Let’s say you’re a registered nurse (an RN), and you’re interested in contributing to your profession in a new way. Or maybe you’re just looking for a side gig to bring in a few extra dollars. What can you do with your nursing skills, your knowledge, and your passion? You can teach nursing to college students as an online adjunct.

Wait, online? Really? Nursing?

As a matter of fact, online programs in nursing are thriving. Why? Growth, basically. Because of the fact that the health care industry is expanding, teaching jobs for college nursing programs are proliferating as well. Many college programs hire for online classes in nursing, and the job outlook for those teachers is good.

You might ask of nursing programs, why online? Why not strictly teach classes in traditional classrooms? Like anything else, many of the people going into nursing programs will be adults. They may already have a profession—they may be someone looking to shift into nursing as a profession, or they could well be a nurse looking to get a graduate degree—and need to set their own college class schedule around work, kids, you name it. That’s where you come in.

What does it take to become an online adjunct instructor of nursing? What is required of you? How much can you expect to get paid? Let’s answer these questions, each in turn.

Health Care Growth Means a Need for Online Teachers

Let’s start with a basic fact: there is a real need for nurses. The healthcare industry is growing and will continue to grow far into the foreseeable future. And a growth in the health care industry means, naturally, an increasing need for nurses—and obviously, that means a need to train nurses. Here is your foot in the door, as it were.

The numbers tell a lot of the (ever developing) story. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 16% growth in healthcare occupations between 2020 to 2030, which they figure will add about 2.6 million jobs. This growth is due, as you might suspect, to a large and aging population—the Baby Boomers, basically. The median annual wage, they report, for professions such as nurses was $69,870 in May, 2020.

The growth of the healthcare industry will mean greater employment opportunities in healthcare professions than any other occupation, and that is coupled with the fact that the median wage for these professions—including nurses, physicians, dental hygienists—is also higher, on average, than any other wage in this country.

With wages above average and the mass opportunity for jobs, you can see why teaching will be a part of that growth. Colleges know this all too well, and so nursing programs are likewise growing. Many of the new jobs in teaching tomorrow’s nurses are actually taught online.

Now, you may ask, can you actually teach nursing online? The answer is an unqualified yes. Chamberlain College of Nursing, for example, is looking for candidates to begin teaching in March, 2022. They consider applicants with nursing licenses from any state—which is great! Remember, this is remote teaching, so losing the encumbrance of where you live is a plus.

Other schools may require state residency. Trine University in Indiana is an example. Other colleges hire for graduate programs. The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) is looking for teachers to do just that.

So what do you need to do next? What can you expect of teaching nursing online? Let’s have a look.

Credentials Needed to Teach Nursing Online

First off, you’ll need the right credentials to teach as an online adjunct, and that will mean having the appropriate degrees, licensure, and experience—experience, that is, both as a teacher and as a nurse.

Like any other area of teaching, requirements will vary according to the college you apply to. But here are some basics you can expect.

1. In some cases, you may need only a BSN degree, but more likely you’ll need an MSN degree. In some cases, a doctorate may be preferred or outright expected by the college.
2. You’ll need an unencumbered RN nursing license—after all, the professional skill matters! In some cases, a college may ask for a multi-state license, and that would allow you, as I’ve suggested, to teach classes in another state.
3. You’ll need to have practice experience, which is to say practice on-the-job—a hospital, a private practice, a clinic. Three years of experience is a good starting point.
4. If you can get it, it’s good to have online teaching experience (or even teaching experience in general), which could amount to as little as one or two years—even as low as six months! Remember, there are more ways to get teaching experience and online teaching experience than through teaching college courses alone. If you have developed your own online course through a hospital you’ve worked at, that is experience that counts [could link here to a prior blog post about this topic].
5. You’ll want to indicate your subject matter expertise. This is a no-brainer, but this gives you something to think about as you craft your CV and cover letter. Emphasize your expertise!
6. Some colleges require a CNE, which is a certification in nurse education. This may be something you’ll want to get in the long run, as it could well open you up to other opportunities.

Every college is different, and specific job postings for teaching positions as an online adjunct faculty member will readily detail specific requirements asked for by this or that college. [again, could link here to your postings]

What Can I Teach?

A quick look at some listings for jobs may suggest the classes that need to be taught. MCPHS, in its graduate program, has courses to be taught in Family Nurse Practitioner specialties, and also in Advanced Pathophysiology, Advanced Pharmacology, Advanced Health assessment, and Advanced Role Development or Research. Chamberlain needs instructors for Nutrition, Health & Wellness. Nursing programs will likely want to be specific about advertising their needs, as nursing is a rigorous and extensive practice.

