My Two Hats in Higher Education: Adjunct Faculty & Instructional Designer

So this winter, a friend of mine asked if I wanted to write a piece for The Nexus, a publication for the Massachusetts College Personnel Association about my work as an Instructional Designer and Adjunct.  I took her up on the offer and here is an excerpt.  You can read the full article here.

The Nexus - February 2015 with an article from Lance Eaton.
"I wear two hats in higher education.  My first hat is pretty beaten up but still invaluable.  That’s my adjunct hat.  It’s a hat that I’ve dawned for some eight years and over 100 college sections.  If that math seems like it’s more the speed of a full-time instructor, you might be right.  Several years of part-time teaching included the adjunct shuffle wherein I scooted from college to college (4-5 per semester), stitching together a living.  These included community colleges, state universities, private colleges and for-profit colleges.  What can I say; I got around.  Much of that ceased when I became Coordinator of Instructional Design at North Shore Community College, my second hat.  I continue to teach courses because I still love teaching and also find that it aids me greatly in my role as instructional designer.

Connect With Us
In the adjunct hat, if there is one thing I would advocate to any part of the college to do in order for us to better help you is to make a concerted effort to connect with us.  The research shows that connecting with someone on campus is a major predictor of completion at a college and that an instructor is one of the most common people a student is likely to connect with.  Thus, it’s worth remembering that part-time faculty teach somewhere between half and two-thirds of college courses nowadays.  Fostering a strong relationship with part-time faculty provides additional layers of communication and support for the students."

Follow through for the rest of the piece in The Nexus.

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