Salary survey

Discussion in 'Online & DL Teaching' started by RFValve, Aug 12, 2010.

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  1. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Hi,

    I have noticed many members posting pathetic salaries for online adjuncts. I started teaching in 2000 as an adjunct for a DETC school (Cardean Universiy) and the salary back then was about 3K for one graduate course. I still teach for few schools including Devry and although the salaries aren't so bad at Devry, they haven't increased in the last 5 years. My guess is that as schools cannot decrease salaries (They would if they could), they just don't raise them as they know there is a glut of graduate degree holders. I have stopped teaching online for few places because salaries are just getting too low and demanded work keeps increasing. I wonder what is the salaries some members are getting here for online classes.
    My suggestion for those looking for online teaching is just to look for a different career path as online adjuncts are just competing now with fast food wages.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 12, 2010
  2. truckie270

    truckie270 New Member

    I am not sure I agree with the fast food wages assessment. As with anything, you cannot expect to step into adjuncting at the top of the wage scale.

    Despite posts and discussion to the contrary, $100K is entirely possible provided a couple of variables line up:
    • multiple sections of the same course
    • small class size
    • short terms
    • minimal faculty requirements such as number of postings
    • minimal prep time because materials are already prepared, etc.
    • if you are working at another job, it has to have flexible hours
    • better credentials = better pay
     
  3. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member


    Dman Truckie!!! I see you are ABD at Valdosta State!!!! I still remember when you first signed up, and now your are almost done. Way to go!

    Abner :)
     
  4. truckie270

    truckie270 New Member

    Part II

    Thanks Abner. I am hoping to defend in December at VSU.

    I had some additional points I wanted to make in regard to adjunct salary. For those who want to evaluate the ROI for adjuncting:

    You cannot look at opportunities in terms of $ per class. When getting your foor in the door, any class will help develop your experience base, so take whatever you can get. As you transition into making it a more lucrative activity you need to break it down to $ per student/per week.
    • I regularly hear things like "school X pays 2x times more for a class than school Y does." What you do not hear is that school X is on a 12 week term and runs classes of 40 students while school Y runs a 6 week term with a class of 20 - run the numbers and you will find that both schools value the instructor effort the same for each respective class. Larger classes make it increasingly harder to get paid for your effort because assignment turn-around times are usually the same regardless of the length of the course.
    I have gotten to the point where the amount of time I devote to each class each week is dependent on the number of students. In my view, if you are looking to make any money at adjuncting you cannot spend more than 1/2 hour per student per week.
    • A class of 20 should take you no more than 10 hrs. per week - if you are taking longer than that you need to re-evaluate and adjust.
    I am sure this is going to evoke the "how you can you teach a class of 20 in 10 hrs. a week and still give your students the attention they have paid for?" response. I have B&M state school Bachelors, Masters, and soon to be a Doctorate - I can guarantee that I have never had a tenured professor spend more than 30 min. a week on me individually in any class.

    I consistently receive excellent ratings from my students - it comes down to being responsive, prepared, and managing your time wisely.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 12, 2010
  5. truckie270

    truckie270 New Member

    Part III

    I am on a roll here........

    If you are looking to make adjuncting a substantial income activity, you need to always be looking for better opportunities and increasing your skills.

    People who have taught for several years at the same school and complain about the pay astound me - they are paying that amount because the person has obviously indicated that he/she is willing to work for that amount by staying.

    A no brainier here, but it needs mentioning - work to get credits in fields that are not only in demand, but that are specialized as well. This will be the biggest factor in getting better opportunities and can often result in large variences in workload even at the same school.
    • Example - a person with a general management graduate educational background will be worked like a dog at schools like UOP where these large programs consistently pump out large classes.
    • On the contrary, I would highly recommend a school like UOP for an adjunct with a background in a field like organizational security because the size of UOP virtually guarantees enrollment, but these smaller programs often result in classes of 4-6 students and there is usually not a large faculty pool.
    • I taught in the org. security and public admin. programs at UOP for several years and rarely had a class with more than 8 students while other faculty I knew in other programs rarely had a class with less than 20.
     
  6. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator


    I would have to agree. I do pretty well with my adjunct work. I teach for two schools that generate most of my income for adjunct pay (the third school is done for the love of teaching and not for money bu that is another story most would not understand).

    For all the schools I get somewhat the same class - computer apps. One school gives me 4-6 classes per 12 week semester (all the same class) with 25 students and by mid point I usually have 15-20 students. The other school gives me 2 classes per 5.5 week semester (all the same class) with 20 students and by mid point I usually have 15-18 students. I sometimes get upper level (300-400 level) IT classes that have 4-6 students. The key is to teach the same classes and stay in a flow. I work at a corporate job that has flexable hours because I travel a lot and work from my home office.
     