Courses may be introductory or higher level. The bottom line is, there are a lot of aspects of nursing to teach, and those can go for both undergraduate and graduate students. If you’re just starting out as an online adjunct (or even in the first couple years of your nursing career), you can look at undergraduate courses first, and then, as you gain experience in both teaching and nursing, and even manage to get a higher degree, you can begin to search for assignments teaching graduate students.

What Does an Online Adjunct Nursing Instructor Actually Do?

Again, a look at job listings will often tell you what you will be asked to do. Like any other teacher—especially of online classes—there are some key responsibilities. Address these in your cover letter.

One responsibility is advising and assisting students. This can be done through “office hours” (which can be flexible, as far as an online class goes, and many colleges will expect you to adhere to posted office hours) and, more specifically, through phone, email, and videoconference. No matter how you do it, as faculty you will schedule appointments with the student. Above all, you will act as a mentor.

You will deliver instruction through any combination of lecture, laboratory, and experiential instruction. You’ll create assignments that help students apply the knowledge you teach them to real-world applications. You may also maintain a discussion board, where you will post questions and respond to student answers.

You will use some sort of learning management system (an LMS), whether it be Blackboard, Moodle, or a system the college maintains. This is where your discussion board may reside, and it’s also where students can post assignments and where you will keep student grades.

Finally, you’ll need to do some basic teacher things: create a syllabus, make rubrics, and help develop and improve curriculum.

How Much Does an Online Nursing Instructor Get Paid?

ZipRecruiter reported, as of late October of 2021, that the average annual pay for an online nursing instructor in the U.S. is $65,353 a year. They found that the majority of the jobs range between $39,500 and $82,000 a year.

Here in Louisville, Kentucky, the outlook seems very good. ZipRecruiter says that for this area, the job market for online nursing faculty is “very active,” making only 5% less in salary than the national average. Among the highest paying cities are three cities in California’s Bay Area: San Francisco, Fremont, and San Jose. San Francisco pays some 24.8% more than the national average—more than $81,000 a year!

In fact, of the ten highest paying cities (six of which are in California), two are in Arkansas, one in Wyoming, and one in Connecticut. As ZipRecruiter points out, the lower cost of living in some states really stretches that salary. But again, you will be looking for remote teaching jobs, and you may already have a great cost-of-living!

First Steps to Getting an Online Nursing Teaching Job

As with any online adjunct teaching job, you’ll need to gather materials. More often than not, you’ll need a CV and a cover letter. With teaching nursing being a very particular kind of teaching—as opposed to, say, philosophy or poetry—you can expect a rigorous scrutiny over your credentials.

Your CV should demonstrate everything the college is asking of their applicants as requirements. List your college degrees. Include what kind of license you have, and in what state—if you have a multi-state license, tell them. All professional experience as a nurse should be included. Secondly, you’ll need to indicate any teaching experience. If you have taught for a college, if you have taught online, or both, include that information. As I’ve written before, “teaching experience” need not come only from college courses; leading workshops and courses on the job are important additions to your CV. [could link to the more generalized CV blog here]

Your cover letter should make clear that you match the position’s qualifications. How do you engage students? In what ways do you honor diversity in the classroom? How do you moderate discussions? What is your experience with technology, and how does your industry knowledge factor into your teaching? Job descriptions will make explicit these questions; review them carefully. [could link to more generalized cover letter blog here]

If you can get certification in teaching online, do that! Some colleges ask for that certification. If they ask for a multi-state license, or if they simply ask you to get a license for their state (because you may live, of course, in another state), start the process to secure that license.

Once you have your CV and cover letter complete, be sure to line up your job references, and you’re ready to begin applying for jobs. Adjunct world posts online adjunct teaching jobs daily.

There is enormous opportunity to teach nursing, and because so many programs are online, that can make it easier for you. Being a nurse yourself, you know it’s a busy job. But with the right preparation—and a good dose of organization—you can make online adjunct teaching work for you.

Let’s say you’ve decided to teach. Then let’s say that you’ve decided that teaching online college courses is a good fit for you—you can experience the joys of teaching, gain some new skills, and all while working from home. But what if you have no experience as a teacher, or else only have a little? Can you still become an online adjunct instructor?

You can write a cover letter for a teaching job with no experience, so long as you can shape the experience you do have into expressing your best qualifications. The important thing is to determine what that experience is and utilize it. You probably have a lot of experience, and it only needs to be shaped into a well-written cover letter.

