Adjunct Professors: How Many Hours are You Committing to Fall Class Preparations?

Are you prepping for autumn classes? Do you already have your contract, or are you anticipating teaching this fall based on earlier conversations and/or emails?

 

Pre-term preps. THEN vacation.

I'm heading on vacation with my family the week before classes start, so I will take some time over these next couple weeks of adjunct summer to prep for the two classes I've been asked to teach. I haven't yet received my contracts, nor do I expect them until the week I'm gone. However, I checked the university’s registration page and have confirmed that my classes have each reached the magical minimum enrollment number. Thus, I feel reasonably certain that—unlike past semesters in courses that have been cancelled at the last moment—my class preps will not be in vain.

 

Still, over the years I've learned to limit my losses by prepping no more than ten hours per class before my contract is in hand. It doesn't really matter since I’m paid for exactly zero of my pre-term prep hours. But that's focusing on the negative. The positive is this: I love to teach. And because my enrollments are high so far, it looks like I'll have one more semester to do just that.

 

How about you? How many hours will you/have you put in for class preparations? Average it for one class, and complete the simple poll in the right-hand margin. Then, if you're game, let us know how much you're paid on average per hour of class preps in the second poll. Polls close on Labor Day.