Odessa College’s teaching faculty is comprised of about 60% part-time faculty, based on data for Spring 2019. Drop rates (the percentage of students who withdraw from a course before its completion) for the overall institution hover around 4%, but for many of our part-time faculty, that number is approaching 30%. For full-time faculty, success rates (the percentage of students who remain in the course for its duration, completing with a grade of C or better) hover around 80%. Yet for our adjunct faculty, that number is significantly lower according to research by Institutional Effectiveness.
In order for Odessa College to maintain its standing as one of the top ten Community Colleges in the nation (Aspen Institute, 2019), we must ensure that our part-time faculty are held to the same standards as our full-time faculty, especially with regard to training and support.
The success rates that we attained in the past demonstrate a strong commitment to our learners and to our community. But as our base of part-time faculty continues to grow, we will not maintain the high success rates we have held in the past unless we provide training, continuous opportunities for development, and strong support for our part-time faculty. We must make an investment in this, our largest population of educators. By making this investment in our part-time faculty, we are making an investment in our learners and in our community.
Through research, we have seen innovation plans that failed miserably, such as Los Angeles Unified School Districts (LAUSD) attempts to provide iPads to all students (Lapowski, 2015). Reading case studies such as this provides us with the opportunity to consider those obstacles that might stand in the way of successful implementation of a Network of Support and Development for Part-Time Faculty. For LAUSD, the issue involved not being prepared; not researching all the technological needs, and not maintaining open communication with all stakeholders. For the Network of Support and Development for Part-Time Faculty, we know that we must work with our full time faculty to develop mentoring partnerships with our part-time faculty. And we know that we must work with administration to identify ways that we can incentivise the program, to compensate the part-time faculty for their time. The delivery of online professional learning experiences will be developed collaboratively between the Teaching and Learning Team, and OC Global, the Instructional Design Team. As we work toward changes in behaviours, we will keep lines of communication open, with regular meetings to discuss progress. For more on the processes we will implement to insure a smooth transition into the Network of Support, read my article on 4DX – Disciplines of Execution Strategy.
References
The 4 Disciplines of Execution in a Nutshell. (2016, December 29). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEJDliThj7g
The Aspen Institute. (2019). Texas’ Odessa College recognized by the Aspen Institute as one of the top community colleges in the nation. [Media Release.] Retrieved from https://highered.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-Aspen-Prize-Local-Release_Odessa_final.pdf?_ga=2.249597251.432459263.1557782169-863886026.1557782169
Franklin-Covey. (April 2012). Executive Overview of The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/EZR2Ixm0QQE
Fuller, R., Brown, M., and Smith, K. (2017). Adjunct faculty voices: Cultivating professional development and community at the front lines of higher education. Stylus Publishing: Sterling, VA.
Land, P. & Salemi, D. (2014). Applying the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate rules in the college and university setting. NACUA Notes, National Association of College and University Attorneys, 12(5). Retrieved from http://www.higheredcompliance.org/resources/health-care-insurance.html.
Lapowski, I. (2015). What schools must learn from LA’s Ipad debacle. Wired (08-May-2015). Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2015/05/los-angeles-edtech/.
Sawyer, J., Kata, M., and Armstrong, D. (2014). Adjunct faculty: Engagement and community through professional development.
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges. (2018). Faculty Credentials: Guidelines. Retrieved from
http://sacscoc.org/pdf/081705/faculty%20credentials.pdf
Stewart, C. (2014). Transforming professional development to professional learning. Journal of Adult Education volume 43, number 1. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1047338.pdf
Yakoboski, P. (2016). Adjunct views of adjunct positions. Change: The Magazine of higher learning, v48, issue 3.
Making Waves 