There are two things you can do to get that experience into your letter. One is to identify the skills you already have that pertain to the teaching job you are applying to. The second is to start making experience now—and there are plenty of ways to do that.

What Counts as “Teaching Experience”?

Let’s look at some experiences that work for teaching experience that may not be apparent—or, they may seem obvious but you might think that they’re “not enough.” Let’s start with actual classroom experience.

First, student teaching. This is the teaching that happens when you are working toward licensure for public school teaching. Whether you want to be an elementary, middle, or high school teacher, licensure programs require you do undertake a practicum in student teaching, and that can last anywhere from a few weeks to an entire semester. If you taught two or three classes in high school English for an entire semester, let’s face it, that’s a lot of experience.

Second, being a teacher assistant. Otherwise known as a TA, this is standard classroom experience for undergraduate or graduate students in college. It’s notable, too, that this is really a kind of fellowship—and that, too, looks good on CVs. Oftentimes, they help an established professor, but they may also teach classes entirely themselves. What does a TA do? They help students. They often evaluate student work. They help plan lessons. And that instructor you TA-ed for would make an excellent reference for you.

An article on teaching assistants at by Kelly (2019) points out the very skills that a TA has that need to go in your cover letter: flexibility, dependability, ability to communicate, love of learning, and a love of students. That goes equally with student teachers!

In fact, even teacher’s aides fit this description. Teacher’s aides can work in public schools from kindergarten through senior year. So does a substitute teacher. Again, it’s the classroom experience that matters.

So far we’ve looked at public school and college classroom experience. But this is by no means the only “classroom” you might find yourself in. There are also community education programs, often hosted by colleges (but open to the general public) and municipalities (through publicly-funded community centers). Such classes are also offered through nonprofit organizations. If you’ve taught for any of these, you have experience.

But what if you have absolutely no classroom experience? Let’s look closer.

Volunteer Experience

Because the population you’ll find in college classes today—and especially in online courses—ranges from traditional college students to adults anywhere from young people to retirees, any volunteer experience with anyone in that range demonstrates that you can work with people—and that you’re looking out for their best interest.

Consider a program like the AmeriCorps. Being a wide umbrella for programs across the country, there are innumerable opportunities to work in schools, with students, or just teaching in general. One program in California, the AmeriCorps Borderlands, enlists members to tutor in English language development and academics to children from kindergarten through 12^th grade at nineteen sites in Imperial County.

The AmeriCorps Life Coach Project in Arkansas provides assistance to adults working toward their GED. The Learning Undefeated program in Maryland enlists AmeriCorps members to serve as mentors to underserved youth and to “hone teaching skills” to middle and high school students, particularly in STEM. The list goes on.

Also, if you have volunteered your time teaching within a faith-based congregation – Sunday School for instance – you might consider that as a form of teaching experience you can discuss in your cover letter. And, again, individuals who you’ve taught or those you’ve taught under could make excellent references that speak to your teaching ability.

Volunteer experience, too, shows an incredible amount of conviction—after all, you care about something enough to volunteer your time and resources without asking for pay.

Credentials, Certifications, and Special Training

At the very least, the credential that matters the most is your degree. Having a degree is a requirement for teaching part-time at a college, though which degree may vary. A rule of thumb is that you will need to have a master’s degree. In some cases, that master’s degree must be precisely in the field that the college class addresses, but in some cases (and the college job boards will state this explicitly) it can be a master’s degree in a relevant discipline but with a certain number of graduate credits (18 is a good number) in the area that needs to be taught.

Some colleges, however, will ask for a bachelor’s degree, depending on the subject they need taught. In other instances, they’ll ask for a doctorate degree—especially if they are hiring to teach a graduate class.

A college degree is not the only credential. If you have the requisite degree but lack classroom experience, other credentials may suffice. If you are applying for a job teaching online classes, consider the value of specialized and documented training in the most popular learning management systems (LMSs), like Google Classroom, Blackboard, Canvas, or Moodle. Some of these trainings might be free (Moodle’s is – through their LearnMoodle platform, others may come with a cost). You can also seek specialized certificate training in online education best practices. We at AdjunctWorld offer a certificate course called Fundamentals of Online Teaching (OT101) – a credential that could be highlighted on your CV and in your cover letter.

There are programs across the country that offer discipline-specific certifications that are reputable and valuable. Take the Oregon Writing Project, for example. As part of the network of the National Writing Project, they offer teachers an Invitational Summer Institute which, upon completion, further makes one eligible to achieve the OWP Certificate in the Teaching of Writing. Taking the course, one teaches classes, develops curriculum, and studies research on contemporary writing practices—all of which would be available to teach as an adjunct in composition!

The bottom line here is that any specialized teaching that teaches teaching makes you a better teacher! If you have some of this kind of coursework in hand, then include it in your cover letter. If not, you can track down resources like the National Writing Project or any organization that trains teachers in your field and start learning now. It will pay dividends for a long time.

Tutoring and Mentoring

Tutoring to any degree is excellent experience in working with students and implementing instruction. Many volunteer as tutors—and AmeriCorps has had substantial impact in this area—and perhaps just as many have done so as a job working for any number of tutoring agencies.

Mentoring, too, where there is ample amounts of volunteer opportunities, is equally important. In either case, it is the “soft skills” that are relevant here: organization, compassion, communication, and so on. There are also “hard” skills at play—or harder, at any rate—like facilitation, lesson planning, evaluation, and curriculum development.

As with all other opportunities, consider taking on tutoring and/or mentoring before you start applying for college teaching positions. Think of it as laying the groundwork for a career. Think of it as “relevant experience.”

More Points for the Cover Letter

Once you’ve got a clear sense of your prior experience and how it translates to teaching—and both “soft skills” and “hard skills” are the cards you have to play—now you can write your cover letter. There are a few things to keep in mind.

Avoid generic language; match your skills to what the college specifies in their job positing. Whether you’ve volunteered or tutored, whether you are certified to use an LMS or certified to teach writing, you must detail as exactly as you can how your experience will lend itself to the college classroom. Be specific. Use numbers: How many students have you mentored? How many years did you volunteer?

Focus on your strengths. If building an enduring relationship at-risk youth comes easy for you, then emphasize the fact—after all, you will find college classes, too, have their share of at-risk youth. Show your commitment to your principles.

Whatever unique qualities you have—and it may be as simple as mastery of the Adobe Creative Suite or a knack for making fun activities—get them down on paper, as well. Indicate how you think they will lead to student success and upholding the values of the college.

When you finally get to writing, do so with aplomb! That is, show your enthusiasm for teaching and your conviction for helping people succeed. The very tone of your cover letter will send a message to HR personnel, department heads, and administrators. This is an opportunity you want. Make it clear!

You CAN write a cover letter with little or no teaching experience. Find the relevant job experience, demonstrate what you’ve learned, lay down your credentials, and show your excitement.

References:

Kelly, M. (2019). What is a Teaching Assistant? https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-teaching-assistant-8303

When you are applying for an online teaching job with a college, what you will need to submit may vary somewhat, but there are some standard things to include. You can assume that all colleges will ask for a curriculum vitae, your “CV,” or maybe in some cases a simpler resume. Some will ask for your college transcripts or letters of recommendation. Some, though not all, will ask for a cover letter. Even if they don’t specifically ask for a cover letter, it is important to craft one—I think you’ll find you’ll be using it often enough!

Writing a cover letter for an online adjunct teaching job will follow the same principles as any cover letter, but you will need to address what matters for online adjunct positions: your teaching experience, your understanding and use of technology, your experience with students in online environments, and the soft skills that you’ve picked up along the way. This is also a good forum to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role—if not your outright excitement!

Even if you’ve written a cover letter for a standard teaching role—that is, a teaching position in a physical classroom setting—you’ll need to fine tune it to convince the HR personnel that you are a good fit for teaching online, which is far different.

Cover Letters: The Basics

You probably know by now some of the most basic elements of a cover letter—naturally, you want to include all of your contact information, though nowadays that can include a LinkedIn profile. Like any cover letter, do your best to personalize the letter to the person doing the hiring. With online adjunct applications, that may be someone in the college’s HR department or, as is often the case, the head of the department you are applying for. It maybe even another professor who has taken on the responsibility.

Let me offer a brief refresher course on the cover letter.

After the salutation, introduce your cover letter by showing off skills, experience, and achievements. “As a teacher with six years of experience…” is a good way to start, for example. You can also indicate your teaching history: “I began my career as a high school teacher in Wisconsin, and then I…”

More particularly, use the description in the posting—the job duties and responsibilities, as well as the required qualifications—as a template for the body of your cover letter. For example, Richland Community College in Illinois is hiring for an online astronomy adjunct instructor, though they do not have a lot of detail in their posting. The posting does say that they require a master’s degree in astronomy or a master’s in a related field with at least 18 graduate hours of astronomy or physics. You could address the point like this: “After I earned my master’s in Astronomy from X College, I went on to…” and so on.

