Anyone considering teaching part time online, make sure you know what you are responsible for when you accept a class. The pay is $1,500 a class which is less than what I make per credit hour at a community college. I know, you can work from home, but when classes have new students or 20-24 students it takes 15 hours or more for a class each week. The classes are 5 1/2 weeks long compared to 16 weeks, but I still spend 2 times the amount of time in a class online than at the college. I do have to shower, get dressed and commute to the CC, but still only spend 9-10 hours weekly including commute and just 2 days a week on campus. If they had more classes for me I would gladly take them. At AiO you are required to check classes 5 days a week and grade assignments within 48 hours. Plan on giving up part of a Saturday or a Sunday every week, or do what I do and check classes daily, being in the class every day makes it easier to catch projects that were turned in late.
We were just told that the AiO dean is requiring us to call every student who is late or has 72% or lower grade and they gave us each access to an app we can use to make VoIP calls instead of using a personal number, that is a very nice perk. We have always had to call students, we did have to call every one of them week 1 for a while, but they changed that rule. I have had to use my personal number for calling students and always worried about it. A lot of students turn in assignments 1-2 days late and if you grade the way you were graded in college, few would have over a C-. Calling students is just a part of the job.
All faculty have to have 12 hours of continuing education annually, that may be easy for some, but not always easy to get to it with work, family and teaching. AiO offers some classes, but they were not relevant to what I teach. I found a few online continuing education classes, they were not cheap and there is no reimbursement for adjuncts.
You are also responsible for your own laptop and software. I didn’t know about the software when they gave me the first class, thankfully the CC had the software and told me I could use it, but it didn't work with the examples in the class, I had to find an older version of the software, the AiO class was not using the latest update. Be prepared to teach students software, not just the one for the class but Word, Excel, and anything else you might use day to day, even how to use the online classroom and Internet Explorer. Some students try and use an iPad, they are the most difficult to help. I was told all students take a class on how to work online, but I am not sure what is in that class. About a year ago I heard classes were being rewritten and updated, but none of the freshman or sophomore classes I teach have been updated.
It is not a bad job if you have the time and extra money up front to get started. It’s not for everyone, you have to be patient and willing to relax your standards so a majority of students can pass a class. AiO students probably are not competing with other college graduates, they just need enough knowledge and a started portfolio to get an entry level job.