The academic labor model is changing and these changes are hitting the finances and career plans of educators at every level. Unfortunately, college and university adjunct faculty members know this only too well. For the last decade adjunct college professors have been struggling with low pay, no benefits and a relatively small number of post-secondary campuses on which to teach every day. However, distance education technology makes it possible for any educator with an earned graduate degree, a Ph.D. or master’s degree, to teach online from a personal computer and earn a significant amount of online adjunct income from the intellectual effort. Undoubtedly, the future of post-secondary instruction is manifesting itself in online bachelor degree programs and online master’s degree programs. In order for a prospective online adjunct instructor to take advantage of the income that can be generated throughout the year, including the dreaded summer months when adjunct professors, and now many teachers who no longer have academic employment at the secondary level, are reduced to eating their shoe soles because there is no teaching work to be had at all, it is necessary to start applying for online faculty openings at online college degree programs.
Since there are over five thousand for-profit colleges, state colleges, technical schools and community colleges that now have or sill have online college classes and full online degree programs that offer the registered nursing degree online, online education degrees and several different variations of the online business degree, deciding which schools to apply to is a relatively simple matter. Every post-secondary academic institution now has a fully functional website. On the first page of each school’s site is a link to the faculty application section. This section is almost always easy to navigate for the purposes of submitting academic credentials. Additionally, after entering the college or university website of a dozen or so academic institutions it is very easy to identify the depth of the penetration of online degree program at each particular institution. Always keep in mind that it is important to submit an application for online adjunct faculty positions at each school because it is certain that they will increase the numbers of online degree programs they offer as the semesters go by.
Fortunately, new and returning college students want to earn such university degrees online as the online finance degree, online psychology degree and an online master in teaching because it is much easier to go to an online college classroom by logging onto the Internet than driving to a remote campus and sitting for hours in an uncomfortable chair in a physical university classroom. The same hold true for the online adjunct instructor teaching multiple online college courses for a variety of online bachelor degree programs with three or four or five different colleges and community colleges. The changes ahead in post-secondary and secondary instruction will result in even more online faculty openings. However, the individual with the academic credentials and technical skills with a personal computer and Internet navigation will certainly be able to develop an online teaching portfolio that can possibly replace or supplement an income lost due to the current budget cutting on traditional campuses and schools systems.