Striving for Excellence
Striving for Excellence is a professional development series designed specifically for adjunct faculty and administrators.
A NISOD and Cengage Learning Collaboration
This digital series of webinars, podcasts, and blog posts covering professional development topics for adjunct faculty and administrators was produced in 2016 in a partnership between NISOD and Cengage Learning Digital Educators. Faculty partners created blog posts, podcasts and webinars related to the theme of “Be Connected: Using Digital Tools to Create Meaningful Connections.” View the full set of resources from the series in the archive below!
Press Release
Cengage Learning and NISOD Make Online Professional Development Materials Available to Adjunct Faculty
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- Part 1: BE CONNECTED
- Part 2: BE ENGAGED
- Part 3: BE COLLABORATIVE
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher – Part II
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher - Part II Essie Childers, Professor Blinn College
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher – Part I
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher - Part I Your browser does not support the video tag. Essie Childers, Professor Blinn College Download Webinar Transcript View the 2nd part of this webinar series.
SOS LMS: Using Your LMS as an Adjunct Connector
SOS LMS: Using Your LMS as an Adjunct Connector Using a learning management system (LMS) is a cost-effective and inclusive way to connect with your adjunct faculty members. An LMS portal can benefit your adjunct faculty members and the college in a multitude of ways. An empty LMS shell [...]
TechKNOWLEDGE-y for the Adjunct Coordinator: Social Media, Adjuncts, and You
TechKNOWLEDGE-y for the Adjunct Coordinator: Social Media, Adjuncts, and You What do you do when you want to build a sense of community among your cadre of adjunct faculty who appear on your campus for only a few hours a day, usually after 5 p.m., and only for a [...]
TechKNOWLEDGE-y for the Adjunct: Social Media, Students, and You
TechKNOWLEDGE-y for the Adjunct: Social Media, Students, and You Social media is no longer just for liking photos, updating timelines, and sharing celebrity Tweets; it’s time to learn how some popular social media outlets and automation can keep your pupils in the know while extending learning. Bridgett McGowen-Hawkins Senior [...]
Making Adjuncts Part of the Family
Making Adjuncts Part of the Family After working in industry for many years, I came into education, first as an adjunct and then as a full-time instructor. I have experienced the feelings of being either “just a part-timer” or “you’re one of the family.” Feeling like family can make a [...]
Making Adjuncts Part of the Family
Making Adjuncts Part of the Family Without adjunct faculty members, our students will suffer. Participants in this webinar discuss how to make adjunct faculty members feel more like part of the “educational family” and less like part-time staff. Colleges rely heavily on adjunct faculty members, and they need to [...]
Don’t Strike Out: Three Rules for Successful Email Communication With Adjuncts
Don’t Strike Out: Three Rules for Successful Email Communication With Adjuncts The Adjunct Institute at Alamance Community College (ACC) has been working with adjunct faculty members since 2005. Based on our decade of experience, we have developed three simple rules to guide our communication with adjuncts. Adjuncts often have two [...]
Applause for Apps! Five Great Apps to Create Meaningful Connections Inside (and Outside) the Classroom
Applause for Apps! Five Great Apps to Create Meaningful Connections Inside (and Outside) the Classroom I love technology! I guess if I’m being completely honest, what I really love is the engagement, excitement, and interactivity that technology brings to my college classroom. I’m not talking about the bells and whistles [...]
Applause for Apps! Five Great Apps to Create Meaningful Connections Inside (and Outside) the Classroom
Applause for Apps! Five Great Apps to Create Meaningful Connections Inside (and Outside) the Classroom Shawn Orr, Professional Educator Peer-to-Peer Faculty Development and Consulting Cengage Learning
The Value of Professional Development for Adjuncts
The Value of Professional Development for Adjuncts Essie Childers, Blinn College
Creating Connections Among Dispersed Faculty Webinar
Creating Connections Among Dispersed Faculty Webinar Each panelist, all of whom have experience as adjunct faculty members, adjunct coordinators, or both, discuss ways to create community for and among dispersed faculty (adjuncts faculty member and others, such as online faculty who don’t have an office or maintain a regular [...]
Creative Incentives to Increase Adjunct Participation
Creative Incentives to Increase Adjunct Participation No budget for professional development? No problem! There are a variety of inexpensive incentives you can use to increase adjunct attendance at professional development sessions. As adjunct coordinators, we all know that funds are limited and that adjuncts are pulled in many different directions. [...]
Lecture Light Shine: High-Wattage (and Low-Stress) Ideas to Engage Any Student
Lecture Light Shine: High-Wattage (and Low-Stress) Ideas to Engage Any Student Striving for Excellence A professional development series designed specifically for adjunct faculty and administrators. A NISOD and Cengage Learning Collaboration You have spent years passionately creating your lectures and you do not want to change a thing. [...]
