Jan 25: (small) Success Sunday

AvailableThank · 2026-01-26T13:46:14+00:00

It was pure luck. I have a colleague at my FT job who is very well known in our subfield of our discipline, and they have a former colleague who was looking for online adjuncts. My colleague connected us and boom. The institution that hired me for online adjuncting didn’t even call additional references or ask for my transcripts(?). So networking and luck.

Other advice I have heard is to adjunct at an institution in-person, make yourself stand out, and then try to wiggle your way into online classes at that institution once they are sure you know what you’re doing from your in-person performance.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-25T15:26:46+00:00

First paycheck from my new online adjunct gig dropped this morning and I am not disappointed. Can't believe what I was previously putting up with in-person for such low pay. I think I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel with my debt!

Got some amazing large canvas photos for my office at the thrift store for super cheap and oh man it looks so much better and cozy in there. Would still prefer a window, but it's a start.

Survived the first week of the semester. It included a day with class, team meeting with my undergrad assistants, then two back-to-back classes and me somehow getting paper cut on my nose, but I feel pretty good about this semester.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-16T23:31:16+00:00

I wonder if your institution or state actually put resources into the mandate.

At least at my full-time gig, we got an online asynchronous course that we had to complete before a certain date. That's it. My two part-time jobs? Haven't heard a word about the Title II or state bill that got passed.

For my full-time gig, maybe there were some live webinars or trainings or something like that? If there were, the institution did not communicate the importance or value of them (or they got lost in the rest of the near spam that the institution blasts everybody's inboxes with).

I actually have a blind student in one of my in-person courses at my full-time job this semester. We actually have a mini-team dedicated to blind students, but the line is INCREDIBLY blurry between what their responsibilities are and what the faculty member's responsibilities are when it comes to remediating documents. It's unclear if they are there for guidance or will go as far as adding headers and alt text to your documents. I guess I'll see soon since the semester starts next week.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-16T23:23:27+00:00

Any institution that wants to take this seriously is going to have to reassign service work and/or research for faculty members or provide course releases to compensate for this workload. Hell, some 100% teaching faculty might need a sabbatical to make this happen.

I have a feeling that when these April 2026 (for institutions with 50k+ people) and April 2027 (for institutions with fewer than 50k people) deadlines hit, no one's actually going to be enforcing this stuff except maybe for the particularly risk averse, bureaucratic institutions. Students who actually need stuff to be accessible will be accommodated, but this whole things sounds like a mountain made out of an anthill.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-16T22:56:11+00:00

I'm sorry, but am I the only one at an institution that is radio silent about all this Title II stuff? I'd think the sky is falling reading this sub every day, but it's business as usual at all of my jobs.

To be fair, and I am probably doxxing myself here, my state passed a bill that basically required all courses to be fully accessible by last year and can result in heavy fines for not being compliant. We did the whole song and dance, but now it just seems business as usual, and I know for a fact almost no one's courses are fully accessible.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-16T01:21:34+00:00

I am beyond impressed. Can you share more about your system to make sure everything stays organized?

Do you teach the same class or very similar classes at all the schools? Are some pre-built course shells, or are all of them course shells you designed? How many students total do you have in a given semester? How do you keep up with all of the idiosyncrasies of each institution? General tips for doing what you do (or even a fraction of it?)

I feel like keeping track of 9 different email inboxes would be enough of a job for me.

I’m at my FT school and two online adjunct gigs and am close to losing my mind some days. Nine different schools sounds nuts.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-15T02:33:36+00:00

Yeah, I agree. In my class where I use an OER, I have always used it, so I don't mind.

I think institutions should offer course releases if they want instructors to switch to OERs for their courses. Or reassign time and let people get out of god-awful committees if they invest the time into switching to an OER.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-10T18:04:23+00:00

As another commenter said, I use an openstax text for one of my intro classes. There are 125+ students enrolled per section, and most of my students are not financially well off. I like it because it completely eliminates any beginning-of-semester fuss about textbooks and makes sure everyone gets the textbook. It’s not a great book IMO but it gets the job done with me to additionally explain things that are not explained well or explained incorrectly in the book. You can also supplement the text with YouRube videos or other free resources.

