job. In an increasingly competitive job market, we are often reticent to leave an online teaching job that we don’t like due to fear of being unable to replace the income. We also all have bad days where we wonder if it’s time to leave teaching altogether.

We Aim to Please

As professional teachers we enjoy what we do—and yes, we feel satisfaction when our students respond enthusiastically to our efforts—especially after a class is over and we receive complimentary survey remarks from them; however, studies today show that we especially appreciate acknowledgement and validation from our bosses.

When training and developing new faculty, words like best practices, pedagogy/andragogy, student engagement, and retention are bandied about quite a bit. While these things are important and certainly need to be addressed, I find new faculty also need to know more practical aspects of what it means to teach for any given college or university. No matter the subject matter taught, navigating various collegiate landscapes can become difficult and confusing, especially when adjuncting at a variety of institutions. So, what do new faculty need to know during this time of adjustment?

Once upon a time, smart people would go to college and work hard.  They would get their Bachelor’s degree in a cost effective way, and then the better ones would go on and get advanced degrees.  The best would then get their PhD’s and go on to long and fruitful career as professors, protected by the Ivory Tower from the time they entered college until retirement in their mid-sixties with a full pension, all needs ultimately taken care of by academia.  And there were sparkly unicorns bringing buckets of gold from research grants, and leprechauns would grade all the tests in the middle of the night.