Do This, and Your Students Will Never Miss Class Again
Do This, and Your Students Will Never Miss Class Again Growing up, you heard the lectures from your parents. And then you went to school and heard even more lectures. And once you arrived in college, you were just about lectured-out. However, now you teach, and you do what you [...]
Be the Change: College-Wide Benefits of a Faculty Mentoring Program
Be the Change: College-Wide Benefits of a Faculty Mentoring Program This year, my two-year college has formally implemented a Mentoring Program that pairs veteran faculty with new members during their first year of teaching.This initiative grew from an instructor’s idea and was formally approved by our Academic Standards Committee and [...]
From Koala to Kangaroo: Getting Your Students Hopping With Active Learning
From Koala to Kangaroo: Getting Your Students Hopping With Active Learning During this fun and interactive webinar, participants learn icebreaker activities and active-learning strategies that increase student engagement, encourage higher-level thinking, enliven classroom discussions, and enhance learning in the classroom. Participants leave with practical strategies they can implement immediately [...]
Walking the Tightrope of Interaction
Walking the Tightrope of Interaction The long pause—we’ve all waited an eternity in our classrooms hoping for just one student to respond to our questions. Articles and advice from tenured faculty are abundant about the value of the long pause. If we wait long enough, they will respond. And sometimes [...]
The Value of Five Minutes
The Value of Five Minutes Five minutes equates to 300 seconds. I stopped for a moment to make a list of how many things I do that only take five minutes, and the list was quite extensive. To name a few, I can check a few e-mails, make a phone [...]
The Value of Five Minutes
The Value of Five Minutes Essie Childers, Professor Blinn College
It’s More Than JUST “Flipping” the Class
It’s More Than JUST “Flipping” the Class Using the terms flipped and model in “flipped model” can cause newcomers to this style of teaching and learning to dismiss trying it out, simply because they do not have the time to try another new thing. Participate in this webinar and [...]
EdTech: Engaging Students, Increasing Productivity, and Impacting Success
EdTech: Engaging Students, Increasing Productivity, and Impacting Success We can’t deny that technology is here to stay. However, that is definitely not a bad thing! In fact, using educational technology can help engage students, improve retention, and help students succeed. There are several educational technologies, including free or almost-free ones, [...]
What’s in your Backpack?
What's in your Backpack Across the country this semester, students have gone back to college. Their backpacks are filled with textbooks, paper, pens, pencils, laptops, and calculators. Many of those backpacks will weigh more than 30 pounds and be filled with materials that cost students on average $1,250 each semester [...]
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher – Part II
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher - Part II Essie Childers, Professor Blinn College
7 Ways to Create a Warm and Inclusive Work Environment for Adjuncts
7 Ways to Create a Warm and Inclusive Work Environment for Adjuncts Essie Childers, Professor, Blinn College
Engaging Professional Development: Best Practices for Adjunct Faculty Members
Engaging Professional Development: Best Practices for Adjunct Faculty Members Are you looking for ways to increase adjunct faculty attendance at your professional development sessions? Are you running out of engaging topics? This webinar provides information about best practices for designing an engaging professional development program specifically for adjunct faculty [...]
Classroom Practices for Learners of All Ages
Classroom Practices for Learners of All Ages As you look out over your classroom this semester, there will be a variety of learners from ages 16 to 64-plus staring back at you. While it may seem like there is a vast difference in their learning preferences and backgrounds, the reality [...]
Creating a Syllabus That College Students Will Read and Use
Creating a Syllabus That College Students Will Read and Use All across the country this semester, instructors will answer a variety of student questions with, “It’s in the syllabus.” We all struggle with getting our students to read the syllabus and refer back to it. Today’s syllabi are long and [...]
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher – Part I
Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher - Part I Your browser does not support the video tag. Essie Childers, Professor Blinn College Download Webinar Transcript View the 2nd part of this webinar series.
Please Pass the Salt: Creating a Collaborative Environment for Adjuncts
Please Pass the Salt: Creating a Collaborative Environment for Adjuncts Please Pass the Salt: Creating a Collaborative Environment for Adjuncts Janet Covey Novotny, Online Adjunct Professor, English and Business, Grand Canyon University, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, and Indiana Wesleyan University Each and every adjunct who has a desire to [...]
GLUE: Enhance Collaboration Among Full-Time and Adjunct Faculty
GLUE: Enhance Collaboration Among Full-Time and Adjunct Faculty This interactive webinar showcases a simple model for including the adjunct voice. The protocol, GLUE, structures a professional learning community for adjuncts and outlines an efficient process where full- and part-time faculty, administrators, and support personnel share visions and ideas on [...]
