Adjunct Faculty

The use of adjunct or part-time faculty members to teach distance learning courses is an important issue because distance learning may accelerate the trend in higher education toward the greater use of adjunct faculty. Adjunct or part-time faculty may affect the quality of instruction, and use of non–full time faculty may be connected to a general move in higher education toward market models driven by economic necessity to lower the cost of higher education. Key issues regarding adjunct faculty are: What percentage of [Page 12]distance learning courses are taught by adjunct faculty? What are the current policies and trends in higher education for compensating faculty who create and teach distributed learning format courses? What is the effect of the use or nonuse of adjunct faculty ...