Adjunct Faculty in Online Higher Education: Best Practices for Teaching Adult Learners is an essential handbook that delves into the pivotal role of adjunct faculty instructors in the booming realm of online higher education, with a specific focus on adult learners. As the demand for online education continues to soar, administrators, program directors, and adjunct faculty instructors alike are presented with unique challenges and opportunities. This comprehensive guidebook provides a wealth of knowledge and best practices for adjunct faculty instructors seeking to excel in online teaching roles. With a keen understanding of the competitive nature of the field, this book equips instructors with valuable insights that will set them apart in the ever-expanding landscape of higher education. University administrators and program directors will also find immense value in the book's content, which explores strategies for providing professional development to adjunct faculty and designing effective evaluations to support continuous improvement. Recognizing the paramount importance of the student experience, the book emphasizes the crucial role played by adjunct faculty in representing their respective institutions. Covering a wide range of topics, from the historical context of adult learners to the challenges associated with being an adjunct instructor, this handbook serves as a comprehensive guide for both aspiring and experienced adjunct faculty members. It offers practical advice on curriculum design, personnel development, and evaluation methods, empowering administrators and directors alike to make informed decisions in hiring and supporting adjunct faculty instructors.

The Excellent Online Instructor is a guide for new and seasoned faculty who teach online, those responsible for training and developing online instructors, and administrators who must evaluate online faculty performance. This comprehensive resource describes the qualities of and explains how one can become an excellent online instructor. Written by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt—noted experts in online instruction—the book Includes models based in adult learning principles and best practices Offers guidelines to test instructors' readiness to teach online Contains ideas for overcoming faculty resistance Reveals how to develop an effective mentoring program Shows how to establish a long-term faculty development effort Praise for The Excellent Online Instructor "Palloff and Pratt have a profound understanding of the online educational milieu, its complexities and challenges as well as the potential it opens up to serious educators dedicated to exploiting its full value. Practical and down-to-earth strategies are at the core of what the authors offer the reader in this engaging book." —Michael J. Canuel, CEO, LEARN Quebec "This book examines best practices for effective online teaching and instructor engagement and provides a concise plan for faculty development and effective training methods. Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt have provided another essential resource for the field of online teaching and learning that is a must-read for anyone working with faculty or teaching online in either higher education or K–12." —Kaye Shelton, dean, Online Education, Dallas Baptist University "Whether you are guiding departmental faculty or looking to improve your own online skills, Palloff and Pratt provide practical steps, tools to organize your processes, best practices to emulate, and valuable resources to help you achieve excellence online." —Lynn Olson, dean, Graduate and Professional Studies, St. Joseph's College Online

The surge in enrollment for online courses is continually increasing. However, beneath the convenience lies a challenge that demands a resolution. Educators, administrators, and instructional designers must ensure that the human element is not lost in the virtual corridors of learning. Students with diverse backgrounds and learning needs require more than a simple virtual classroom. Research reveals a concerning trend: high attrition rates in online courses, often attributed to a lack of engagement and insufficient human interaction. To reverse this trend, deliberate measures must be taken to humanize the online learning environment. This book provides several solutions, offering an array of tools and strategies to promote engagement and infuse the human touch into online spaces. To confront this multi-layered challenge, it becomes paramount to undertake deliberate measures aimed at humanizing the online learning environment. Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education steps forward as a guide, offering an extensive array of tools and strategies meticulously crafted to foster student engagement and infuse the essential human touch into the digital educational landscape.

The COVID-19 Pandemic transformed nearly every aspect of daily life across the globe in just a few short years. Thankfully, we’ve made it a long way from the days of no contact, social distancing, masks, and general isolation. Still, many aspects of this time have continued into the present. This is particularly true regarding education, which saw a massive overhaul during that period. Remote learning and technology infused education were a necessity then, and may prove to be an invaluable improvement as we go forward. Instructional Technology Theory in the Post-Pandemic Era investigates the facets of incorporating technology and virtual spaces into education permanently. The experienced educators that compiled this book utilize their years of knowledge to bring to light the intricacies of adapting virtual education laboratories for the foreseeable future. They examine student performance metrics, detail teacher development practices, consider the social aspects of tech-infused education, and explore the implementation of new pedagogies for best results. Covering topics such as companionship in distance education, pandemic teaching experiences, and professional and teacher development, this book is a valuable resource for educators, pre-service teachers, administrators, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and more.

