Outside Engagement: Exploring the Utilization of Online Communication Tools in Face-to-Face Classes

Abstract

In today’s higher education environment, institutions are looking to balance financial demands with the ability to offer high quality, practical courses in a variety of different modalities and times. Because of this new reality, institutions are increasingly relying on adjunct faculty to help bring about these modern educational demands. Colleges and universities are also looking to expand their technological investments to meet these growing demands. However, could the traditional faculty/student rapport outside of the classroom be left behind with the potential of affecting student satisfaction? With the growing use of adjunct faculty and the increase of technology available to faculty and students, implementing online communication tools could help to bridge the challenge of offering more faculty/student engagement outside of the classroom setting. This quantitative study looked at the baseline usage of online communication tools with adjunct faculty teaching face-to-face courses at a Mid-Atlantic University. The study will look at the impact of usage by faculty, completion of University sponsored trainings, as well as their experience with teaching fully online, as well as hybrid courses.