"We've Got Trouble in Cybercity": A mixed-methods analysis of online higher education adjunct faculty stressors and recommendations for improvement

Online adjunct faculty encounter a unique set of stressors compared to traditional face-to-face faculty. This chapter provides a history of concerns raised by online faculty and one of the author's experiences in mentoring them. It also centers on a two-part study intended to identify the most prominent stressors perceived by online adjunct faculty. Part 1 consisted of individual in-depth interviews with online adjunct faculty members. The results were then applied to create a 30-item rating survey of the importance of identified stressors. The items clustered into five factors perceived as most stressful: student readiness, student communications, administrator communications, teaching load, and teaching expectations. The chapter then identified implications for administrators, including recommendations for practical application to create maximally effective and minimally stressful teaching environments for online faculty.