As the educational sphere witnessed an unprecedented shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, a pivotal transformation was set in motion. The surge in online enrollment, spanning synchronous, asynchronous, hybrid, and mobile formats, has established the digital domain as a formidable medium of education. However, this transition comes with a responsibility to uphold the principles of equality and accessibility, a responsibility that mirrors the concerns long prevalent in traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms. Designing Equitable and Accessible Online Learning Environments is a pioneering endeavor which delves into the multifaceted dimensions of online education and reveals a crucial revelation that students from disadvantaged backgrounds exhibit a pronounced affinity for online courses. This book magnifies the essence of this observation, venturing beyond the surface to uncover the means to cultivate a genuinely inclusive online pedagogical experience. Meticulously curated, this book amalgamates diverse perspectives from luminaries in the field. The ultimate aspiration is to empower educators, administrators, researchers, and students with a profound understanding of the symbiotic relationship between inclusivity and technology. From theoretical underpinnings to practical strategies, every chapter resonates with the heartbeat of equitable education in the digital age. Embarking on a comprehensive journey, this book is an exploration of design theories that embrace the ethos of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Topics span the spectrum, from deciphering the architecture of accessible digital tools to unraveling the tapestry of culturally responsive teaching in the virtual classroom.

Views faculty as adult learners and faculty development programs and initiatives as adult education. Introduces concepts of adult learning and program development in adult education and sets forth a useful model with strategies for success, involving specific tasks of preplanning, planning, delivery, and follow-up phases of creating a program for faculty development. Fundamental principles and their use are illustrated in an understandable framework. Useful for administrators and teachers responsible for faculty development. Author information is not given. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR.

This book equips instructors with fresh, practical teaching and training methods to support adult learning in both formal and continuing educational environments. An extensive, how-to guide, Methods for Facilitating Adult Learning covers adult teaching and learning fundamentals, collaborative teaching methods, methods for facilitating autonomous learning, community-based teaching methods, and technology-enhanced teaching and learning approaches. Readers will emerge with an in-depth understanding of each method, made comprehensive by the inclusion of definitions, philosophical and/or theoretical underpinnings, advantages and limitations, practical guidelines for application, and ample real-world examples. Ideal for any educator working with adult learners, this book offers a toolbox of approaches designed to enhance reader understanding and practice of adult instruction.

As the number of adjunct faculty teaching online courses remotely for their institutions continues to increase, so do the unique challenges they face, including issues of distance and isolation as well as problems pertaining to motivation, time, and compensation. Not only are these higher education faculty geographically isolated from each other and their colleagues at flagship campuses, but they also lack adequate institutional support and resources necessary to perform their roles. As institutions continue to rely heavily on this group of under-supported and undertrained instructors who teach the majority of online courses offered across the country, institutions need models and strategies to tap the expertise and perspectives of this group not only to improve teaching and learning in online programs but also to retain this critical talent pool. More consideration is needed to create institutional affinity and organizational commitment, build community, and create opportunities for remote adjunct faculty to be included as an integral component to their academic departments. The Handbook of Research on Inclusive Development for Remote Adjunct Faculty in Higher Education is a comprehensive reference work that presents research, theoretical frameworks, instructor perspectives, and program models that highlight effective strategies, innovative approaches, and unique considerations for creating professional development opportunities for remote adjunct faculty teaching online. This book provides concrete practices that foster inclusivity among contingent faculty teaching online as well as tangible practices that have been successfully implemented from faculty developers and academic leaders at institutions who have a large population of, and heavy reliance on, remote adjunct instructors. While addressing topics that include faculty engagement, mentoring programs, and instructor resources, this book intends to support remote instructors in the post-pandemic world. It is also beneficial for faculty development professionals; academic administrative leaders; higher education stakeholders; and higher education faculty, researchers, and students.

Strengthen your adult education program planning with this essential guide Planning Programs for Adult Learners: A Practical Guide, 4th Edition is an interactive, practical, and essential guide for anyone involved with planning programs for adult learners. Containing extensive updates, refinements, and revisions to this celebrated book, this edition prepares those charged with planning programs for adult learners across a wide variety of settings. Spanning a variety of crucial subjects, this book will teach readers how to: Plan, organize, and complete other administrative tasks with helpful templates and practical guides Focus on challenges of displacement, climate change, economic dislocation, and inequality Plan programs using current and emerging digital delivery tools and techniques including virtual and augmented reality Planning Programs for Adult Learners provides an international perspective and includes globally relevant examples and research that will inform and transform your program planning process. Perfect for adult educators and participants in continuing education programs for adults, the book will also be illuminating for graduate students in fields including education, nursing, human resource development, and more.

A gig economy is a system where employers hire independent and qualified workers for short-term contracts. While this might seem like a system worlds away from higher education, this is very much a common system embraced by colleges and universities. Being an adjunct faculty member has resulted in many highly educated people becoming part of the gig economy. Becoming and Supporting Online Adjunct Faculty in a Gig Economy provides information on the many challenges and potential solutions that can be leveraged as an online adjunct faculty member. Covering topics such as collaboration with full-time colleagues, curating resources for online courses, and maintaining working relationships, this book is ideal for adjunct faculty, administrators, students, researchers, and academicians.