Making a Match: Aligning Audience, Goals, and Content in Online Adjunct Training
As increasing numbers of higher education students take online courses, there is a corresponding need for additional instructors to teach these students. The research literature indicates that there are different instructor roles, competencies, and attitudes that are required for teaching effectively online than for teaching in campus-based classrooms. These changes in teaching roles result in a need to provide instructor training that is focused on teaching in online contexts. With the new majority of higher education instructors in the United States being adjunct faculty, training programs are required that are accessible and useful for part-time instructors who may teach at more than one institution. This paper reports the findings of a research study focused on an interinstitutional training course that was designed particularly for adjunct faculty who were preparing to teaching online. The study found that not only the target group of adjunct faculty with no online teaching experience enrolled, but also experienced online instructors, full-time faculty, and nonteaching professionals completed the training course. The study explored the goals the participants had for taking the course and identified strategies for designing training for such a heterogeneous audience.
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration
