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!
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