The Interview for teaching... need advice!

OK, going for a FT Tentured track position. Wanted to get insight on the process. It is a full day of interviewing, and have to present to students, about 20 minutes (to evaulate teaching style). First, and overall experiences? Second, on the DL front, what is the best way to introduce your degrees by DL?

Thanks in advance.

 

Well, depends on your DL degrees. Are your degrees really DL or external research. There is a difference, subtle but different.

If your degrees required residency, then they are not really DL. They are external research degrees and lots of good schools have them. NEVER, identify your degree as DL unless it is really DL.

Real DL schools are Touro, NCU, Walden, Capella, etc...

For example, Henley Management College, Grenoble/Newcastle, Aston Business School, Case Western University, Indiana State, all have external executive programs that are not pure DL and require significant residency. These are GOOD schools.

If someone asks if you degree is DL and you participated in a residency program, say no. Tell them your degree was residency-based, but your research was conducted externally under supervision.

Good luck!!!

 

Han,

Most of the time, you get a phone interview first. After, they will ask you to go for a face to face interview. If you make it to the second round, they will be more interested to know what are you achievements in terms of research. The DL part is hardly asked but it might be raised so you must tell the truth.

The main issue with part time and DL PhDs is that we hardly get a chance to publish since we have a day job. This will come as a big issue if you are planning to teach at a research University. I have encountered barriers in that sense so I'm planning to spend some time as a post doctoral fellow at a research University in order to build my number of publications.

In conclusion, you must be ready to present your achievements in terms of publications and work generated from your dissertation. Work experience is also a plus factor. Some Universities they also ask you to prepare a sample lecture so they can see your teaching skills.

Prepare a teaching philosophy statement, previous course evaluation forms and letters of reference.

 

Re: Re: The Interview for teaching... need advice!

Good piece of advise. As a matter of fact, Australian Universities identify their off campus research degrees as external and not DL. In the letter of reference that I got from my supervisor, he never referred to my degree as DL but as an external degree where students get external supervision but at the end examined by the same standards as any other doctorate granted by the University.

And again, few people would actually ask about the degree and move on with your professional and academic achievements.

 

Re: Re: The Interview for teaching... need advice!

I think you are comparing apples with oranges. It is expected that a top ranked would perform better that a no-name University. Touro, NCU, Walden, Capella are not top ranked institutions so it wouldn't be fair to compare with schools like Case Western or Henley Management School. I would expect that these schools could give the same utility as any other no name University in the US.

How many people would be able to tell that Touro or NCU are DL institutions?

 

This thread reminded me...

of some questions I had as well. I was just browsing through some job postings on Higher Ed Jobs.com and it brought a question to my mind. Some of the postings requested letters of recommendations and some specifically said three LORs as to your teaching experience. Now I have taught on campus at a community college before, but the Dean that I teached for is now deceased. He and I had a good professional relationship because I was also an accountant at the college. So he let me teach with no interview or anything.

Since that time I have been teaching for UOP for about 2 or 3 years if I remember correctly. Who would I get LORs from regarding my teaching experience, especially since I teach online courses now and I haven't taught at the CC in about 4 years.

Also what's the best way to approach getting a full time teaching job, like at a community college for example, when you don't have your doctorate yet, but you have an MBA and some teaching experience part time?

 

One other thing

Anyone got any good reference on preparing a statement of teaching philosophy?

 

Let us know how it goes!

 

Han, how did the interview go? Did the issue of DL come up?

 

It went great, I am on the third interview with the one school that I asked this question about. They saw my DL and international perspectives to be an assett, and I just prepared myself for the answer. It was nice to see, they said I would be the resident guru on DL, which everyone is moving to, and they need

 

Re: Re: The Interview for teaching... need advice!

If you get a degree from a DL school that required some residency that what do you call it? Capella and Walden require some residency for their doctoral programs.

 

Re: Re: Re: The Interview for teaching... need advice!

Technically, a DL program from a DL school and a B&M school that requires residency are both residency-based external research programs.

However, an external research program from a B&M school will be virtually indistinguishable from an internal research program from the same school. This will add credibility to those that perceive DL as an inferior option.

 

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For My Position...

... I had done research on the school and position and saw technology and online experience was desired. I was upfront about my online graduate degrees and had a nice discussion about that with the committee. I think that, and my charming personality, won the tenure track job. By the way, I am now the college online learning coordinator and I got tenure.