Teaching as Online Adjunct Faculty: Practical Resources for Instruction

The following self-paced workshop is a recommended, free resource, through the University's membership in the Online Learning Consortium.

Workshop Description:

Faculty development and instructional support are important aspects for ensuring that online adjunct faculty have the resources they need to successfully offer instruction. This self-paced workshop is geared towards upskilling online adjunct faculty who are seeking these various resources and support related to designing and facilitating quality online instruction within inclusive digital learning environments.

In the summer of 2021, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) and the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) with support from the Every Learner Everywhere Network conducted a study to examine current practices for hiring, onboarding, developing, and supporting online adjunct faculty. According to the Online Adjunct Faculty: A Survey of Institutional Policies and Practices report, some of the teaching practices that respondents reported that online adjuncts struggle to incorporate overlap with effective practices and evidence-based teaching strategies (p. 28). Therefore, this workshop has been divided into six modules with each geared towards the top challenges and topics for training:

Module 1: Collaborative learning
Module 2: Creating connections between students
Module 3: Facilitating group discussion
Module 4: Active learning strategies
Module 5: Creating an inclusive classroom
Module 6: Culturally-relevant teaching

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

Identify key course design elements that support student-to-student interactions in the online learning environment
Utilize various strategies and tools for developing an inclusive sense of community in their online course
Evaluate their own teaching and course design practices using an online equity rubric

Format:

This online workshop is entirely self-paced and is not instructor-facilitated. The estimated time for completion is 6-8 hours, but you will likely find yourself spending more time as you investigate some of the optional resources and self-assessment activities that are provided.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is best suited for faculty members from all disciplines charged with designing and/or facilitating instruction in digital learning environments. Instructors can have any level of expertise with online, blended, and digital learning, including those who are brand new to quality, equitable online instruction

What are the key takeaways from this workshop?

Exposure to a number of technology tools that can be used to help increase connections and collaborations among students in the online environment.
A curated list of toolkits and rubrics for building a more inclusive online classroom
Practical application ideas and examples for implementing culturally responsive teaching into your own courses

Register: To register, you'll need to create an OLC account. The account is free with our University membership. NOTE: after clicking the following link, click the "Create Account" link to setup your account. Click here to get started.