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1a. Module Introduction: Adjuncts a/k/a Jugglers

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1a. Module Introduction: Adjuncts a/k/a Jugglers

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Many adjuncts teach for more than one institution at a time. When I first began teaching, I taught face-to-face for one institution during the day while teaching a webinar-style class online in the evenings for another. As my teaching career progressed alongside increasing demand for, and new developments in, online teaching, I began teaching all my classes, even wholly face-to-face, with supplemental Learning Management System (LMS) courses. Fast forward to the pandemic of 2020 and I now teach fully online, remotely from home, for 3 institutions.
Any adjunct teaching in similar circumstances - juggling multiple institutions as we often do -  will likely have multiple emails and calendars to manage across different platforms and may have to navigate different LMS and Student Information Systems SIS) for each school. Most often, we're doing all of this from our "home offices" on our own devices with little support on how to manage what could be conflicting technology across institutions.

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This Module will discuss primary email, calendar, and file-share platforms, as well as common LMS and SIS, while making recommendations for day-to-day management.

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The two most common email systems used by higher ed institutions are Microsoft Outlook and Google (Gmail).
The Microsoft Outlook Suite provides email, calendar, and file-sharing through Microsoft Share Online (which contains online version of popular Office Programs like Word). It's accessible through a downloadable Outlook application or via the web-based version in a browser.
The Google Suite of products also includes email, calendar, and file-sharing through Google Drive (which contains web-based word-processing applications like Google Docs). It's accessible via web browser only (though Google Docs allows for an "access offline" option).

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Side-by-side, the differences in these two platforms appear primarily aesthetic. The functionality of both systems obviously does what it's supposed to do - allow for communication, scheduling/organization, and storage/sharing of files.
Beyond aesthetics, the main distinction becomes apparent during access. Microsoft's authentication settings allow institutions to implement security measures that can be difficult to navigate for the remote instructor. The difficulty can be exasperated if multiple institutions use Microsoft, all requiring authentication, or if a school switches from Microsoft to Google (or vice-versa) without fully communicating that switch to remote adjuncts.

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2c. Accessing Outlook with Microsoft Authentication

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2c. Accessing Outlook with Microsoft Authentication

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This screenshare shows an example of accessing Outlook for a school that uses DUO - an authentication app. Multiple and/or conflicting security measures can make frequent checking of campus email time-consuming if not frustrating. For this reason, I use one email inbox with filters for schools; though there are still times that logging in to the school's email system directly is necessary, the one inbox makes daily email maintenance much more manageable. More on this in "Recommendations for Keeping It All Straight" to come.

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Accessing Outlook with Microsoft Authentication

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3. Juggling Multiple Learning Management Systems (LMS)

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3. Juggling Multiple Learning Management Systems (LMS)

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While there are many LMSs, the two most common seem to be Blackboard and Canvas. Both provide typical LMS functionality - building of modules, assignments, discussion, management of grades, etc. - but look very different. You'll find that instructors generally love or hate their LMS with very little in-between.

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In addition to email and LMS technologies, adjuncts often have to juggle multiple means of reporting grades and managing their personnel records through campus portals.
Further, when teaching remote, instructors will often have multiple Zoom accounts that may or may not be fully integrated within the school's LMS and that require specific care regarding the institution's cloud recording capacities.

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Email forwarding and incognito browser windows are the adjunct a/k/a juggler's best friends.
Perhaps it is because I was already using Gmail, but I prefer Google's aesthetic to Microsoft's. All of my school emails forward to my personal Gmail inbox. In Gmail, I've set up aliases (allowing me to reply as the school email) and filters to organize incoming email. Occasionally, I have to log in to the Outlook web-based application - if I need to update a password or access a shared file/link with limited permissions. In those instances, I have to ensure I'm in an incognito browser and that I have the appropriate authenticator (Microsoft Authenticator or DUO) handy (on my phone). But those instances are few and far between, so my daily email maintenance is all in one place.

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5b. Recommendations: Incognito Browser Windows

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5b. Recommendations: Incognito Browser Windows

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Open all school LMSs in incognito browser windows. This way, if the school uses single-sign-on features you're not affecting your main window's accounts. The only problem with this is that, while you can have multiple incognito tabs open, you cannot have more than one incognito window session running at a time. This isn't really a problem though because it forces you to focus on one school at a time.

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5c. Recommendations: Home Office Tech Set-Up

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5c. Recommendations: Home Office Tech Set-Up

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Though it's an expense the adjunct will likely bear directly but may be able to write off on taxes as a business expense, a good home office tech set-up is necessary for teaching remotely for multiple institutions. I recommend multiple monitors, a moveable webcam, and a headset with a microphone.

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5d. Recommendations: Don't be afraid to ask for help

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5d. Recommendations: Don't be afraid to ask for help

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Most institutions have some sort of IT department. Some even have support personnel dedicated to teaching technologies like the LMS. Others have teams of course designers. It can be difficult, though, for the remote adjunct to know how to get this support. If the need is not urgent, start with your Chair or Program Director. Most often, that's a full-time employee who knows what support is available at the school and how to go about getting help. Unfortunately, many of us don't know we need the help until we're under the gun. For instance, at the beginning of the semester, I'd set up my Blackboard course with no issues; but on the day of our first synchronous Zoom, the course would not load. In an urgent situation like that, I called the IT department directly. Take time when you get hired to find out if the school has a helpdesk or support line and program it in your phone. Then, hope you never need it.

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5d. Recommendations: Don't be afraid to go old-school

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5d. Recommendations: Don't be afraid to go old-school

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As a final measure of keeping myself straight and staying on top of multiple classes at multiple schools, I print out the course schedules for every class and post them on the bulletin board next to my desk.

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Click for a document version of this Module that can be printed or read by a screen-reader.

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[Accessible] Juggling Teaching Remotely for Multiple Institutions: A Module for Adjuncts