The Impact of Industry Expert Adjuncts on Students' Course Experiences

Abstract

As a reality of modern higher education, the use of adjunct instructors to teach courses is a common practice, often viewed through institutional constraints. This paper uses a different lens to examine the experiences of students in courses taught by adjunct instructors who are primarily employed in industry. It explores the affordances these instructors bring into the classroom including timely knowledge and skills from outside the academic institution. This work is a methodological pilot in a longer design-based project studying industry expert adjuncts as college teachers by analyzing their impact through students' perceptions of their experiences.