Definitions
Adjunct Faculty – non-staffing table employees of the College who hold an academic rank or title and are paid using the adjunct faculty pay scale.
Contact hour – A unit of measure that represents an hour of scheduled instruction given to students, of which 50 minutes must be instruction.
Credit hour – A unit of measure that represents an hour (50 minutes) of instruction per week during a 16-week semester, or the equivalent weekly amount for other semester session lengths.
Distance education – A formal educational process in which the majority of the instruction occurs when student and instructor are not in the same physical setting. Distance education includes asynchronous instruction (ONL), synchronous instruction (DLS), “hy-flex” instruction (FLX), and hybrid instruction (HYD).
Employed Industry Specialist – A member of the adjunct faculty who has knowledge of special technical skills required for successful employment in a particular industry or business and who receives his/her primary income and benefits from an organization or source other than ACC, or is retired with benefits.
Laboratory contact hours – The number of hours per week students are required to spend in contact with teaching staff in a laboratory setting that is associated with a course. For workload calculation purposes, one laboratory contact hour equals 0.75 lecture equivalent hours. The number of lab hours required for a course is found in the course description in the official College catalog.
Lecture contact hours – The number of hours per week students are required to spend in contact with teaching staff in a learning situation associated with a course. The number of lecture hours for a course is found in the course description in the official College catalog.
Lecture equivalent hour (LEH) – The sum of Lecture Contact Hours per week plus 0.75 times the number of Laboratory Contact Hours per week that are required for a course.
Lighthouse – The College’s online repository of individual class section syllabi, available to students and to the public via the College’s online semester course schedule. Lighthouse also provides information about individual faculty member’s office hours, as well as contact information for that faculty member.
Overload – For Adjunct faculty, sections or LEH taught in addition to the maximum LEH allowed under this administrative rule and guidelines.
Section – A class identified in the College’s semester course schedule by unique section and synonym numbers.
Teaching Assignment (also Teaching Load) – Sections that an adjunct faculty member is assigned to teach within a specified period of time, usually a semester.
Temporary Emergency Hire (TEH) – Adjunct faculty who are assigned a Teaching Load equivalent to a Full-time Faculty workload (as defined in AR 4.1000.03) will be designated as temporary full-time faculty for that academic year. TEH status includes placement on the full-time faculty salary scale and accompanying benefits for the duration of the assignment.
Workload – The amount of work assigned or expected of an adjunct faculty member within a specified period of time.
Guidelines
Workload limits
Members of the adjunct faculty will have a workload that is no more than nine (9) credit hours and no more than 11 lecture equivalent hours (LEH) in any single Fall or Spring semester.
Adjunct faculty will have a workload that is no more than six (6) credit hours and no more than 6 lecture equivalent hours (LEH) in the summer semester.
In the Fall and Spring semesters, adjunct faculty obligations will begin one week prior to the first instructional day of the semester and end with the submission of grades. All grades must be submitted by the College deadline.
Exceptions to these workload limits can occur as described below.
- An Employed Industry Specialist will have a teaching workload of less than 15 LEH in both the Fall and Spring semesters, and may not exceed two course sections in the Summer semester. The need for such specialists shall be documented by the department chair and approved by the instructional The workload of such specialists shall also be approved by the instructional dean each semester.
- Members of the Adjunct Faculty are exempt from these workload limits when the Department Chair and Dean both deem it necessary to comply with the staffing needs of dual credit classes or to meet other departmental needs. Instructional deans are responsible for monitoring departmental compliance.
- Associate vice chancellors shall approve all adjunct staffing overloads after the department chair and dean approve.
- The approval of the instructional dean, associate vice chancellor, and vice chancellor is required for Temporary Emergency Hire (TEH) status.
All other exceptions to this workload rule beyond those described above must be approved by the appropriate instructional dean and associate vice chancellor. Generally, exceptions should only be granted following an active recruitment of new Adjunct faculty.
Office Hours
Adjunct faculty are expected to establish, publicize, and maintain office hours each week.
Office hours ensure that adjunct faculty are available to students. Adjunct faculty must schedule at least one office hour per week for each assigned section.
Adjunct faculty are required to publish office hours, office location, and faculty contact information in the course syllabus, in Lighthouse, and in any other location required by the College.
Interactions during office hours between faculty and students may occur in person, or may occur via online platforms such as Blackboard Collaborate, Google Meet, or Zoom (or other such tools). Open office hours may include virtual chats or phone conversations. An email exchange is not an example of open office hours. Office hours for campus-based course sections will occur on campus to the extent possible.
Distance Education
Adjunct faculty who successfully complete the College’s required distance education training (including Quality Matters) are eligible to teach distance education course sections and may request that they be put on the eligibility list for Distance Education courses in their program. Adjunct faculty remain eligible to teach distance education courses when in good evaluative standing in their annual evaluation and when ongoing distance education course reviews are current. A distance education section has the same LEH as the on-campus equivalent and is compensated in the same manner.
Adjunct faculty are assigned to distance education sections as prescribed in AR 4.0401.02.
Adjunct faculty must be placed by the department chair on the appropriate eligibility list to teach distance education sections. Instructional deans will monitor compliance with this. See AR 4.0401.05 for more information about Administration of Eligibility Lists.
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