This study measures the perceptions of departmental culture from both the adjunct faculty and departmental administrator perspectives. The preparation for this study included the development of a validated survey designed to collect mirrored perception data from both groups. Multiple factors in higher education have led to an overreliance on…

This exploratory study uses qualitative and quantitative data to analyze instructor experiences in adding video feedback to written notes in online courses. This study asks if instructors will feel more "connected" in video feedback courses, report increased workloads, and see an improvement in their performance evaluations in video…

We report the results of a pilot study that offers the field of technical and professional communication its first look at material working conditions of contingent faculty, such as course loads, compensation, and professional support. Findings include that contingent faculty are more enduring with stable full-time, multi-year contracts; they…

Throughout U.S. higher education, non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) are experiencing tremendous growth. Traditionally part-time instructors, increasing numbers of NTTF are full-time faculty but have lower salaries, fewer benefits, and less integration into their schools than tenure-track peers. Although this general trend is reflected in schools of…

Over the past 25 years, the Australian workforce has become more casualised, with approximately one-quarter of the workforce in casual employment today. One of the highest users of casual employees is the higher education sector, where casual academics (referred to as sessionals in the Australian context) are estimated to account for 50% of the…

Massive Open Online Courses ("MOOCs") are free, online courses offered by institutions of higher education to individual users across the world, and in the vast majority of cases, without any admissions criteria. MOOCs are popular with individuals because they offer unprecedented, free access to the best institutions in the world that…

Social work education programs rely heavily on adjunct instructors, as do most academic institutions. This article adds to existing literature on adjuncts by focusing on the unique issues in social work education, using social work values and ethics as a focus. The benefits and detriments for adjuncts, programs, and students in schools of social…

Adjunct faculty make up a large contingent of faculty teaching in today's colleges and universities. In fact, the use of adjunct faculty allows these institutions to fulfill their educational missions. Much is written in the popular press and in periodicals dedicated to higher education about adjunct faculty. While some of this is accurate, a…

Satisfaction with the quality of students, autonomy, faculty support, honorarium, and preference for teaching were significant predictors of adjunct faculty loyalty. With the exception of autonomy, these factors along with a heavy teaching load, collaborative research with full-time faculty, and satisfaction with teaching schedule were predictive…

Recession reduces job opportunities in the professoriate, particularly in areas where minorities are clustered. It's a tough time to want to be a professor or try to climb the faculty ranks, particularly for minority faculty, as Dr. Christopher Tudico, a Mexican-American, and others are finding. The recession and its go-slow recovery have cut the…

The 2006 report from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, "Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U. S. Higher Education", made recommendations that most parttime faculty cannot follow. The report "urge[s] postsecondary institutions to make a commitment to embrace new pedagogies, curricula,…

Variation in teaching techniques was examined among instructors based on their status (full-time vs. part-time) and educational level (doctorate vs. nondoctorate). To facilitate this study, a survey instrument was developed and distributed to 400 randomly selected faculty members employed at the two largest institutions, Community Colleges X and…

Explores differences between instructional practices of full- and part-time faculty using results of a survey of more than 1,500 community college instructors. Reports that discrepancies emerged regarding time spent in various classroom practices, availability of faculty to students outside class, and faculty connections with colleagues and the…

Describes a study conducted in response to the aging of community college instructors and the need to replace large numbers of retiring faculty. Explains the study's recruitment simulation, which used graduate students in MBA programs in the Midwest. States that, when asked if they would prefer to teach part-time or full-time, respondents…