I recently asked (via email) an Excelsior official to please explain what it meant to work in their online graduate school where it was designated as contract or consultant. I got no answer other than what is on the web site: "Contact with students and with Excelsior is by email, telephone, fax, and postal mail. You are unlikely to meet students face to face. Payment is at our current consultant rate of $210/8-hour day. Each project has a set number of hours or days assigned. You must have the terminal degree in your field." This seems like a pittance especially knowing that no one can read articles or work to critique for a straight 8 hours non-stop. Anyone know?
I would interpret that statement to mean you are paid on the basis of a predetermined duration (hours or days) for each marked assignment (project). Therefore, if Excelsior College says a particular assignment is worth 2 hours of your time to review and grade, then you earn about 52.00. Whether this applies per student or per assignment is unclear from the available information.
That comes out to about 21 dollars per hour. It is Okay but nothing to be jumping about. As an adjunct at my college we get about 42 dollars an hour.
It's actually 26 per hour, but it depends on how long it takes you to finish the work. Mechanics are paid in much the same way. They get a certain amount based on how long the job takes. The trick is to finish faster. If they pay you for 8 hours but you finish in 4 you earn your money.
Well, the real trick is to finish quicker while still maintaining a level of quality. For example, I don't want the mechanic rebuilding my brakes to finish the job in 4 hours if other experts in the field say it takes around 8 hours to do the job correctly.