Collaboration Between Full-Time and Adjunct Faculty in Creative Inquiry
Collaboration Between Full-Time and Adjunct Faculty in Creative Inquiry Collaboration Between Full-Time and Adjunct Faculty in Creative Inquiry Suma Bhat, Adjunct Professor, Greenville Technical College According to a report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement, part-time faculty teach more than half of students at two-year institutions. Adjunct professors [...]
Imposter Syndrome and the Adjunct
Imposter Syndrome and the Adjunct Mary Poffenroth, Instructor, San Jose State University
Collaboration: Connect With Me
Collaboration: Connect With Me In our global world, what methods do we use to communicate and are those methods effective? There is a saying that mobile devices allow us to connect with people half a world away, while ignoring people just across the table. As instructors, we challenge our [...]
Operation Communication: A Checklist for Online Faculty
Operation Communication: A Checklist for Online Faculty Operation Communication: A Checklist for Online Faculty Sherri Singer, Department Head for Social and Behavioral Sciences, Alamance Community College Online instructors often struggle with establishing and maintaining effective communication with their students over the course of the semester. We have to work hard [...]
Saving Time With Screencasts
Saving Time With Screencasts Saving Time With Screencasts Mary Poffenroth, Instructor, San Jose State University Have you ever spent 30 minutes drafting a written explanation or email to your class, and still get questions on the content? Students are more likely to watch a quick, two-minute video than read a [...]
Student Perception of Instruction
Student Perception of Instruction Student Perception of Instruction Essie Childers, Professor, Blinn College It happens every semester, in every section in all of our classes near the end of the 14th week: the administration of the Student Perception of Instruction (SPOI) course evaluation. The SPOI can be administered online or [...]
Faculty-Student Interaction: The Joys of Being a Faculty-Student Mentor
Faculty-Student Interaction: The Joys of Being a Faculty-Student Mentor Faculty-Student Interaction: The Joys of Being a Faculty-Student Mentor Michele Martinez, Instructor, Hillsborough Community College Throughout my tenure as a teacher, I’ve often asked fellow faculty members what they consider to be the most rewarding part of teaching. Consistently, the response [...]
Collaboration Island… Building Connections Between Students
Collaboration Island… Building Connections Between Students This interactive and fast-paced webinar focuses on practical strategies, tools, and techniques to encourage student collaboration in and out of the classroom. Whether your students love working together, hate working together, or are somewhere in between, you will learn strategies to engage [...]
Included, Involved, Inspired: Strategies for Collaboration and Engagement
Included, Involved, Inspired: Strategies for Collaboration and Engagement Are you buzzing with new ideas to increase student retention, but struggle with implementation? Are you an administrator searching for ways to engage adjunct faculty in the strategic plan of your institution and your initiatives for student success? Or are [...]
Collaboration Island: Building a Bridge of Partnership With Adjuncts
Collaboration Island: Building a Bridge of Partnership With Adjuncts Shawn Orr, Adjunct Instructor and Director of Faculty Services, College of Online and Adult Studies, Ashland University I work with hundreds of adjunct faculty in my role as Director of Faculty Services, and the spirit, enthusiasm, and knowledge they bring to [...]
Connecting With Your Students AND Connecting Your Students
Connecting With Your Students AND Connecting Your Students Joey Bryant, Adjunct Faculty Trainer, Forsyth Technical Community College
Building the Family Circle
Building the Family Circle We all like being part of a family—something larger than ourselves of which we can be part, a group we can count on to have our backs, or someone we can call when we need help. Connecting with others to build a family requires networking. [...]
Building the Bridge of Collaboration With Adjuncts
Building the Bridge of Collaboration With Adjuncts Shawn Orr, Director of Faulty Services, The College of Online & Adult Studies, Ashland University
Building a Community of Learners
Building a Community of Learners Essie Childers, Professor, Blinn College “This is my favorite class!” “Is it time to leave already?” I stopped and smiled inside and out. In teaching digital natives, it is imperative that a community of learners is established early in the semester to create effective [...]
Engaging Adjunct Faculty Through Peer Mentoring and Peer Partnering
Engaging Adjunct Faculty Through Peer Mentoring and Peer Partnering Bethany Fitzpatrick, Adjunct English Instructor, Northwest Arkansas Community College (AR) Adjunct faculty can often feel adrift in the sea of academia. They may be recent graduates relatively new to the classroom, or veteran online teachers with rare visits to campus. With [...]
Reasons Students Hate Group Work and Why I Assign It Anyway
Reasons Students Hate Group Work and Why I Assign It Anyway Join Sherry Engstrom from the College of Lake County for an interactive webinar about using group work to encourage student cooperation, communication, and collaboration. Learn new ways to use group projects to get students excited about engaging [...]