It takes TIME to Teach an Online class and do it Right.

Teachers who teach online because it is easy to read/test and not participate in the class are doing a disservice to the students and to the material. If you do it correctly it takes time to teach online classes. 

 

My time:

I try to log into the class at least twice a day every day. That isn't necessary but it works for me. I hate to get behind. My classes all have discussions, and I believe that is important for online classes. Students do learn from each other.

It  is important to grade on time and to help me I make notes during week so I don’t have to go back at the end and look at the posts. When I started teaching online these notes were in pencil and paper but now I use a Word table and I copy my notes for each student into the grade book. Luckily most Learning Management System have logs and they are very, very, useful because you can tell how many discussion posts a student looked at, how many they posted to, and how many they responded to.  Be sure to find and use the logs if your class has a discussion.

At the suggestion of many online teachers, I started using Dragon’s voice to text software http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm  to do the weekly summaries. It does take a little training of the software but I find it to be quite accurate and also a big time saver. Usually they have special deals for faculty.  However, as much as I liked it I found it slowed down my computer and I removed it. Now that I have my new computer I will probably install it again. 

I do agree that family time IS very important, and I do take time each day to be with my family. I realize my situation is unusual in that I am no longer working full time. When I first “retired” I got “greedy” and taught for four institutions. I have now cut down to two. I find if I do more than two online classes at a time I cannot live the way I want to. 

Students:

As for students, I don’t insist that they log onto the class more than two times a week, I always do have two due dates during the week and I have found that I also need to separate the date for the first discussion posting from the date of the reply. It is important to have consistent dates – in the undergraduate class I taught I had something (an assignment, a quiz or a discussion) due every Tuesday and Friday. I told the class: “If you wake up in the morning and it is Tuesday or Friday you know something will be due for this class.” In my graduate classes I make the dates Wednesday/Sunday. Because graduate classes are almost all discussions I’ve moved the reply date back to Sunday at 3 PM instead of Sunday midnight because I have found any post that is entered Sunday midnight will not be looked at and will not be responded to.

Technology:

I like to do a discussion summary each week.   Some mentors do this as a video.  Since all videos require text equivalents I'm not sure this saves time. I have thought about an audio summary. Of course that would require a text equivalent too. In class I recently taught one student had self identified as Deaf, and I suspect, from the subject taught, that another student in the class may have been also. 

Students can also be assigned to do the weekly summary also, which is a good idea. This could rotate from week to week. 

Faculty creation of the summaries are time consuming the first time the class is taught, however, I keep these from semester to semester. Each term the summary will have differences but there usually are many things that will be common. The initial saving of the summary of discussions help me remember things that were mentioned in previous classes and also allow me to add things that were mentioned in the current class. 

I have a folder on my computer for each class. Often I am asked for references and I like to go back and check the class folder for my notes. I am always surprised that more people don’t use folders. I have a folder for each institution, and inside that I have a folder for each class. I feel that stops my having to search for the file. I have a PC and can use the Search button in the Start menu if a file is misplaced. I have learned from bitter experience that I need to make sure I look at where I save the file before I press enter. 

1.     I also have mastered copy and paste and simple html - and I hot keys. For example, bold, B,

2.     Undo Z,  (I use this one a LOT!)

3.     Copy C

4.     Paste V

5.     Cut X,

6.     Select all A

7.     Underline U

8.     Undo Z I use this one a lot also!

There are about 10 of them that I use frequently.  If you do not use a PC the control keys may be slightly different but they should be there.

  For papers you can use the "Track Changes" feature in Word for feedback. I change the color of my changes from red to green ink for my comments. 

Reference:

Van de Vord, R. & Pogue, K.  (2012).  Teaching time investment:  Does online really take more time than face-to-face?  International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 13(3), 132-146. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1190/2212

This is very interesting because they found the answer is it doesn't take more time to teach online. 

Finally, remember you don't have to get dressed, get in your car or take a train or bus, find a parking place or walk to your destination, go to your office, etc. I think that teacher of hybrid courses have the most consuming job because they have to travel AND work online.