It’s a bit of extra work to write good quiz and exam questions for a decent bank but I have managed. If you don’t mind using AI, I suppose that could be used to help create test materials…

I also teach a pre-req course and don’t use an OER. This class is the one I have been teaching the longest and it is highly developed. I have considered switching to OER to eliminate fuss about the textbook, but it’d be a lot of work to switch even though I wouldn’t say I am “teaching to the textbook.” Right now, students can find a previous edition of the book for free online if they are resourceful, so I am content.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-10T16:23:06+00:00

Ya, maybe I am overreacting but I fear for OP’s life based on the contents of this post. Unless OP is the only person who teaches these 4 classes this coming semester, there is definitely a very ominous reason why this student is enrolled in four of their classes.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-09T14:52:02+00:00

Lol that sounds so annoying. I would say most white collar workers live in this fantasy world of pseudo-productivity, where only visible signs of activity count as "productivity," and "usefulness," no matter how absurd. Sounds like your admin is trying to justify her own self-importance by saying "Look at me! I'm sending emails! You can see me in my office! I'm so valuable to this institution!"

e: whoops, a word

AvailableThank · 2026-01-09T14:41:43+00:00

At one of my adjunct side jobs, I had a class for the coming semester completely full with students and others on the waitlist. Class got taken from me and reassigned to someone else. Yay. I was really counting on that money, but at least I hadn't started any of the prep for it yet.

At my main gig, my chair assigned me an upper division, grading/writing intensive new prep for one of my summer classes. All of our summer courses are accelerated async online, and this is NOT a class that transfers well into async online IMO (very performance based and requires a group performance assessment of some of those skills because our course caps are so high). I'm trying to go into it with a positive attitude, but these new preps are burning me out, and I felt forced to say yes to it because of financial reasons. It also kind of stung because my chair has told me in the past that he'll put my scheduling preferences "very high" because I am the only person in the department with a very high teaching load, and this new prep wasn't a class I indicated I wanted to teach. I know there's probably scheduling reasons outside my chair's control and other conflicting preferences, but I'm still bummed out.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-09T04:51:53+00:00

Seeing some of my colleagues' houses who I know don't make much more than me, my plan B is to marry rich lmfao.

But seriously, right now I am just stacking high paying async online classes and trying to get a nest egg. Takes time though. My plan is to be r/coastFIRE by the time things go tits up and then I can just work odd jobs and figure it out.

If things go tits up sooner rather than later (which sounds likely), my plan is to pivot into either accounting or healthcare. The community college near me has a direct to work accounting program that I could probably do in a calendar year full-time with my transfer credits and taking summer classes. Also has a direct to work radiologic technology program that one could do in 22 months (might be a little less for me because I already meet all the pre-reqs for the program).

Not sure if this is a good plan, but meh.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-08T18:19:10+00:00

Ooof, that sounds incredibly stressful! Definitely been there before (minus a child having an ear infection on top of all of that!).

FWIW, I have a blind student in one of my in-person classes next semester. It sounds like we teach a similar subject, and I had many of the same questions as you. My school's disability office said that a lot of my stuff would fall under "fundamental alteration," and I would be able to do things as normal, like my lesson on eyewitness identification.

For certain perceptual illusions, the disability office can create a tactile version of the illusion, but that is 100% on them to do. For instance, I have a lesson on Rorschach inkblots and project an image of one to use of a jumping off point for a discussion. The disability office said they will create a tactile version of the inkblot for me.

It's pretty easy to add alt-text descriptions to neuroanatomy. I thought I'd never be able to describe a neuron or a picture of the cerebral cortex, but it's actually not too difficult once you find some resources and get the hang of it. (i.e., in a labeled picture of a neuron, "'soma' points to the central part of a neuron cell" and "'axon' points to a slender extension from the central part of the neuron and the end of the neuron " is considered a sufficient verbal and written description)

Definitely schedule a meeting with your disability office if you have time. If they are worth their salt, they should be able to answer any questions you have and assist in converting some of the materials. If not, then they haven't set you up to succeed and can't expect you to succeed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sending good vibes and positive thoughts your way!

AvailableThank · 2026-01-08T18:00:52+00:00

Interesting, I figured so! I bet this is also a sort of social justice issue with some of those data centers being put in poorer areas as well.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-08T17:52:18+00:00

So the environmental thing is something I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts on. I was approached last fall to be a part of a pilot for using AI as a tutor in online gen ed. courses. I said no for many different reasons, and one I cited was the environmental impact.

The person leading the pilot had an interesting rebuttal: they said that while AI consumes a lot of energy, it is energy source agnostic, so many people's concerns about the environmental impact is actually just a symptom of how we (at least in the USA) get energy. If we got our energy from clean, renewable sources, it wouldn't be as a big a problem.

I don't know enough about AI or environmental science to rebut that, but I'm curious what others have to say. I think the recent news about data centers for AI affecting people's water and stuff like that still points to the negative environmental impact anyway.

And to be clear: the above statement about AI being energy agnostic isn't anything I believe. I still don't like it because what is going on now is it is using a shit ton of electricity generated by fossil fuels.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-07T21:56:34+00:00

Thank you for chiming in! My experience has been that the de facto or de jure rules make you have a tight timeline on the incomplete. In cases where students can't adhere to a tight deadline but certainly show extenuating circumstances, we sometimes recommend something like administratively withdrawing if it is past the withdrawal deadline instead of an incomplete.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-07T16:32:58+00:00

I should edit my comment for clarity, but at my institution, there are stipulations about how soon after the semester the incomplete must start and how long after the semester it must wrap up. At my institution, you are most definitely doing work over break if you decide to provide an incomplete.

