Experiencing the Shift - How Postsecondary Contract and Continuing Faculty Moved to Online Course Delivery

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr

The shift to online learning in March 2020 created intense, time-sensitive demands for postsecondary faculty and sessional instructors. Courses required rapid adaptation to online delivery, including new technology integration and redesigned teaching strategies and assessments. The study investigates how contract faculty and continuing full-time faculty experienced this transition while teaching the same online courses, highlighting additional workload, challenges balancing responsibilities, and concerns about building student relationships online.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Context

Literature Review

Experiencing the Shift: How Postsecondary Contract and Continuing Faculty Moved to Online Course Delivery A journal of educational research and practice 2021 Vol. 30 (2) 63-78 [https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked](https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked) Patricia Danyluk * and Amy Burns** University of Calgary Abstract The shift to online learning that occurred in March of 2020 created an unprecedented period of intense work for faculty and sessional instructors at the postsecondary level. This shift necessitated courses be adapted under short timelines, new technology be integrated into course design, and teaching strategies and assessment methods be adapted for an online environment (Van Nuland et al. , 2020) . This study examines how sessional instructors, referred to in this article as contract faculty, and continuing full-time faculty members delivering the same online courses experienced this shift. While the demands of a continuing faculty position call for balancing of teaching, research, and service responsibilities, contract instructors have their own unique stressors (Karram Stephenson et al. , 2020) . Contract faculty lack job security, are paid by the course, and often receive their teaching assignments with short notice. By examining their perspectives on delivering the same courses online, we learn that the shift to online teaching resulted in additional work in order to adapt courses to the online environment, with faculty describing the challenges of balancing the additional work with other responsibilities of their position. Concerns of participants focused on a perceived inability to develop relationships with students in an online environment. Keywords: continuing faculty, contract faculty, shift to online, pandemic, teaching online * patricia.danyluk@ucalgary.ca ** amburns@ucalgary.ca Context The research reported here was conducted in a university in Western Canada within four undergraduate courses, each originally designed to be conducted face-to-face. Each course was redesigned for the online environment when the need arose due to COVID-19 and, as each consisted of multiple sections taught by a combination of contract faculty and continuing faculty, this redesign was done collaboratively by each instructor group. Table 1 outlines the makeup of each course. Table 1 Breakdown of Courses Surveyed | Course no. | Duration | Size | Faculty involvement | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Year 1 􀀐 Fall 10 weeks | 13 sections
520 students | 􀀐 4 contract faculty teaching 5 sections
􀀐 5 continuing faculty teaching 8 sections | | 2 | Year 1 􀀐 Fall 10 weeks | 14 sections
560 students | 􀀐 2 contract faculty teaching 2 sections
􀀐 9 continuing faculty teaching 12 sections | | 3 | Year 2 􀀐 Fall 8 weeks | 14 sections
560 students | 􀀐 8 contract faculty teaching 8 sections
􀀐 6 continuing faculty teaching 6 sections | | 4 | Year 2 􀀐 Fall 8 weeks | 19 sections
760 students | 􀀐 6 contract faculty teaching 9 sections
􀀐 8 continuing faculty teaching 10 sections | Note. Each section of the courses taught by continuing and contract faculty had an average of 40 students per course. The courses are standard 39-hour, half-credit courses and are a mandatory part of the degree. The Faculty in which these courses were taught is one with a relatively long history of online course offerings, meaning that some but not all course instructors would have experience with online education. This experience would be more likely if those teaching also were involved with the delivery of courses at the graduate level, as online delivery was less common at the undergraduate level in which these courses were offered. When the shift to online learning first occurred in March 2020, all faculty members were supported through a series of online workshops designed to enhance online teaching within the Faculty. These weekly workshops included information and hands-on practice with issues such

FAQs

What prompted the postsecondary shift to online course delivery?

The transition occurred in March 2020 due to COVID-19, requiring courses originally designed for face-to-face delivery to be adapted to online environments on short timelines.

How did contract faculty differ from continuing faculty in their online teaching experience?

Contract faculty reported additional stressors such as lack of job security, course-based pay, and short-notice assignments, while continuing faculty had broader responsibilities to balance teaching, research, and service.

What were the main challenges faculty reported about teaching online?

Faculty described increased workload to adapt courses for online delivery and difficulty balancing that added work with other role responsibilities, alongside perceived challenges in developing relationships with students online.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr