The big news for teachers with earned graduate degrees, a Ph.D. or master’s degree, is that the current public mood being exhibited towards educators is a mask for the full scale implementation of distance education technology. Is this a radical idea about the academic labor force? Well, this question can best be answered by asking if there will be more or less online bachelor degree programs and online masters degree programs ten years from now. Obviously, the accurate answer is that online college courses will become the norm in the very near future. This shift from the physical university classroom to the online degree program is actually a great opportunity for any teacher that wants to continue delivering educational instruction for living and a career. Fortunately, all that is needed to start applying for the growing numbers of online adjunct faculty positions is a personal computer and knowledge of how to locate the thousands of state college, for-profit colleges and four-year university websites.

It is important to understand that the movement to online degree programs is the direct result of administrators realizing that it is much cheaper to use computer to educate new and returning college and university students than it is to continue repairing, heating and cooling a physical classroom and the physical building containing it. In fact, it is not even required for the computers serving the educational materials to be on the same side of the planet as the actual college or university physical plant, the campus.

Because of the cost-efficiency and the increased resource capacity, which means more college students can enroll in online degree programs without putting pressure on a physical campus’ infrastructure, the individual that make the decision as to the allocation of the dwindling budgetary monies will move in favor of deploying online college degree programs in every academic discipline. The end result will be fewer adjunct college instructors teaching in a physical classroom, and it’s the adjunct instructors that will compromise the vast majority of faculty members at the post-secondary level, and more online adjunct instructors teaching online college courses from laptop computers accessing the Internet.

While it may seem as if distance education only favors academic administrators wanting to reduce the cost associated with paying teachers a living wage, the reality is that it will be absolutely necessary for any individual that wishes to earn a real living from teaching college and university students to learn how to teach online for a variety of online degree programs. It is relatively easy to apply for online faculty positions. The first task is to visit the thousands of community college and university websites and locate the link on the first page that leads to the faculty application section. The faculty application section has a great deal of information on it about the availability of adjunct online faculty positions with the individual school. The successful online adjunct instructor will realize that the academic world is changing so fast that it is necessary to continue to submit applications for online adjunct jobs even after acquire three or four online college courses to teach. Eventually, it will be possible to build a full time online teaching roster if enough applications are made to enough online bachelor degree programs and online masters degree programs.