Online Teaching Blog

I’ve hired many adjuncts over the years, both in my current role as Director of Online Programs at Philadelphia University and when I was chair of the Communications department there.

I’ve seen a lot of nutty things submitted by job applicants, things that obviously disqualified them from being hired. While those bizarre behaviors are good cocktail party fodder – remind me to tell you about the candidate who removed her tights in an interview and left them in the conference room wastebasket – this piece is about more subtle actions on social media that can turn off hiring managers.

This is how 21st century learners of all ages learn. We have rapidly become a “how to” society in which we can immediately find a demo online of anything we might want to learn how to do, and then we go about doing it. This type of self-directed learning is a big change from how things were done only a decade or so ago, and has big implications for classroom-based teaching and learning. Teachers no longer need to start with a teacher-led lecture and reading a textbook, followed by written homework assignments. We can go from a how-to video or demonstration to the actual doing.

Thank you for submitting your application to (insert name of university) for the position of (Insert title of position). We appreciate the time that you took to apply for our position. While it is never easy to narrow a search, we have selected the candidate we believe best meet our needs at this time. We hope that you will consider (insert name of university) for future employment opportunities.

Facebook created fan pages to allow businesses, teachers, authors, recording artists, non-profit organizations, politicians, and more to have a landing page on the platform where they could promote their products or services. As a professor, you can create a fan page that acts as like your personal Facebook account in some ways but is very different in others.

Actually not much at first thought.

That was my thought until I met Coyote Peterson.

Twitter is hard for some people to “get” but I admit to loving it because it forces people (including myself) to be brief. With a limit of 140 characters, tweets must be reduced to the juiciest nuggets of information to spark the interest of its users. As an academic who likes to write, I admit that such pith is difficult, but I enjoy scrolling through my twitter stream quickly for interesting content.

The standard rule when applying for online teaching jobs is to submit your CV and cover letter. An important aspect I learned when applying for an online teaching job is to submit your unofficial graduate transcripts along with your CV and cover letter. Most often, a college or university will ask you for your official transcripts during the application process. Submitting your unofficial transcripts is a great way to take initiative so recruiters can get a head start reviewing your coursework.

Do you have the courage to ask? Do you have the courage to truly believe that you will be given what you asked for? Do you have the faith to knock? Do you have the fortitude to pound the door, even if it made your knuckles bleed? More so, are you committed to follow the journey once the door opens? Would you have the stamina to accept defeat and seek another entrance?