Employment Status, Teaching Load, and Student Performance in Online Community College Courses Witt Salley Clemson University witt@clemson.edu Melanie Shaw Clemson University meshaw@clemson.edu Abstract A continued need exists for community college administrators to develop and implement strategies to ensure sufficient staffing to meet demand for online courses and promote student success. The problem this study addressed was threefold. First, online instructors in the local setting are overextended and are consequently unable to implement best practices. Because overextended online instructors cannot offer the presence and feedback needed to promote success, online student performance as measured by final course grades suffers. Another problem was that the current institutional system encourages overload teaching assignments. Finally, increased teaching loads can have negative ramifications on online instructor attentiveness, student performance, and academic rigor. The purpose of this descriptive quantitative study was to collect relevant data to examine the relationships among (a) online instructor employment status, (b) online instructor teaching load, and (c) online student performance at a community college. The study used both comparative and correlational research designs to address the research questions using ex post facto data. No statistically significant correlations were found between student success and employment status. However, a negative correlation was discovered between course overload and student success as measured by final course grades and completion rates. Recommendations for future research include an examinaton of senority and tenure status of faculty and a wider geographic and institutional type study to ensure generalizability of the results. Introduction Much attention in recent disciplinary literature is devoted to the continuous increases in online enrollment as well as the workforce implications, such as faculty status and workload, for resourcing this growth (Adamowicz, 2007; Allen & Seaman, 2010; Baldwin & Wawrzynski, 2011; Beford, 2009; Puzziferro & Shelton, 2009; Sixl-Daniell, Williams, Wong, 2006; Strauss, 2009; Tipple, 2010; Wilson, 2010). Many factors contribute to student success in any instructional medium. A major contributor to student performance in online courses is the involvement and immediacy of the instructor (Baker, 2010). The increased student demand for online courses has led higher education administrators to rely on adjunct faculty more than ever before (Bedford, 2009). Palloff and Pratt (2007) drew a direct correlation between the amount of time an instructor can spend per student and the presence of effective pedagogical elements, such as instructor immediacy and involvement, in online courses. This correlation, coupled with the effect Adamowicz (2007) and Jacoby (2006) argued that adjunct status has upon instructional quality and student performance, leads to legitimate questions about the relationship among these elements in other educational contexts.