A Question of Online Intructional Priorities Among Administrations, Faculty, Adjunct Faculty, and Students

This study explored priorities for online instructional behavior in post-traditional programs at Private Christian University (PCU). No prior study had been identified that compared the online instructional priorities among four groups: administrators (n = 25), full-time faculty (n = 73), adjunct faculty (n = 69), and students (n = 321). This study would benefit those who oversee online instructional standards or who operate online adjunct faculty development programs. Quantitative research was conducted using a survey instrument to answer the three research questions. First, a Welch’s variant of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a Bonferroni post hoc test was conducted to analyze the differences in expectations for online instructional behavior that existed among the four groups. Second, a t-test for independent means was used to analyze how adjunct faculty members’ perception of administrator priorities aligned with actual administrator priorities. Third, a Pearson product-moment correlation was used to understand the relationship of past experience with online learning and one’s current priorities for online instructional behavior. The statistically significant results indicated that full-time faculty (M = 4.29), not adjuncts (M = 4.55), had the lowest priorities for online instructional behavior, that adjunct faculty members’ perceptions aligned with administrator priorities on 25 of the 29 items, and that past experience does correlate with priorities in all groups except for adjunct faculty. An implication of the study is that specialization in the online delivery modality may have more impact on quality instruction than faculty status as fulltime or adjunct