Time Saving Tips for Online Teachers

Time Saving Tips to Make Online Teaching easier

As you continue to teach online you develop time saving tips. It does get easier. I average between seven and ten hours a week per class in teaching, but I have been doing this a long time – since 1997. Developing a course takes much longer. You cannot simply dump your face-to-face class into an online course site and expect success. 

I do think you need to set some boundaries. You can burn out if you try to be available all the time.  It is a happy medium. If you don’t log into the class every day your students will wonder where you are and you may be presented with a lot of work to do all at once. However, if you answer every student’s post immediately you will become exhausted.

Remember when you consider your time that in online teaching you can teach “anywhere.” You do not have to be at home. If you do consulting or traveling then you can either take your laptops with you or find a cyber café.  Last week I was away from home, and the place I was staying had WiFi. I brought my iPad2 and I was able to function but it was frustrating at time because I am used to my PC. 

It does get easier each time you teach an online course. In the beginning the first time you teach online can be overwhelming, but be assured it will get better as you become more proficient. The design of the online course makes all the difference, and you will find that if you, yourself, design the course, then you will spend a lot of time planning the class structure. 

In many schools teachers are compensated on a per-student basis. This means the more students they teach the more money they make.  Unfortunately, this sometimes encourages teachers to take more than they can handle.  Also sometimes administrators see online classes as a way to add more students. I believe online classes should be capped at 20.

Specific tips on time saving:

If you are not available by phone after a certain time at night let the students know this. You may want to encourage students new to the technology, especially if they are in the class with experienced technology users, that it will be easier as they go along. You may need a phone conference with a few.  Be at your computer and encourage them to be at their computer also.

Make friends with the IT support people. 

 

Set limits on your time. As in life there is a “happy medium.”  If you try to respond to every post within 6 hours you will exhaust yourself. However, if you only log on once or twice a week then you will have a lot to read and respond to and students may wonder if you are reading their messages.  

Set up a comfortable place to do your computer work. Be comfortable. That’s the big advantage. Remember you do not have to dress up, drive your car, find a parking place, and walk to the office. Enjoy that freedom. 

Make up a printable list of all class assignments with due dates and tell your students where it is. Print it yourself so you can keep track of it.

You will occasionally find a student who “over posts,” replying to every posting. Many times the other students in the class will handle this. An e-mail from you also helps. I would never make a comment to the student in the discussion board itself. 

I do find it helpful, especially for undergrad students, to have specific days assignments are due. In my case, it is Tuesday and Friday. I remind the students: “Every Tuesday and Friday you know you have an assignment. If you wake up and it’s Tuesday or Friday then you know there is an assignment due.” In graduate courses I have assignments due at the end of the week, but I do require original posts earlier than replies. 

 A good question: “What happens if we get sick or something happens in our life that means we will be away for a while?” There may be times when we can’t log on. Maybe we had a horrible thing happen in our lives: sickness, death of one close to us, an emergency at work. I think if we can manage to let the students know they will understand. I have left with my husband a list of contact people in case anything happens to me. 

Use copy and paste and other functions of your Word Processor when appropriate. I know an English teacher was tired of seeing the same errors over and over again in student work so she took the time to make up Word macros for common errors like comma slice. She would then just have to press, for example, ALT-C and the information on common slice would appear. You can also use the Track Changes feature to make corrections in a different color inside student assignments. 

Let the students know IN THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS that this is NOT an independent study course, and that they will have deadlines to meet. If you expect discussion then let them know that also. I do give a short quiz on the Syllabus, worth a few points. If students expect “fun and games” then I want them to drop the course during the drop/add period.  I allow students to retake the quiz until they get the questions correct because I want them to know the requirements. 

Remember it DOES get easier as you continue to teach IF you make improvements and seek student input!