Staying in Illinois, let’s look at a more detailed posting, that of a job teaching engineering online at Joliet Junior College. Under the section “essential job duties and key responsibilities” is a list of points to address: “Comply with departmental curriculum, grading standards, attendance policies, textbook choices, and assessments.” Also, “effectively communicate with appropriate staff and chair.” The idea here is to address these points to make clear that you follow procedures, communicate with colleagues, and maintain a structure for your class. How you do it is what gets discussed in your letter, but generally—touch on the points enough to stir interest.

As always, close your cover letter in a professional fashion, and don’t be shy about expressing your enthusiasm.

What to Include in Your Cover Letter for “Online Teaching”

There are several key points to include in the body of your cover letter that are specific to teaching in an online environment. Let’s look at a description for a job with Morton College, teaching business, marketing, and supply chain management in an online environment.

First, they post some preferred qualifications: “Business expertise in areas such as social media and business, mobile business applications, e-commerce, computer/technology and business, logistics/supply chain, international business, or entrepreneurship/business management.” Well, that’s a lot. But if you can match these qualifications, the letter is just the place to prove you can do it—but again, only enough to stir interest so that the HR personnel and the business department faculty want to talk to you to get more details.

Remember, with many online adjunct positions, the bulk of your class may well be adults either changing careers or looking to get certifications and promotions in their current careers—and your class is their ticket. Your real-world experience—no matter what you teach, really—is paramount!

Now, the “specific job duties” are of particular interest here, and I say that because what this college explicitly asks for can be used for ANY cover letter for ANY college. Here’s a few salient points that Morton College asks for:

• Ability to evaluate, design, and implement curriculum, testing, and/or teaching methodologies.
• Ability to work effectively with diverse populations.
• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Knowledge of teaching methods, curriculum, and education programs.
• Teaching and facilitation skills.
• Ability to teach and control the behavior of students.
• Knowledge of academic and/or vocational education curricula.
• Knowledge of and ability to apply relevant current education methodologies and techniques.
• Ability to gather data, compiles information, and prepares reports

That’s a lot to cover, but these duties are also what are most important, and they are duties that the department who may prospectively hire you wants to know you can accomplish. Answer to these points with your experience; the more you can give authentic details that demonstrate you have done these things—and can again, and again—the more you’ll sell yourself. Let’s look closer.

Showing the “ability to evaluate, design, and implement curriculum, testing, and/or teaching methodologies” shows that you can get the basic job done on your own. You can be responsible for designing the class, based on the college’s expectations and curriculum, and that you can do so with a methodology that you have tested by experience. Offer a few outtakes from your curriculum; summarize your methodology.

The “ability to work effectively with diverse populations” is incredibly important for online classes where, as we’ve seen, diversity is the norm. For one, ages can range widely, from typical college-age students to retirees. You’ll need to address populations varying in gender, race, and income level. How you design your class to meet all those needs will be of special interest to hiring committees. Give examples of the populations you’ve worked with.

Here are two that you can shape into demonstrating your effectiveness in online teaching: “Knowledge of teaching methods, curriculum, and education programs” and “Teaching and facilitation skills.” In an online environment, the faculty wants to know if they can trust you to facilitate an effective class. Again, be detailed, just enough to make them want to meet you in person. How do you facilitate an online discussion, and how do you know it works with students? Put it in your letter.

Specific Points to Include

When you’re writing about your experience with technology, be specific. If you’ve used a learning management system, an LMS, which one did you use? Blackboard? Canvas or Moodle? Let them know regardless that you have—and it doesn’t matter necessarily if you’ve used it for a college, a business, or with a class you designed and led yourself. If you haven’t, let them know that you’ve trained yourself with using one of more systems.

Show how you’ve incorporated technology into your online environment. What programs have you used? PowerPoint? Google Classroom? If you’ve set up discussion boards, say so in your letter. If you’ve used video modules, tell which ones and explain how they were successfully integrated into the online environment. You may even have a certification like “Google Certified Educator”—list them. Whatever shows that you are knowledgeable in online teaching is invaluable!

You can probably go so far as to summarize how you’ve led discussions online, the importance of your email availability, and more. Try to put the reader in your classroom—just enough so they’ll want to talk to you more about your experience!

Include a Brief Teaching Statement

What kind of teacher are you? What kind of growth do you want to see in your students? What is it students take from your class? And, importantly, what kinds of “soft skills” do you exemplify in your online classes? Flexibility? Communication? Being supportive? Devote a paragraph to this.

Vanderbilt University (n.d.) offers a fine definition of a teaching statement: “a purposeful and reflective essay about the author’s teaching beliefs and practices. It is an individual narrative that includes not only one’s beliefs about the teaching and learning process, but also concrete examples of the ways in which he or she enacts these beliefs in the classroom” (para. 1).

