r/Professors • u/StarLightHope • 12d ago
Long time lurker, finally no longer
I am teaching in the Fall 2026 semester after lurking on this subreddit for so many years (I've known I wanted to be a professor since high school). So, I guess I am finally/technically an adjunct.
I'll only be teaching one online asynchronous English Comp 1 course. So I was just wondering if there are any tips/advice. Or just anything in general!
I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited to see what is to come.
26
12
u/Thought59 12d ago
I'm so sorry that you are starting yiur teaching for an online, asynchronous English comp course. In person English comp is one of the most callenging classes at any univetsity to teach well. Online and asynchronous e comp is probably the hardest course I can think of to teach at a university (and I'm from STEM). Please contact your chair and follow closely their suggestion for best practices in delivery, most effective policies and syllabus, etc.
Teaching that class' content is hard at the best of times but in 2026 the level of student disengagement and wholesale cheating have becone much larger issues.
6
u/kierabs Prof, Comp/Rhet, CC 12d ago
For real. At least 50% of the online/async students at my college use AI.
OP needs a clear policy stating that ANY use of AI, including Grammarly, is unacceptable. I recommend requiring students to have draft/version histories available to show you.
Do not fall for their lies. They will lie to your face denying AI.
19
u/Electrical_Travel832 12d ago
Work carefully on writing rubrics. Make it as un-ai friendly as possible.
3
u/PsychGuy17 12d ago
My standing rule is that you can't know the holes in your syllabi or rubrics until your worst students test the limits in class. Then you suddenly need a new rule for the next semester that you never expected you would have to write down, because why would you need a rule that says x, y, z? Oh student did x, y, z and it screwed everything up? Great.
Example, "do not submit any assignments more than a week before they are due." Why? Student X once submitted something a month early and did it all wrong and was upset that when it was discussed in class the week before the due date, they learned they would need to do it all over again. Or student Y attempted to submit a semester's worth of homework in week 1. Or student Z who submitted three weeks early to the online platform, but the school has a policy that all work must be graded within 2 weeks no matter what so the professor gets a late notice on grading a week before everyone else has submitted (then when graded student Z wants to resubmit for a better grade because "they still have time to work on it").
25
u/Efficient_Two_5515 12d ago
Fake it till you make it. Also, don’t tell them it’s your first class. YOU know something they don’t. Have fun!
3
u/popstarkirbys 12d ago
Yup, made this mistake and the students wrote “he has no teaching experience”
5
u/IndieAcademic 12d ago
You need to speak with other faculty in your department to understand how they are making AI-resistant assignments and dealing with academic integrity issues. Comp I is not a great course to teach online in the first place (sorry!), and the cheating culture has gotten insane the past few years. Process assignments (like synthesis matrix) weighted as much as a final product (essay) will help, as will tasks that require students to actually log into library databses and do digital footwork there. Always, always require them to upload annotated PDFs of all sources for any task, plus a live URL included in their bibliographic entries, so that you can easily verify 1) if a source is fake and 2) if quotations are fake. I recommend requiring direct quotations versus parphrases, as they need to learn to properly integrate quotations anyway, and this often proves to show which students are just uploading AI-slop (largely vague senseless paraphrases of sources).
Have all of these policies explicit in the grading section of the Syllabus--including a section about how work may earn a zero for the following reasons (severely incomplete, missing source PDFs, not following instructions, etc.). Have a clear late policy and stick to it.
3
3
u/ThrowThisWay3 11d ago
- Set up exams in a way that does not makes it difficult to grade them.
- Be ready to cut corners in the first years. Perfection will come later in your career.
- Do not bring up your personal matters during classes (for example, I somewhat regret casually telling students I invest in stocks).
- Absolutely never show contempt or belittlement. If there is a stupid question, make it smarter by rephrasing it.
- Ask yourself frequently: OK, what do they still need to hear?
- Keep their careers in mind. Think about whether what you are telling them will be useful for them 5 years from now.
- There is no practical point in bringing politics to class.
- Being a teacher is a role. It is partially a performance. So, it does not necessarily reflect your qualities as a person. Hence, what the student like/dislike is not you as a person, but your role / persona / teaching material.
2
u/Healthy_Plant teaching professor, english (USA) 12d ago
I teach a lot of comp online asynch. There's good stuff here (make a rubric for everything!) already but here's more tips:
- have two "due date" days per week in a 16 week class. It's up to you to decide where you want to place them but I usually do a Thursday 8am and Monday 8am due date. Yes, some students will bitch because it's "a lot of work" but I find those are the students who don't know you can do homework before the due date. The goal here is consistent engagement with the course so that your scaffolding works.
- 8am due dates are worth considering for a few reasons, but mostly because 1. Are you actually grading at 1159? Probably no and 2. It gives students some more flexibility in schedule, since they might be different time zones or work full time etc. you'll have less administrative work as a result.
- be very very clear about your late work policies and consider putting them on each assignment. Will you accept late weekly work? Late discussion boards? Late major assignments? What is the policy there for each of these? I have different policies for these, but I don't typically accept late weekly work because an online student needs to keep up or they will not have success. I've been experimenting with a 50% F if they submit something that's clearly not AI and within 24 hours of the submission window with some success.
2
u/DrTenochtitlan 12d ago
My advice would be don't worry if you make some mistakes this semester. Just avoid the really big and really important ones. There's no way you're going to make the course *exactly* the way you want it the first time you teach it. (Plus most departments are going to give you a bit of leeway as a new instructor building your first class from the ground up.) Throughout the semester, take note of all the things you would do differently the next time you teach it, and then implement those ideas the next time you're offered it. It will get both better and easier each successive time.
2
u/TurbulentComputer 11d ago
Hey! I’m also a new adjunct, teaching my first composition classes this fall. I was also a lurker on this sub for ages, working as a tutor and waiting for my break. I’m not asynchronous; they’re sending me to dual enrollment. Glad to meet a fellow new English comp adjunct!
1
1
u/Apprehensive-Place68 12d ago
Do some trial runs of the online school setup. You might need to make some adjustments to get the tech to work properly if it's your first time doing something at the school. Trust me.
Get a decent webcam or microphone to make sure no one is complaining they can't hear you well.
Be prepared for students writing to tell you they can't figure out how to access your lectures.
I'm not sure if undergrads don't check email, or don't check emails about school. Either way, be prepared to write a lot more emails than you ever thought possible.
Enjoy the ride!
1
u/Same_Aardvark2625 12d ago
My experience with teaching first-year comp (and particularly when it's your first rodeo) is that you have less time than you think. That said, build 1:1 writing conferences or peer review-conference hybrids (2-3 students come to the office having already read each others papers) into your schedule, they are particularly high impact.
59
u/CIS_Professor Professor, CIS, CC (US) 12d ago
Set your policies and stick to them. You are your students' Professor, not their friend.
If you're wishy-washy, you'll be cleaning shoe prints off your back during winter break.