There is little doubt that the budget cuts to public education are chaotic for many traditional academics since the cuts are resulting in a mounting number of teacher layoffs. The current economic landscape is not welcoming to unemployed intellectuals, to say the least, and the search for gainful academic employment can be extremely frustrating as the traditional campus becomes less inviting to traditional faculty seeking to work in a physical classroom. However, distance education technology is making it possible for teachers to quell the academic chaos with online adjunct job openings available at every post-secondary academic institution. As community colleges, state universities, four-year state colleges, for-profit schools and technical schools ramp up their distance learning programs the number of online instructor jobs that need qualified academics with computer skills to fill them grows at the same time. The educators with earned graduate degrees, a doctorate or master degree, finding traditional employment delivering educational instruction difficult to obtain can learn how to use a personal computer to navigate the Internet to academic websites and locate the faculty application section that exists inside each school’s website. Since there are thousands of post-secondary institutions that now offer some form of distance education in the form of online college classes to their enrolled student populations the task of making multiple applications to teach online can be daunting for many educators, but the benefits of a full time online teaching schedule are preferable to the academic chaos found on the physical campus.
It is difficult for teachers working in physical classrooms all week to take on additional tasks such as building an online teaching schedule, but the current budgetary reductions to public education funds require the extra effort needed to make a point of applying for online adjunct instructor positions each day. The adoption of distance education technology by academic administrators is not a coincidence because the same budget cuts that are eliminating traditional faculty positions are negatively impacting the effort to effectively operate the individual schools. The reason this is occurring is that the costs associated with maintaining the physical classrooms on the physical campuses are much higher than the costs associated with delivering educational instruction in an online college course. As administrators increase the number of online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs in response to the fiscal reality the number of online adjunct instructor job openings increase at the same time because each online degree program must be staffed with academically qualified educators with earned graduate degrees and computer skills. It is this growth in online adjunct faculty positions that makes the effort to locate available online teaching jobs worth the extra time they require on the part of the prospective online adjunct instructor. The most effective search strategy for applying to community colleges, state universities, technical schools and for-profit colleges is to set up a rotational application schedule that submits academic credentials in the faculty application sections of post-secondary academic websites on a daily basis until a positive response is received from the individual college or university.
Many traditional educators with decades of experience in the physical classroom too quickly dismiss online teaching as a possible option as a way to continue earning a decent living from the delivery of instructional information. This deliberate ignoring of the impact distance education technology is making on the academic and how it works for educators is a mistake simply because the real reason the teacher layoffs on the physical campuses are happening is the administrators’ realization that all physical academic structures, the college and university campuses and the many classrooms on them, are simply too expensive to maintain now that technology allow for the broadcasting of post-secondary instruction on the Internet. The result of this financial realization is a genuine explosion of new online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs that are reason enough to treat online teaching as a serious academic career option. The alert online instructor can manage an online teaching schedule populated with six to eight online college classes from an inexpensive laptop computer located in practically part of the world provided it is possible to access the online college degree programs located on the Internet. In order to build a full time online teaching schedule the prospective online college professor will need to make multiple applications every possible day in the faculty applications sections of post-secondary academic websites.
The energetic growth of online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs is a very positive development for educators facing additional teacher layoffs resulting from further budget cuts to public education. For example, the phenomenal growth in the number of new online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs is providing academic employment for every online instructor that is willing to learn how to use a personal computer to navigate in and out of the thousands of online college courses offered by state colleges and four-year universities. The reality of distance education is that academic administrators have realized that it represents a must less costly way to provide new and returning college students with the chance to earn an academic degree than the physical classroom that needs eternal maintenance to remain in service. Additionally, the college, university and community college students are as eager to participate in distance education as the for-profit college students because it is much less stressful form them to attend college from their personal computers at home and at work instead of having to travel in person to a remote physical campus for the same purpose. In the end, these circumstances combine to produce a positive effect for educators with an earned graduate degree, a master degree or Ph.D, and the desire to earn a decent living despite the layoffs impacting traditional faculties.
The idea that an online teaching schedule populated with numerous online adjunct faculty jobs can be economically sufficient is one that most traditional educators think about because of decades experience with a top-down administrative system that dictates that teaching in one physical classroom on one traditional campus is the only option for educators. Distance education technology is proving that nothing could be further from the truth on the emerging academic landscape crowded with online bachelor degree programs and online master degree programs. It is possible for an academic with an earned graduate degree, a doctorate or master degree, to learn how to use a personal computer to make applications for online instructor jobs with every community college, for-profit school, state university, technical school and four-year state college and eventually construct an online teaching schedule that can deliver an online adjunct income equal to that which can be earned in a physical classroom. Of course, in order to teach online for a living it is imperative for an educators to lean how distance learning is the future of post-secondary instruction and the teachers with the wit and intelligence to understand this change will prosper personally and professionally by acquiring an online teaching schedule. While it takes focus and determination to transition out of the traditional academic setting and into a variety of online college degree programs, the effort will certainly be worth it as the number of online college classes grows each academic semester.
As many academic careers dissolve into confusion resulting from teacher layoffs one really big question that comes to mind is how to revive an income from intellectual activity. This question is especially important as it is assumed by many intellectuals that there are few other types of gainful employment for career educators other than those that had existed in the physical classrooms on the traditional campuses. Fortunately, distance education technology is able to make a lackluster academic career shine again with online adjunct jobs in a variety of online college degree programs. An aggressive online adjunct instructor can coordinate an online teaching schedule containing six to ten online college classes at once with focus and excellent technical skills. Further, time management techniques will be required of the online instructor in order to navigate the different online teaching duties and associated administrative tasks, but the techniques can be learned quickly by any individual that has managed to successfully complete graduate school. In the end, teaching online can be a sustainable academic career path with a very bright future if the academic is willing to understand how the delivery of post-secondary instruction is now located on the Internet in online college courses.
The ongoing rash of teacher layoffs resulting from budget cuts to public education man that it is time for educators with earned graduate degrees, a master degree or doctorate, to do what needs to be done with faculty online positions. Of course, it is far easier to say something than it is to actually do something and teaching online is no exception. If nothing else, distance education technology is still relatively new in the sense that it can actually permit an educator to work form an inexpensive laptop practically anywhere in the world provided it is possible to access the Internet. This reality shocks far too many intellectuals that seem determined to stick it out on traditional campuses and in physical classrooms that no longer are affordable for academic administrators. The reality is that the faculty dismissals are directly related to the reductions in operational funds at physical schools. It should be easy to ascertain that the routine maintenance of physical classrooms and the campuses on which they sit is much higher than delivering the same academic instruction on the Internet in the form of an online college degree program. With that in mind, the alert educator with computer skills will start pursuing online instructor jobs immediately since the enthusiasm about earning an academic degree from a personal computer on the part of new and returning college and university students is motivating administrators at community college, state universities and four-year state colleges to deploy even more online degree programs.