Tell how you think learning occurs. Describe how your teaching facilitates student learning. Explain why you teach the way you do. Show what constitutes evidence of learning. Detail the goals you have for students and for yourself. Show how you create an inclusive learning environment. Describe your interests in different techniques and activities you use. In the case of a cover letter (unless a college asks for a full “teaching statement”), try to keep this brief but concrete.

When you devote space in your letter to “soft skills,” especially as they relate to your teaching skills, frame them in your actual accomplishments. When were you compassionate, for example? What program were you implementing, what class were you teaching, what club were you facilitating? A few brief sentences are enough to convey that, above all else, you care about student success, and you strive to create relationships with them.

Do this all within a space of about one page, single-spaced, no more. Be concise with your language and grammar. Remember, too, that the main thing the college wants to know is what kind of teacher you are in an online environment, working with diverse students and motivating them throughout the course. Use your best writing and have someone edit it, for sure. Your confidence will show.

The Basic Template

Here’s a prescription for how to introduce yourself:

1. Detail your experience, but don’t just parrot your resume.
2. Point out your achievements, using concrete examples of your successes.
3. Detail certifications or special trainings and remember that some colleges offer training for teaching online—if you’ve done that, it counts.
4. All work outside the classroom is relevant, too, especially if you’re teaching in programs like nursing, business, or social work, to name a few.

You can see that this is a basic prescription for a CV, and all you need do is tune it specifically to your skills in teaching and, especially, teaching online. With your tailored CV in hand, emphasizing your experience as a teacher and online afficionado, you will undoubtedly find yourself at “the top of the pile,” so to speak.

Circulate this CV widely and cast your net as far as you can.

OnRamp: How We Can Help

In our 4-week course titled OnRamp: a Practical Guide to Landing an Online Teaching Job, we devote an entire week to workshopping both your CV and your Cover Letter and at the end of the course you will have a fully and professionally edited set of application materials ready-to-go so that you can confidently apply to on line teaching positions. Please see our OnRamp Course Description and FAQ page for more information on OnRamp course goals, pricing, and start dates.

References:

Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University (n.d.) Teaching Statements. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-statements/

Social work degrees, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, are popular degrees, and they’re also commonly degrees a student can earn online, whether undergraduate or graduate. That being the case, you can teach social work online as an adjunct professor—because there is a definite need for teachers.

There are many places to teach social work to students in online college programs. Social workers can teach online as a supplementary job, or even as a career. You will typically need to meet some degree and certification requirements, and having some experience teaching will be helpful, as well—though that is not always expected. Because social work programs don’t house what we might think of as traditional “academics,” that leaves the door wide open for experienced professionals to fill teaching positions.

If you’re beginning to consider teaching online, you probably have questions. Where can I teach? What are those requirements, and what will I need to submit with an application? We’ll look at all these questions here.

Can You Teach Social Work Online?

There is a blog online, Teaching & Learning in Social Work, and in this post, the Chair of the Department of Social Work at Western Kentucky University, Patricia Desrosiers (2019), writes about adjuncting in the world of social work. She quotes a statistic from the Council on Social Work Education that says over half of all the social workers in this country are adjunct instructors. Over half!

One reason is that “part-time instructors bring their practice experience into the classroom, making book content come alive for students.” But strong part-time instructors, Desrosiers laments, are hard to find. Your goal: become that strong part-time instructor. And there will be plenty of students: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that social work employment is expected to grow 16% between 2016 and 2026.

Why become an online adjunct in social work? For one, Derosiers says, teaching is fun—and you’ll have access to resources to improve your own practice and career, as well. You’ll also be adding to the profession, “giving back,” as it were. You’ll not only teach students, you may actively help them by identifying students for field placements and employment.

Derosiers points out two things you will need: qualification and time. She points to accreditation standards of the CSWE, which stipulates not only a Master’s in Social Work but a minimum of two years post-MSW experience in order to teach. You’ll need to budget time, as well: a three-credit hour course, she says, can take up six to nine hours weekly of time for prep, and that doesn’t factor in grading.

Again, you do not have to be an academic to secure a teaching job in social work—it seems apparent that the professional experience can account for far more than strictly teaching. As a social worker yourself, you could teach on the side or make a big career change and stick with teaching online. Let’s look at what you might need to make either change.

What Do You Need to Be an Online Social Work Professor?

Teaching social work is no different from any other teaching. Some of the basic requirements you’ll need to meet are largely the same.

The first thing you’ll need, of course, is a college degree from an accredited institution. According to The New Social Worker online magazine, CSWE accreditation standards establish a preference for a Ph.D. This will not always be the case when you start researching jobs, though.

