Welcome to UCF! The Faculty Center provides you with much of the important general information you need as an adjunct. Your individual departments will also have specific information and processes necessary to your work. Contact your Chair or adjunct coordinator to learn other essentials as soon as possible.
Please also download a copy of the Faculty Center's Teaching at UCF reference book. It provides an overview of the faculty support structure at UCF as well as introductory materials related to university teaching. It is a living document and is updated regularly.
The UCF Faculty Center holds training sessions for adjunct faculty once per semester, covering both nuts-and-bolts (rosters, legal matters, syllabi) and more general pedagogy (how to hold effective and interesting lectures, increase student engagement, and build courses that are balanced and aligned between goals, objectives, assignments, and teaching practice). Check out events going on for adjuncts here.
Adjuncts at UCF are hired by individual departments. As with all hiring processes, the Adjunct hiring process requires that several forms be completed and advanced through a system that includes your home department and the Human Resources Department. Your driver's license and Social Security card will be photocopied at your department.
Forms you will need to complete include:
Other forms that must be generated by your department:
Questions about your hiring should be directed to the adjunct coordinator in your department.
As part of your hiring process, you will be assigned several identifiers:
Empl-ID (employee ID): a 7-digit number used by payroll and other internal UCF systems
UCFID: following the single-login initiative, this identifier replaces the previous PID and is identical to the 7-digit Empl-ID
NID (network ID): an identifier used for computer, network, and myUCF portal access
To find out your NID, you can go to https://my.ucf.edu/nid.html. You will be prompted to enter your first name, last name, and on-file e-mail address.
If the system cannot find a record for you, then either your PAF has not been fully processed or it was processed that same day (it takes an overnight process to generate the NID.) You may wish to check with your department to verify all necessary materials have been submitted.
In many departments, a central coordinator orders all the textbooks for everyone; inquire whether this is true in your department. If you are joining UCF with little time before the start of the semester, you will want to check first that the books have been ordered, and physically check that they are available for students for purchase in the bookstore.
If your department requests that you order books yourself, do so online: https://www.facultyenlight.com/?storeNbr=327.
Desk copies are typically arranged through a campus representative from the book publisher. One common method to be put in touch with this person is to ask a colleague or your department chair to email that representative with your name and contact information. If time is critical before the semester, you can arrange to acquire a desk copy of the textbook from the UCF bookstore. Your department chair or department administrative assistant can give you a letter that will enable you to pick up a copy of the text at the bookstore. When the desk copy you have ordered arrives, take it to your administrative assistant who will then deliver it to the bookstore to replace the one you were given.
Your hire letter or contract is also sufficient for you to be issued a Faculty ID card at UCF Card Services. You will need a faculty ID card if you wish to use the Library (note: although adjuncts do not officially get access until contracts are in force, if you come by the library 3-4 weeks before classes start with your signed contract, your library access can be activated so you can prepare for your classes).
Another important reason to obtain a faculty ID card is that you will need a number printed on the card to manually re-set your online passwords.
Some adjuncts are offered a UCF email account, but some are not - check with your department. Most (but not all) departments on campus use Outlook/Exchange email, with the format first.last@ucf.edu. Your department must initiate the creation of an email account for you. After the account is created, you can access email from Outlook, or from http://outloook.com/ucf.edu. Your designated ePAF Originator has been assigned the Outlook Requestor role. This role gives them the ability to request new accounts online. Only employees with Requestor role will have access to the PeopleSoft forms required to submit account requests for employees. If you have any questions about account requests please contact the Service Desk or visit the website http://www.servicedesk.ucf.edu for more information.
The University does not have a set policy for minimum number of office hours to hold, though instructors are required to post their office hours. Some colleges and departments do have individual requirements; check with your department chair for guidance.
This section provides information about:
Your course is part of a program of courses and its content includes program student learning objectives . If you "inherit" a syllabus from a previous instructor, it is doubly important that you understand the course objectives and student learning outcomes, and how all the pieces of the course (readings, activities, assignments, assessments) fit together toward the course objectives. Be sure you discuss these and other course requirements determined by the program faculty with your Chair or adjunct coordinator before developing your syllabus.
The University does not have a required grade distribution/scale, and also does not stipulate whether faculty members must use plus/minus grading or flat grading (check with your department to see if there are program or college requirements). There is no A+ grade possible at UCF.
Grade submission occurs at myUCF under "View My Teaching Schedule." The grade roster will not be visible until the last week of classes. Instructors may choose to input grades individually, upload a spreadsheetor import from Webcourses.
"F" grades require reporting the student's last date of attendance. Incomplete ("I") grades require attendance reporting as well as filling out an Incomplete form. I-grades are to be used in case of end-of-semester emergency only.
Students reported for academic dishonesty in a given class are to receive a "Z" designation next to their letter grade (so transcript grade such as FZ or CZ are possible).
Department chairs provide evaluations of adjunct faculty members every term. They submit this form to the Office of Faculty Relations (click the thumbnail for a larger view):
This section provides information about:
This section provides information about:
There are some worthwhile generic books on how to teach in higher education (McKeachie's Teaching Tips, Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis) available at the UCF Library and the Faculty Center's library, available for checkout. You may also wish to peruse this listing of books that discuss discipline-specific teaching methods.
The Faculty Center's primary mission is to support and promote faculty in their roles as teachers, researchers, scholars, and as members of UCF and the Central Florida community. Essential to such support is the enhancement of faculty success at any career stage and the promotion of collegiality. Our services, resources, and events are available to all university instructors, including full- and part-time faculty and graduate teaching assistants. We seek to promote 1) excellence in teaching and learning, 2) successful research and creative endeavors, 3) professional fulfillment, and 4) partnerships with other academic institutions and the regional, national and international community. In terms of services, the Faculty Center:
We encourage all faculty members to consider the Faculty Center as a haven and safe place at the university, where discussions are held in confidence. We welcome drop-ins, appointments, phone calls, and emails.
Adjuncts are encouraged to come to our monthly workshops on a variety of subjects, ranging from new technologies to enduring issues in classroom instruction. All events with the Faculty Center are free to participants. All adjuncts are also welcome to attend the public sessions of our major events (like Summer Conference and Winter Conference), but stipend-bearing participation is reserved for full-time faculty.
William Safranek
College of Medicine
I do not know if many educators formally construct their teaching philosophy before they walk into a classroom for the first time; I certainly did not when I started as an adjunct instructor at UCF in 1996 or when I became a full-time instructor in 2005. I am certain all educators think strongly about the kind o...
Robert Borgon
College of Medicine
Teaching is a learning experience, and effectively engaging
and inspiring students is a skill that must be continuously developed. An
effective educator must be passionate about their field, as the energy brought
into the classroom can engage, energize, and motivate students. Teachers must
also be willing to l...
Kristin Congdon
College of Arts and Humanities
Because I
teach about art, film, aesthetics, and the humanities (with a focus on visual
art), I feel blessed by having disciplines that make it easy for me to capture
the attention of my audience. Everyone
who can see, and even those who visualize only in their mind’s eye, can become
engaged with ...
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