New service connects prospective online faculty with institutions offering online courses
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.
(PRWEB) May 19, 2004
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
