Online Teaching Blog

I recently came across the life lessons of the Chinese bamboo tree story. The story teaches about patience, faith, growth and development. As I reflected on this story, I felt we, as adjuncts, can learn a few lessons from this story to help us stay the course as we seek to transition to full time adjunctpreneurs© and make that money teaching online.

Success in the online learning environment can take on a trial and error approach, especially for novice faculty or those mainly familiar with a face to face teaching environment. While some face to face strategies carry over, facilitating an online class demands a separate set of skills and may require more attention from the professor. Some professors find themselves suffering from negative reviews and not fully understanding the reasons while others may be apprehensive about transitioning to teaching online.

 

Three years ago, I wrote an article titled, “Detection of plagiarism while assessing online student work,” in which tips and tools for detecting plagiarism were identified and discussed. Since that time, students have continued to attempt to circumvent innovations in plagiarism detection and the industry known as “The Cheating Economy” has grown exponentially. This article, Plagiarism Detection in the Era of the Cheating Economy, will outline some of the more recent techniques used by students to avoid detection of plagiarism.

As part of designing a course or presenting a subject, a key principle to have effective and successful course outcomes is to understand who the audience is, so that as the instructor, relevant, engaging and relatable content, materials, and activities are included. However, as instructors, there is limited information about our students (our audience) beforehand unless we taught them previously. Students enroll in classes either because it is mandatory, or that it is somewhat interesting, or that it was a random choice chosen as a filler subject. Consequently, prior to meeting students, instructors are unaware of exactly who students are, what excites them, their learning styles, or any of their interests.

After spending time in the online teaching job market myself and now helping others find positions, I wanted to share what I find are the 8 biggest mistakes I see online professors make when searching for an online teaching job.

Searching for online teaching jobs takes time, effort and dedication. Many say that looking for a job is a full-time job in itself! You need the right tools and application materials as well as the commitment to doing the leg work. My goal here is to help you avoid some of the mistakes I made in my own search and that I see clients make in their efforts! Here are the 8 biggest mistakes I see online professors make when searching for an online teaching job!

Introduction

There is a common phrase penned by Margaret Wolf Hungerford; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This phrase was published in the book Molly Bawn in 1878. It means what is appealing to some may be unattractive to others. This can also apply to humor in online teaching. What makes one laugh can make another cringe or have no emotional response at all. The art of making a person laugh is just that--an art.

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.