As enrollments in online courses continue to grow, institutions are challenged
to identify qualified, experienced online faculty. Persons who desire to teach
online are often frustrated with the time consuming process of searching for
online teaching positions. A new service called FacultyFinder has been created
at the intersection of these two needs.
Using FacultyFinder.com a prospective
online faculty member can create a fully searchable profile for free. Subscribing
institutions can then search the database by dozens of variables including academic
background, online teaching experience, learning management system familiarity,
etc. Administrative features allow institutions to save searches, organize search
results in folders, directly communicate with candidates, and even receive alerts
when additional candidates matching their search criteria create a FacultyFinder
profile. In the first month of availability 1200+ prospective faculty members
have created profiles.
Dr. Mac Adkins, Dean of Distance Learning at Troy University, Montgomery Campus,
reported that, “Over the past decade thousands of American institutions
of higher education began offering academic courses via the Internet. Most of
these schools started using their own local faculty to develop and teach these
online courses. But due to factors such as enrollment growth and faculty teaching
load restrictions, institutions have began to use “distant faculty”
- faculty members who are geographically not able to serve the institution on
a local campus - to teach their online courses.” Market research for FacultyFinder
revealed that approximately 60% of the 4200 universities and colleges in the
United States are currently using “distant faculty” to teach online
courses. Approximately one-third of those institutions currently using only
local faculty reported that they would probably or definitely use distant faculty
within the next two years.”
According to Dr. Susan Aldridge, Vice President, Troy University, University
College, “finding online faculty is the long pole in the tent for distance
learning. As online enrollments continue to grow it is a challenge to continue
to staff our online courses with qualified faculty.” Pamela Gouws of the
University of Maryland University College stated that the service was intuitive,
user friendly and that they are excited about the benefits of FacultyFinder
in their online faculty recruitment.
For more information/interview contact:
Dr. Mac Adkins
334 300 6824
mac@facultyfinder.com
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