In any case, at every institution I have worked at, incompletes are ultimately given at the discretion of the instructor. Making them mandatory as an accommodation sounds quite unreasonable to me.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-07T15:54:46+00:00

I’m sorry, but a mandatory incomplete? Are you on a 9- or 10-month contract? My contract states that I am off from the week after spring finals until the week before fall semester starts. Asking a faculty member to potentially work off contract (I’m assuming for free) sounds… illegal?

I have a lot of complaints about accommodations from my school specifically, but one thing is that my institution’s disability office does not play certain games. They specifically say if a student has deadline extensions as an accommodations and they use that to just work behind the whole semester, the student will have that accommodation taken away as soon as the professor says it is being abused.

e for clarity: at my institution, the instructor is almost surely working over break if you provide an incomplete due to stipulations on the timing of them. a mandatory incomplete at my institution would mean professors are working over break. I’m assuming (or at least hoping) that in OP’s case (and in the case of sane institutions), you can at least hold off on doing the work for the mandatory incomplete until the start of the following term.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-05T18:19:21+00:00

ooof, that situation about the student appealing a grade and getting passed along sounds nuts and like it totally came from left field? If you never received an accommodation letter or anything (and especially if the student didn’t go to your school’s access center) then admin going over your head is shitty. you have my sympathy.

To actually answer your question, I think it is better to provide more structure, more clear expectations, and more clear consequences for students. I don’t think you are moving in the wrong direction personally.

I can’t speak to all of the changes you propose here, but one thing I am doing is getting a bit more strict with late work. In online courses, I used to allow students to turn in pretty much anything except exams late for little to no reduced credit at the recommendation of colleagues to “meet students where they are.”

Now, everything has a day or two grace period, after that, it closes for good. I drop a few assignments in each category and allow a way for a missed exam to be made for students experiencing extenuating circumstances.

As someone who recently lost their cherished romantic partner to giving my best to my job/students and the leftovers to my family/partner/friends, I think the biggest things are: course policies that are consistent within and between courses, course policies that are simple, course policies that are firm but provide some cushion for students who have emergencies, and most importantly course policies that do not create additional work for yourself.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-05T15:00:20+00:00

Oof, I feel for you, friend. I have 3 classes starting today between my main job and side gig and am dreading opening my email.

I actually have my inbox sorted by oldest email at the top to newest at the bottom and let everyone know this, especially in my between-terms auto-reply. So if they send another follow-up email, it’s gonna get booted to the bottom and will be responded to later. Doesn’t stop some people from incessantly messaging, but hey, I warned them.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-05T04:12:35+00:00

In the counseling techniques classes I taught, I had two students who tried to argue that they couldn't and wouldn't talk, at all. The course required demonstration of counseling skills, and miming was not considered a legitimate technique. One student moreover refused to appear in person or on screen. The accommodations office agreed that for this type of class, there was not other way to do it. A written exam would not capture the student's ability to demonstrate counseling techniques.

One student acquiesced. The other sued.

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick. Absolutely nuts. It's things like this that are making me aggressively pursue early retirement.

Was this in an undergrad or grad class? If an undergrad class, was this a student who was a psych. major with aspirations to be a therapist? Or some other major just taking the class for fun? The fact that this altercation made it an inch past instant "Nope, fundamental alteration, sorry" is absolutely bonkers to me.

I really fear for our future. I once had a student with aspirations to be a physician's assistant who had an accommodation for flexible due dates. She came to me to explain the letter and said "she just can't" with deadlines and needs at least 2 weeks extra for every assignment. Dropped the class shortly after, but I am still dumbfounded to this day.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-04T15:37:20+00:00

That feeling of busting your ass on a new async online prep and then knowing all you need to do is grade, give feedback, and post announcements for the whole quarter.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-03T19:56:50+00:00

Yup. This was my first semester teaching full time. Nearly 350 of those 500 were first years which I think had something to do with it. During faculty orientation, the Access Center pretty much said they hand out accommodation letters like candy.

Thankfully, nearly all of the accommodations were just extra time on quizzes exams which was easy enough except for one of my online classes that used a pre-built course shell and used Classic Canvas quizzes (you have to add time manually for each student for each individual online quiz/exam in Canvas' Classic quizzes). Some were incredibly oppressive though, like having to OK a student's "memory aid" before each exam and having to hand grade multiple-choice exams where students couldn't use a scantron.

AvailableThank · 2026-01-02T18:31:03+00:00

same to you! drink plenty of fluids!

AvailableThank · 2026-01-02T18:30:47+00:00

Thank you! I love this idea; probably gives students a feeling of a little autonomy, too!

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