There can be some measure of resistance to teaching online because of a lack of information about the emergence of distance education as a vehicle of delivery for post-secondary knowledge modules and a deficiency in what should be properly named perception of the posture necessary for addressing the rapid emergence of the new digital college campuses. The simple, unavoidable reality of college teaching as a career path is that it is important to now learn to love online faculty positions or lose them to those with the wit and drive to acclimate themselves to the new educational paradigm. It should go without saying that grasping the implications of teaching for traditional community colleges, state colleges and private universities versus having a variety of online adjunct jobs for academic institutions which offer, for example, an engineering degree online, an online doctorate degree or any of several bachelors degree online is not an easy matter since much that is required to be successful in this new academic and intellectual landscape is not taught in graduate courses.

Teaching on an adjunct basis for schools that offer online bachelor degree programs and masters degree programs online to their students is more akin to being an independent contractor than it is to being a college professor. For example, most people with an earned graduate degree, a masters degree or a Ph.D., have been taught that being hired by a traditional school is the brass ring in terms of not having to look for another teaching position ever again; this is understandable since most of the professors teaching in graduate programs ten years ago probably did have a lifetime job. Therefore, it would have been impossible for these teachers to inform their students that if they wanted to actually earn a decent living in the coming years it would be vitally important to grasp the implications of distance education technology and the rising prominence of online college faculty positions with degree programs online.

With the current economy in a seeming free-fall, faculty budgets are being destroyed left and right, and the gloom now spread over the traditional campus environment it is encouraging to know that accredited online degree programs offering online accounting degree programs and an online bachelor degree in criminal justice, among many other university degrees online, are providing a strong ray of light and hope for not only college adjunct currently teaching but also for those who have recently lost their corporate positions. The little know aspect of distance education is that almost anyone with a graduate degree can learn how to find, apply for and teach new and returning colleges students trying to earn enough credits to qualify for an accredited degree online. Now that the situation has developed to the point that it is revealed to almost any adjunct instructor the way to earn a decent living that produces multiple paychecks is to engage in academic entrepreneurism on an active basis. Once the concept of engagement is understood it is a simple matter to put a plan of action into pay and begin landing multiple online adjunct jobs, each paying a specific amount of money that over the course of a year’s time can prove to be much more substantial than what it is possible to earn during the two long semesters that are traditional at most post-secondary academic institutions, with multiple online college programs.

Of course, as time goes on more and more people with graduate degrees will discover the personal freedom and economic independence of teaching college students enrolled in online education courses. Further, as the months go by and the corporate positions do not re-appear those who earned a masters degree or doctorate degree and did not go into the academy to teach immediately upon graduation will begin to figure out that online teaching opportunities with schools that offer an online teaching degree is full of students that need a competent online adjunct instructor in the online college class.

The way to start a serious search strategy for online college faculty positions is to visit the websites of the nearly five thousand community colleges, colleges and universities and for profit schools that offer their college populations a chance to earn a bachelor degree online or a master degree online from their personal computers at home. On the front page of each school’s website is a link that will take the prospective online adjunct instructor to a section of the site that will permit the submission of academic credentials. It should be understood that each school can design its own application interface, so the alert individual will have a resume, a cover letter and copies of unofficial graduate transcripts in hand before starting the application process. It is a very good idea to have these application documents in a document form that can be opened on any computer since there are many application interfaces that allow for document attachments. It should be understood by any online adjunct that it will be necessary to continually apply to schools that offer online bachelor degrees and masters degrees online because it may become necessary to stop teaching for one school and begin teaching online for another online degree program at another school because the circumstances change suddenly and without notice.

It is that sudden, unannounced change in an individual college’s or university’s teaching requirements or compensation amount that makes the professor versus business person attitude so very important. It is inescapable that any large organization, including post-secondary institutions of all size, are going through some very confusing times, and it is paramount that an online adjunct instructor be able to leap, if that is the appropriate word to use, from one online bachelor degree program to another online university program at the drop of a hat. The best defense is a good offence, as the saying goes, and in the world of distance education from the online adjunct perspective this is not only a truism but a valuable economic survival posture since there is no telling how the situation with accredited online degree programs will evolve over time. The only aspect of online college faculty positions that can be counted on is that they are growing now and will continue to grow in as a realistic way for someone with a graduate degree and a well developed time management skill set to make a sustainable living. It is important for any online adjunct instructor, whether he or she is actually engaged in teaching college students enrolled in online psychology degree programs or online business degree programs at the moment or is giving some serious thought to how comfortable it would be to earn multiple paychecks from a personal computer located in almost any spot on the globe, to fully realize that the competition for online adjunct employment is growing daily. The best way to overcome the competition for the available online faculty positions is to be proactive in the application process, which means making applications for these online adjunct job openings every day, and to learn how to market one’s intellectual and academic skill set with vigor and intelligence so that the greatest possible financial return for the effort to teach college students attending online college programs is maximized to the greatest possible extent.