  7. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    The university that I teach for lowered our pay 20% this year for each course taught; tuition was not lowered for the students; it is a for-profit university.
     
  8. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    I teach regularly for 2 schools and occasionally for a couple of others (I am referring to adjunct positions, not my full time job at a community college).

    Regular jobs:
    1. Usually one class per 8 week term (I did have two classes one time). Usually start with 25 students and end with about 18 or so. I have taught two different courses over the last year, but am teaching one of those regularly, every term. Never taught both at the same time.

    2. Sometimes one per term, sometimes two. I alternate between 4 different courses, and occasionally they give me two different classes that I have to teach at the same time, rather than two sections of the same course. Never more than two, though. Start with 18-20 students, end with 12-13. 5.5 week courses.

    Irregular jobs:

    1. 7 week courses. There are two different courses I teach for them, but never at the same time. Start with 15 students, end with 12. Usually only one class at a time.

    2. 8 week courses. I have never taught more than one course at a time. I have only taught one course for them, though I have taught it 4 times and scheduled for 2 more in the fall (one course per term). Start with 18 students, end with 15.

    Over the past 3 years, I have taught for a few other schools that I no longer teach for, mostly because they decided to have "extra" training that I didn't feel like was worth the ROI.

    I made about 40K last year adjuncting. I expect to do the same this year.
     
  9. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    This is what I'm talking about. I realize that some people are doing well but things seem to be getting tougher in the online business.

    The 100K a year might be possible with online courses teaching 100 courses and marking 2000 students a year but I rather teach only 8 courses in a face to face environment for the same salary.

    The typiical full time teaching position pays about 100K with 4 courses a year with research duties or 6 courses with admiistration duties so I believe this is a long way from the 100 online courses you would need to teach at UoP, CTU or any similar school for the same salary.

    I suppose the online works well the people working in industry just wanting to make some extra cash on the side but kind of hard to make a living out of it without burning out.

    I also found out that some people are outsourcing marking to India in order to teach more online classes. I suppose this could be an alternative but I couldn't live with mysefl doing this.


    As for my self, I teach for few online schools making from 10K to 40 K a year but lately more like 10K as I'm just seeing it too time consuming and not paying high enough.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 13, 2010
  10. Princeofska

    Princeofska New Member

    8 classes, 100,000 a year face to face? Someone would have to be a major hitter or an economics professor to make that starting out. Those are wages of a full professor, and most brick and mortars don't go that high until about 20 years in, unless the faculty member is a superstar in the publishing world. Also, if someone is making that much, there is no way they would be teaching 8 classes, more like one or two a year.

    Most brick and mortar positions for the beginning PhD holding employee start around 40-55k a year. After tenure, if you are at a solid school you are probably making 70k and of course than you have to think about the different disciplines. Economics, you will be paid much higher, English, much lower.

     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I realize you were comparing it with English, but economics isn't that lucrative a discipline. Finance and Accounting are much harder for schools to fill, and an entry level Finance professor will often make half again what his Economics colleague down the hall makes. A good friend of mine did his PhD in Finance rather than Economics primarily for this reason.

    -=Steve=-
     
  12. Princeofska

    Princeofska New Member

    I apologize, I just woke up, I was thinking in my head finance but writing economics. All of those people that count and theorize money look the same to us over here. ;) Although, I do hear that certain branches of economics is pretty easy to fill if you have the gumption to get the PhD in them.
     
  13. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    I guess we are taking about different fields here. 100K is a typical starting salary for a business professor at the assistant professor level. Pure teaching positions require about 6-8 courses a year but if you do research about 4 courses.
     
  14. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    You probably mean "double". Some professors in Finance at major Universities make 200K+. The University of Toronto published the list of salaries of professors making more than 100K and there were people making 300K.

    I suppose that the 1 to 2K per course paid by schools like UoP would look good to an English professor making 40K a year but not so good to an Accounting professor making 100K+ per year.
     
  15. Princeofska

    Princeofska New Member

    I think this is only at major institutions (The states and big privates), I can't imagine a smaller institution which the majority of jobs are held paying anywhere near 100k for a business professor starting off, one which is not expected to research and teaching a 3-3 or 4-4.

    Plus we are forgetting a huge thing here, business professors usually have to have the DBA and some sort of major business experience (usually years) in order to get a good tenured position at one of these larger institutions.
     
  16. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    You are right, mainly major research institutions pay these salaries.
     

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