Context

As part of faculty support efforts in an Adjunct Coordinator role, I was asked to take a closer look at the adjunct experience and identify opportunities to improve connection, communication, and access to resources.

Adjunct faculty were teaching across departments with varying levels of support, with limited visibility into how they experienced onboarding, communication, and professional development.

Approach

I designed and distributed a survey to gather feedback from adjunct faculty, focusing on pedagogy, professional development, technology, and communication.

Responses were analyzed to identify patterns in needs, frustrations, and areas of opportunity. The data revealed a strong interest in more structured support, clearer communication, and opportunities for connection across departments.

Alongside this, I reviewed existing practices and documentation across departments to understand how adjunct faculty were introduced to institutional systems and where expectations were defined or left unclear. This included identifying overlap between HR onboarding and departmental onboarding, and where gaps in communication or ownership were shaping the overall experience.

Design Decisions

Initial concepts included more robust onboarding structures and ongoing engagement models to build community and maintain visibility into adjunct needs over time. I developed a model for an asynchronous onboarding course within the institutional LMS to provide consistent, accessible support for new faculty.

At the same time, this required evaluating what could be realistically supported. While the course could run without live facilitation, it would still require ongoing ownership to manage updates, enrollment, and coordination. Without that role, the model would not be sustainable long-term.

The final direction focused on solutions that could improve the adjunct experience while remaining practical to implement, including targeted faculty development, clearer access to resources, and shorter asynchronous onboarding materials such as video walkthroughs.

Proof of Concept

I designed and facilitated workshops focused on teaching practices, technology use, and trauma-informed approaches to learning. These sessions translated identified needs into actionable strategies, including:

• using LMS tools to increase clarity and consistency

• structuring courses to reduce ambiguity and support student success

• integrating trauma-informed principles such as transparency, peer support, and student voice

The presentation materials emphasized clarity, structure, and usability, modeling the same principles being taught.

Outcome

A set of faculty-informed recommendations supported by survey data, along with workshop materials and development sessions aligned with identified needs.

The work provided a clearer picture of the adjunct experience and established a foundation for more intentional faculty support, while also identifying the level of coordination required for larger-scale initiatives.

Full documentation available upon request.