Whether or not you receive an actual orientation before you start teaching, make it your business to find out the basics you will need to do your job. Some questions to ask the person who hired you or the department secretary:

• Where to get your ID card?
• How do you access Rowan Self-serve Banner for employee (tax forms, time sheets, pay info, etc.) and faculty information (class lists,  grades, schedule, etc.)?
• Acknowledging your contract
• When do I get paid? Adjunct Payroll Calendar
• Will you have an office or individual work space, or will you share an office area with other adjuncts?
• Will you have access to a computer and printer?
• Where is your mailbox located?
• What is your college email address, and how do you access it off-site?
• Where should you meet with students for office hours, if don’t have an office?
• Will you receive keys to the room(s) and/or department? Or does the room and/or building require a you to swipe your ID card and who do you see to have your card activated. (This is especially important if you are teaching evening or weekend classes.)
• Where and how can you make copies? If you have access to the department copy machine, what is the access code and how many copies per month are you allotted?
• When and how should you use the Rowan University Print Center to make copies?
• What teaching technology is available in your classroom(s)?
• What is the procedure for getting other equipment into the classroom?
• How to get a parking permit and best places to try to park.
• Who to call if you are ill or are unable to make class?
• Does your department have a new adjunct orientation?

Information Resources & Technology (IRT) will provide you with links to:

• Activate your network account - enroll in Duo, set Network password, locate your Banner ID
• Check your Rowan email - using Outlook & installing the Outlook app
• Connect Your Personal Devices to the Rowan network 
• Log in to Canvas and getting started with Canvas
• Access free software - Office 365 and other software
• Store files in the Cloud - Using Google Drive with unlimited storage and other storage options
• Develop new skills - training resources
• Protect your personal data
• Contact IRT

Rowan uses Canvas for its learning management system.

It is a tool for communicating and sharing content with students. You can use it to post course materials, PowerPoint presentations, assignments, grades, and links to external websites. You can extend class discussions through the discussion boards or use Zoom or WebEx to meet students when a face-to-face class is not possible. 

• Preparing a Course
• Can you use you use course materials you may have used when teaching the same course in the past?
• Will you be teaching an online course?
• Find out if there is a specific text to assign.
• Ask for syllabi from previous sections taught by full-time faculty.
• Make sure your learning objectives and assignments mirror those as closely as possible.
• Contact the publisher of the textbook for resources, including chapter outlines, lesson plans, PowerPoints, and test banks. Ask the publisher for any media-related items such as news clips or videos that you can use in class. Note: Some publishers need proof of employment or the request must be made through the department.
• Improving Your Lectures - This guide will walk you through how to prepare & improve your lectures

Rowan’s policies and procedures

You will probably include many of these items in your syllabus as well. Some basics you need to know include the following:

• Academic Integrity At Rowan: Your Education, Your Future: Student Information
• Academic Integrity At Rowan: Faculty Information  Note: Need to login with Rowan credentials
• How to report student violations of academic integrity (cheating, plagiarizing, fabrication, and academic misconduct)
• Attendance requirements
• Withdrawing and adding classes
• Grading scales
• Use of mobile electronic devices in class
• Academic calendar
• Syllabus policies
• Rowan Success Network
• Faulty/Staff Emergency Guide: Helping & Referring Students in Difficulty
• Rowan Emergency Preparedness Guide
• Memorandum of Understanding - Adjunct Faculty - from AFT

• You should be observed once a year for the first 3 years and then once every 3 years
• You will be observed by a full-time faculty member.
• Student evaluations 
• Request a copy of the faculty evaluation form that will be used, from your department chair

Students will likely not know whether you’re an adjunct or full-time faculty member (or the difference between the two). Since you are the instructor, it is good to know where basic things are and the services they provide:

• Writing Center
• Tutoring Center
• Academic advisement or personal counseling
• Technical support
• Campus map
• Testing services
• Accomodation testing information for instructors
• Miltary Services
• RU a Lifesafer? - Responding to students in distress 

• Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
• Campbell Library - Faculty Services
• Information Resources & Technology
• Disability Resources
• Consider asking a faculty member who teaches the same course if you can observe a class. Or ask the department chairperson for a recommendation
• Read the Rowan Daily Mail for workshops, training, and other Rowan information
• Check your email for the Faculty Center Announcements on the 1st & 15th of the month
• Online Teaching Basics Courses Part 1 and Part 2

• For future semesters
• Other content areas you can teach
• Teaching preferences (days or evenings, regular or interim semesters)
• Interest in teaching additional classes, if any
• If you have online teaching experience

• Experiential assignments make content come alive
• Arrange a field trip to a certain location or event that ties in with your subject matter. Extra credit is often a good incentive for student participation in out-of-class activities.
• Invite a guest speaker, tell the program coordinator. He/she may way to find a larger space and open it up to other classes.