Grand Canyon University
NUR 649E
Nursing Education Seminar 2
Week 6:
Discussion Question 2:
Many schools hire adjunct faculty to fill online teaching positions. How might that practice
impact the quality of the online education?
Online education is gaining increasing importance in modern times as learning institutions target
more learners not only within their locality but also globally. E-learning has developed over the
years and saw major steps towards integration with the traditional education system from the
year 2000. This form of education has brought about flexibility in learning especially in tertiary
institutions allowing students from faraway places to access learning facilities without having to
be physically present in the classroom. The advancement in online learning has been propelled
, by breakthroughs in communication and networking technologies which has aided information
dissemination through tools such as video-conferencing.
The number of students enrolling in online education continues to increase over the years
and it is projected that in the coming years, this number will exceed that enrolling for the
traditional classroom education. In fact, it has been estimated that the number of students
enrolling for distance learning in US institutions now clocks at about 6 million annually which
further highlights the importance of this form of learning (Allen & Seaman, 2010. The popularity
of online education has triggered most educational institutions to look for alternative employees
to handle this growing sector.
Inadequacy in qualified tutors has forced most learning institutions to adopt the use
adjunct faculty to run their online courses. These are tutors who are not offered permanent
employment by the institutions and hence mostly work on part-time basis. This culture has
proved to be popular in most schools especially in regard to online education and has received
varying levels of success in different locations. There is hence a need to study this discipline and
analyze its effects on distance education in learning institutions.
The use of adjunct faculty in online classes has improved the quality of education offered
to students in that different professionals are available on anon-permanent basis. This is in
contrast to permanently employed tutors who often have tight schedules and limited school of
knowledge (Green et al., 2009). Permanently employed tutors would also require higher pay to
work beyond their job description tasks which highlight the importance of adjunct faculty.
The adjunct faculty not only provides a framework for increased source of information
but also allows flexibility in scheduling of online classes. Students in some of these programs
may have different schedules depending on various factors and these are adequately
NUR 649E
Nursing Education Seminar 2
Week 6:
Discussion Question 2:
Many schools hire adjunct faculty to fill online teaching positions. How might that practice
impact the quality of the online education?
Online education is gaining increasing importance in modern times as learning institutions target
more learners not only within their locality but also globally. E-learning has developed over the
years and saw major steps towards integration with the traditional education system from the
year 2000. This form of education has brought about flexibility in learning especially in tertiary
institutions allowing students from faraway places to access learning facilities without having to
be physically present in the classroom. The advancement in online learning has been propelled
, by breakthroughs in communication and networking technologies which has aided information
dissemination through tools such as video-conferencing.
The number of students enrolling in online education continues to increase over the years
and it is projected that in the coming years, this number will exceed that enrolling for the
traditional classroom education. In fact, it has been estimated that the number of students
enrolling for distance learning in US institutions now clocks at about 6 million annually which
further highlights the importance of this form of learning (Allen & Seaman, 2010. The popularity
of online education has triggered most educational institutions to look for alternative employees
to handle this growing sector.
Inadequacy in qualified tutors has forced most learning institutions to adopt the use
adjunct faculty to run their online courses. These are tutors who are not offered permanent
employment by the institutions and hence mostly work on part-time basis. This culture has
proved to be popular in most schools especially in regard to online education and has received
varying levels of success in different locations. There is hence a need to study this discipline and
analyze its effects on distance education in learning institutions.
The use of adjunct faculty in online classes has improved the quality of education offered
to students in that different professionals are available on anon-permanent basis. This is in
contrast to permanently employed tutors who often have tight schedules and limited school of
knowledge (Green et al., 2009). Permanently employed tutors would also require higher pay to
work beyond their job description tasks which highlight the importance of adjunct faculty.
The adjunct faculty not only provides a framework for increased source of information
but also allows flexibility in scheduling of online classes. Students in some of these programs
may have different schedules depending on various factors and these are adequately
