Contingent Faculty, Online Writing Instruction, and Professional Development in Technical and Professional Communication

ABSTRACT

Technical and professional communication (TPC) programs rely on contingent faculty to achieve their curricular mission. However, contingent faculty lack professional development opportunities. In this article, the author reports survey results (N = 91) and three cases studies that provide information on contingent faculty and their preparation for online teaching and then provides a three-step approach for TPC program administrators and faculty to follow so that programs can create sustainable professional development opportunities for contingent faculty to teach online.

KEYWORDS:

• Computer-based learning
• programmatic research

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the three faculty members whose partial stories she shared, as well as other faculty, who have given their time to be interviewed. It is past due that the voices of contingent faculty are heard, and the author appreciates their courage, determination, and generosity.

Notes

1. The University of Cincinnati’s Institutional Review Board has approved this project (#2013-2133).

2. Quality Matters is a nonprofit organization that institutions pay to belong to that then entitles faculty at those member institutions access to training opportunities.

3. The three instructors have read the quotes used to make sure that they accurately represented what they said. This verification process was added to ensure their comfort levels with publishing their stories and statements.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Meloncon

Lisa Meloncon is an associate professor of technical communication at the University of South Florida. Her teaching and research focuses on the rhetoric of health and medicine and programmatic and professionalization dimensions of the field. She is founder and coeditor of the journal Rhetoric of Health and Medicine.