Teaching college classes online is an attractive option for many people in the teaching field. There are online teaching positions that are outside of higher education, but the pay is minimal. To make a living at it you will most likely need to teach as an online adjunct instructor for a college or university.
All of the major universities offer online classes. These schools require their instructors to have a Doctorate in their field. The professors teach the online classes or their TA’s do. You probably won’t have much success trying to teach online for these institutions. While they do use some adjunct instructors, they typically don’t seek them out. In the community college world things are different. To cut costs these colleges hire mostly adjuncts to teach their classes. Colleges don’t have to pay benefits to adjuncts because they are not full time employees. This leads to high turnover. Therefore community colleges are constantly hiring adjunct instructors. Many of these offer online classes. So your best bet in landing a job teaching online is to research these community colleges to find out which ones offer online classes in your field.
Community colleges rarely advertise a need for online adjunct instructors. You have to find the colleges that have distance learning in your field and contact them. I would recommend sending an e mail to the distance education department expressing your interest. I would also send an e mail to the head of the department of the subject you teach. This person is usually responsible for hiring the instructors. If there is not a need for an online instructor at least they will have your information.
As I mentioned before, almost all of the colleges offer online courses. Some are strict about only using existing faculty to teach these courses, but many are not. Some of the colleges that hire many out of state adjuncts to teach online courses are Park University, Florida Community College in Jacksonville and Darton College. It can take some time and persistence to land an online teaching position, but it can be done.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
How to Get an Online Teaching Position
Teaching college classes online is an attractive option for many people in the teaching field. There are online teaching positions that are outside of higher education, but the pay is minimal. To make a living at it you will most likely need to teach as an online adjunct instructor for a college or university.
All of the major universities offer online classes. These schools require their instructors to have a Doctorate in their field. The professors teach the online classes or their TA’s do. You probably won’t have much success trying to teach online for these institutions. While they do use some adjunct instructors, they typically don’t seek them out. In the community college world things are different. To cut costs these colleges hire mostly adjuncts to teach their classes. Colleges don’t have to pay benefits to adjuncts because they are not full time employees. This leads to high turnover. Therefore community colleges are constantly hiring adjunct instructors. Many of these offer online classes. So your best bet in landing a job teaching online is to research these community colleges to find out which ones offer online classes in your field.
Community colleges rarely advertise a need for online adjunct instructors. You have to find the colleges that have distance learning in your field and contact them. I would recommend sending an e mail to the distance education department expressing your interest. I would also send an e mail to the head of the department of the subject you teach. This person is usually responsible for hiring the instructors. If there is not a need for an online instructor at least they will have your information.
As I mentioned before, almost all of the colleges offer online courses. Some are strict about only using existing faculty to teach these courses, but many are not. Some of the colleges that hire many out of state adjuncts to teach online courses are Park University, Florida Community College in Jacksonville and Darton College. It can take some time and persistence to land an online teaching position, but it can be done.
All of the major universities offer online classes. These schools require their instructors to have a Doctorate in their field. The professors teach the online classes or their TA’s do. You probably won’t have much success trying to teach online for these institutions. While they do use some adjunct instructors, they typically don’t seek them out. In the community college world things are different. To cut costs these colleges hire mostly adjuncts to teach their classes. Colleges don’t have to pay benefits to adjuncts because they are not full time employees. This leads to high turnover. Therefore community colleges are constantly hiring adjunct instructors. Many of these offer online classes. So your best bet in landing a job teaching online is to research these community colleges to find out which ones offer online classes in your field.
Community colleges rarely advertise a need for online adjunct instructors. You have to find the colleges that have distance learning in your field and contact them. I would recommend sending an e mail to the distance education department expressing your interest. I would also send an e mail to the head of the department of the subject you teach. This person is usually responsible for hiring the instructors. If there is not a need for an online instructor at least they will have your information.
As I mentioned before, almost all of the colleges offer online courses. Some are strict about only using existing faculty to teach these courses, but many are not. Some of the colleges that hire many out of state adjuncts to teach online courses are Park University, Florida Community College in Jacksonville and Darton College. It can take some time and persistence to land an online teaching position, but it can be done.
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