George Fox University in Oregon, for example, prefers a master’s degree—and previous teaching experience is desirable, but not required. Liberty University, too, makes having an MSW a minimum qualification. Same with New Mexico Highland University, a college that may require social work licensure, depending on the course taught.

A teaching job posted at the University of Utah (an online assistant professor, and so full-time) asks for at least an MSW, though a Ph.D. or Doctor of Social Work degree is preferred. That job, however, even though it’s full-time, can give you a sense of where a career may continue—that is, where a part-timer can eventually attain to! Central State University, which urgently needs adjuncts for social work, among other disciplines, says that it welcomes adjuncts interested in becoming full-time, non-tenure track faculty in the future.

Even if you’ve only attained your master’s degree, you can teach.

Outside of that, it may—or may not—be important to have some teaching experience. Remember, though, that social workers are different from, say, philosophers. A philosophy major could earn a master’s or a Ph.D. and go straight into academia, teaching—unless they get a job outside academia and write essays on their free time! But a social worker is likely going to go straight into working, whether in the public sector (schools, state jobs) or nonprofits. Some can turn, after even a few years in the field, to teaching, but many don’t necessarily consider that move.

As I’ve written before, “teaching” can mean many things. Any sort of conference where you’ve given a talk or a workshop is teaching. Training fellow employees is teaching. All of it should be kept on a CV.

How Do You Become an Online Social Work Professor?

Once you’ve decided on being an online adjunct of social work, you need only plot the course. You’ll need to assemble your materials, all of which, thankfully, can be uploaded directly to a college’s job site.

1. You’ll need your graduate degree (or degrees), but you’ll often need to send your college transcripts, as well. Most likely that will only need to be postgraduate transcripts.

2. You will need some form of letter of application—a cover letter. In that letter, detail your academic experience (if any) as a teacher, especially online. If you have taught online, you probably used a learning management system (an LMS); which one? You may be asked to provide a teaching philosophy (in some cases, a college may ask for a separate document containing that philosophy), but if not, you can add a brief account of your philosophy in the cover letter.

3. You will need your curriculum vita—your CV. Detail your education, of course, where you graduated from and when. List your job experience—remember that professional experience in social work is desirable! Include any teaching experience, online or traditional. Leading trainings with your colleagues counts as teaching.

4. Colleges may ask for professional references with contact information. Others may ask for three current letters of recommendation. Whether professors, supervisors, or colleagues, always keep those references handy—and if you’ve worked in the field, you most likely have them.

It should be noted that it is not uncommon these days for colleges to maintain a “pool” of applicants rather than specifically hiring for a single, specific role. If that’s the case, colleges will draw from that pool according to need—how many courses they actually have available to teach. College’s job postings on their websites will make this clear.

Adjunct Social Work Professor Jobs are Online

Since my search engine knows I’m in Kentucky, when I go looking for online social work programs, it doesn’t let me down—and in fact, I realized that there are a lot of online programs right here in Kentucky.

The University of Louisville has an online Doctor of Social Work program—100% of the fourteen courses it offers are online. Eastern Kentucky University likewise offers a 100% online program, their MSW. Campbellsville University offers a BSW and an MSW. Brescia University has a program. The University of Kentucky has a program. Even Maryville University in nearby St. Louis, listed as one of Forbes “Top Colleges,” hosts a BSW, and the University of Cincinnati has a program, and Indiana Wesleyan has a program, all of them neighboring Kentucky. And that’s only one state! That’s a lot of options—and of course, they’re all online. (If you lived in Louisville, you wouldn’t necessarily have to drive two hours to Cincinnati to teach!)

With social work a growing field, and the proliferation of online BSW, MSW, and DSW programs, there is an increasing need for teachers of social work. Whether you’ve been strictly in the profession or have taught previously, there is undoubtedly a need for your skills.

Adjunct World lists job postings daily, and you can utilize this resource to find a teaching position in social work that works for you.

References

Desrosiers, P. (2019). Becoming an awesome adjunct professor in social work [Blog Post].
https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2019/04/23/becoming-an-awesome-adjunct-professor-in-social-work/

When looking for online adjunct teaching positions, your first question may well be, “But what can I teach?” Are there particular courses that are more likely to be online than others? Can any course be taught online? Is your particular discipline one in which you’ll find online classes to teach?

There is a huge array of classes that can be taught online. Because colleges are moving more and more toward increasing online classes, it is very likely that you will find classes to teach in just about any subject. Those subjects range through the sciences, humanities, social sciences, arts, and mathematics—the subjects typical to college coursework—and they also range through specific work-related courses like nursing, accounting, computer science, and more.

