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What Motivates Us to Teach

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You may be the first to tell a student they write well.

Many online students are working adults coming back to school after years away, and some are not sure they belong. A specific word of encouragement in your feedback, such as naming the paragraph that worked and why, can be what keeps them enrolled. They will remember it long after they forget the grade.

Your work experience is the lesson.

Students in online programs want to know how the subject works on the job, not just in the textbook. When you explain a concept, add a short story from your own career: a decision you had to make, a mistake you saw, or a question a client asked. Those stories are often what students remember most.

Teaching keeps you current.

Preparing a course makes you read what is new in your field, from updated standards to new research and tools. Students' questions keep you sharp too, because they show you where your own understanding is thin. Many adjuncts say teaching makes them better at the work they do outside the classroom.

You reach students a campus never could.

Online courses serve parents with young children, military members who move every few years, caregivers, people working full time, and people who live hours from the nearest college. For many of them, an online section is the only way a degree fits into their lives. Your course is part of how they get there.

You help build the workforce your field needs.

Every nurse, accountant, teacher, or technician you teach goes on to serve patients, clients, and students you will never meet. When you hold students to a clear standard and explain why it matters, you shape how they will do their jobs for years. Your reach is much wider than one class.

Share what took you years to learn.

You know the shortcuts, the mistakes to avoid, and how things really work in your field, because you learned them the hard way. In one course, your students can learn some of that in a few weeks. Write down the five things you wish someone had told you when you started, and find a place for them in your course.

Teaching is a way to give back.

Many adjuncts teach because someone once took the time to teach them: a professor who answered a late email, or a supervisor who explained the reason behind the work. Your course can be that for someone else. A patient answer to a confused student is a small thing to you and may be a big thing to them.

Stay part of your field.

If you have stepped back from full-time practice, research, or management, teaching keeps you in the conversation. You read the new textbooks, follow the changes, and talk with students who are working in the field right now. Their questions show you what the field looks like today.

Watch a student find their footing.

In the first week, some students write careful, uncertain posts and ask whether they are doing it right. By the final week, the same students are making arguments, citing sources, and answering their classmates' questions. Seeing that change, and knowing your feedback helped, is one of the quiet rewards of teaching.

Teaching sharpens how you explain things.

To teach a concept, you have to break it into steps someone new can follow. That skill carries over into everything else you do: writing reports, leading meetings, training coworkers, and presenting to clients. Many adjuncts find they become clearer communicators in their other work because of their teaching.

Work that fits the rest of your life.

Many online courses are asynchronous, so you can do the work early in the morning, late at night, or between other commitments. That flexibility lets people teach while raising children, caring for a parent, traveling, or building another career. Online teaching can grow or shrink with the season of life you are in.

Join a community of educators.

Teaching connects you with faculty at every college you work for: department chairs, course leads, and other adjuncts who care about the same subjects you do. Faculty meetings, trainings, and course discussions are a chance to trade ideas and resources. Over time, those colleagues become a professional network, and sometimes friends.

Be the instructor you wish you had.

Think back to the best and worst courses you took. The best instructors gave clear instructions, graded fairly, and answered questions quickly. Online students are often juggling jobs and families, so those habits matter even more. You can be the instructor a student talks about years later.

Open doors for first-generation students.

Many online students are the first in their families to go to college, and they may not know the unwritten rules, such as how to ask for an extension or what office hours are for. A clearly run course, with plain instructions and a welcoming tone, helps them see that they belong in college and can finish.

Teaching can be a next chapter.

For people near or in retirement, online teaching is a way to keep using decades of expertise without a full-time schedule. It keeps you learning, keeps you connected to people, and gives shape to the week. Many retired professionals find that one or two courses a term is a good fit.

The Adjunct Alert Team