Post-secondary academic institutions such as state colleges, for-year universities and community colleges are rapidly introducing online college courses, online bachelor degree programs and online masters programs which are allowing educators with an earned graduate degree to adjust their academic careers with online adjunct faculty positions. The current economic landscape for traditional educations at every level of the academy is quite rocky right now due to budget cuts and layoffs. The cause of this turmoil is the rising costs of the physical plants known as campuses, and there is no where better to see the impact of these rising maintenance costs than at the post-secondary level. The good news surrounding this morass of bad news is that distance education technology is mature enough as a usable technology to make the physical college or university classroom a relic of the past. There are many intellectual debates currently raging as to the pedagogical value of earning business management degree online, an online master degree in psychology or an associate degree in nursing online, but the end result of this distribution of educational resources on the Internet will be an increasing need for academically qualified and technically prepared online adjunct instructors to teach the many college and university students enrolled in the online college degree programs.

Of course, it is necessary to have a master’s degree or Ph.D. in hand in order to teach at the post-secondary level of the academy, but any teacher that is laid off and only has a bachelor degree can enroll in an online master’s degree program and earn a graduate degree. In any event, with a graduate degree the educator can immediately start applying for online adjunct employment opportunities by identifying community colleges and universities with websites on the Internet, which means every one of the thousands of schools that now have some form of distance education program available by its student population. AS time goes on it can be assumed that more teaching will occur on the Internet and that there will be a increased need for online college professors, so the effort to master online teaching is well worth the effort for any educator wanting to replace an income lost to faculty reductions or to supplement a thin income from teaching as a traditional adjunct instructor on a physical university campus.

The most efficient search strategy for locating online adjunct faculty positions is to visit the school’s websites, and this includes the websites of the for-profit colleges. These websites contain a wealth of information about the institution’s deployment of accredited distance learning programs. Further, there is a link on the first page of each school’s website that leads the prospective online adjunct instructor to the faculty application section. Once in this section of the college or university website, it is simple matter to submit the appropriate academic credentials and classroom experience. In the end, the effort to acquire six to ten online college courses is well worth the effort because the future of all post-secondary delivery of educational instruction will eventually be found online.