The courses offered by colleges can still vary tremendously across your region, your state, and the country. Different colleges have very different programs, and those will also dictate what courses are available to teach online. What can you expect to find? A lot.

Teaching English and Composition

One of the ever-present adjunct instructor jobs is in composition—it is a basic course, required of pretty much all college students, and so there are a lot of sections offered. But are any offered online? As a matter of fact, they are.

Northwestern Health Sciences University, for example, offers a fully online English Composition course. This is a “part-time” position, seven hours a week, and though a master’s degree is required to teach it, you don’t need any experience. To teach at the undergraduate level, the job positing clearly says, “0-2 years of experience.” Further, having experience teaching online is “preferred” but not required.

Purdue University Global also offers composition courses in asynchronous format. You’d be required to offer virtual office hours, respond to electronic correspondence in a timely fashion, and lead message board discussions. The class utilizes Adobe Connect, Microsoft Office Suite, and Brightspace education software—so experience with these programs, as well as three years of online teaching experience, is preferred, though three years of teaching online is a minimum qualification.

The Los Angeles Community College District offers some of their composition courses online using Canvas. Ohio’s Columbus State Community College offers English, and specifically developmental reading and writing, for more than $50 an hour, and some of those courses are online. Central State University, also in Ohio, offers online course in English Composition—and in fact, as far as humanities goes, they offer more than that.

Teaching the Humanities

Despite the abundance of English Composition adjunct positions available, as well as the ease you might imagine such a course could be taught entirely online, there are actually a lot of humanities classes offered online.

Aside from composition, Central State University offers a number of humanities courses online, including Spanish language, French literature, history, journalism and mass communication, and philosophy & religion. It is not uncommon to find courses like these at other colleges available, as well.

Just basic “humanities” as a course is offered for online adjuncts by Baton Rouge Community College in Louisiana and Indian River State College in Florida. Excelsior College in Albany, New York offers a humanities course—they want someone who specializes in Ethics—that will be offered entirely in Spanish! So if you speak a second language, there are opportunities to use that skill, as well.

Sciences and Mathematics

The demand for workers skilled in math and sciences has been growing for decades—the economy has come to depend on STEM students, and that is a trend showing no signs of stopping. So you can expect there to be plenty of jobs teaching math and science online—and you’d be right to think so.

Finger Lakes Community college in upstate New York hires, at $945 per contract hour, for mathematics positions where having online teaching experience is a plus. Same with West Virginia Northern Community college, who hired for both on-campus and online classes.

The sciences, too, are moving to an online format. The California Baptist University hires adjuncts for an online course in research methods and statistics. Biology is a popular subject, with Los Angeles Pacific University offering more than $30 an hour to teach biology online—and in lieu of actual online teaching experience, they accept the completion of an online teaching certification process (granted, they are only authorized to hire in nineteen states, but that is still quite a range).

Common sciences where you will find jobs for online courses include physics, psychology, astronomy—even fire science! (Fire science is taught online by colleges like Arizona’s Mohave Community College, and Washington’s Everett Community College and Skagit Valley College).

Many of the courses I’ve detailed so far largely fall under the umbrella of undergraduate courses, and they are often courses required of all students—like composition or mathematics. It’s often the case, though, that one can teach upper-division undergraduate courses and even graduate courses—psychology is a prime example. But other courses are far more specific to particular industries, and if you have degrees and/or experience in those industries, a whole new level of opportunity opens up.

Professional Courses

There is an increasing number of adults wanting to take college coursework to further their career—and many of these courses are online. That’s no surprise, given that the typical adult—who probably already has a career, a family, and other responsibilities—can’t fit college classes into their day. what used to be “night school” is now largely handled online.

Penn State offers a number of such courses. Supply chain management, graphic design for communications, marketing, management, and computer science are all offered as online courses for adjuncts to apply for.

Central State, prior to the Summer 2020 semester, was in urgent need of online adjuncts in criminal justice, business management, and early childhood education. Beginning in the fall of 2020, they planned to offer their intervention specialist (INS) program online, as well. Professional coursework is growing, and help is clearly needed.

I’ve written elsewhere about the need for adjuncts to teach things like nursing and accounting. Even radiology technology is taught online. Teaching classes like these will allow you to interact with what we might think of as more traditional undergraduate students and adults who are already professionals in their field.

So what courses can you teach online? A lot, it turns out. Many job boards post far more than I can account for here. Start searching our AdjunctWorld online teaching job database and see what turns up.