Ellen Uses a Variety of LMS for Teaching Multiple Online Courses

 

Ellen teaches online courses for more than one institution. Her primary responsibility as an instructor is for a community college, where she teaches online courses in health care at the undergraduate level. In her primary instructor position at the community college, her duties are determined by union rules. Her workload includes teaching an average of 17 credit hours per semester. If she teaches a three-credit online course, she gets a 5.8% load attached to the online course. For example, a three-credit course would be the equivalent of 20% load plus the added percentage for online courses. Each course must carry a minimum enrollment of 16 and a maximum of 24 participants. As part of her load, she coordinates fieldwork with 20 learners, which accounts for 5% of her workload. In addition, she is required to participate in service activities. For those, she is a member of three college committees that meet sporadically each year. 

 

Ellen also teaches online courses as an ad hoc instructor for two other institutions. These ad hoc positions focus primarily on teaching. One drawback of teaching at different institutions is you never know if the institutions will use the same learning management system (LMS). In Ellen’s case, each institution uses a different LMS, which becomes a challenge. As a veteran online instructor, she can manage her workload with minimum support strategies; however, she uses design, teaching, and time allocation strategies to function efficiently and effectively as an online instructor.

 

Design	·      Plans ahead to manage workload. ·      Determines all course activities and assignments including when they should be released in the LMS. ·      Spends about 12 hours on each course design, but once the courses are designed, her tasks become a matter of administrative, facilitative, and evaluative functions.
Teaching	·      Uses quizzes, group discussions, and projects. ·      Returns emails within 24 to 48 hours. ·      Teaches from home because she is not interrupted and dedicates long periods of time to different courses.
Time-Allocation	·      Blocks out small chunks of time, early in the morning and during evening hours, except on the days she teaches on campus. ·      Sets up online office hours to avoid a 45-minute trip to campus and other transportation issues such as road construction and parking.

 

One of Ellen’s major challenges when teaching for a variety of institutions is to keep up with the different LMS. She discovered that planning ahead of time for her online courses, prioritizing course activities, and setting up the release dates of course features helped her better manage her workload. This approach is also a time saver because the instructor is relieved from having to be constantly monitoring the different features of the various learning management systems during the delivery of the online courses. For example, when teaching multiple courses, it is difficult to remember the specific units and their activities for each course. By having them pre-set, the instructor’s time is freed up to participate in group discussions, provide learner feedback, and respond to participants’ concerns.

 

Reference

Conceição, S. C. O, Lehman, R. M. (2011). Managing Online Instructor Workload: Strategies for Finding Balance and Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bruno Balances His Workload by Teaching Online During Short Semesters

Bruno is a full professor at a four-year institution teaching courses in the discipline of sociology at the undergraduate level. His three-credit 100-level online courses are offered during the winter break (for three weeks) and summer semester (for six weeks). Course enrollment varies from 25 to 35 participants. He teaches his online courses during these time periods to focus specifically on his teaching and research. During these times, he does not have any service responsibilities and is able to spend set hours for the course and research activities. He uses design, support, teaching, and time-allocation strategies to balance his workload.

Design	The first time he designed his online course, he spent about 40 hours preparing the materials. Once the online course was designed, his time to prepare the course for each offering was considerably reduced.
Support	Seeks one-on-one instructional design support from the teaching and learning center at his institution. Obtains content ideas and course materials from external resources, such as a local center related to the course topics, short videos from YouTube, and the historical society photos.
Teaching	Uses a variety of teaching strategies for his online course that include: PowerPoint lectures, short videos, group discussions, quizzes, papers, interviews, and the learning management system drop box for learner personal feedback. The difference between the two online course offerings is the amount of content employed in the course. For the shorter session, he removes some of the readings.
Time-Allocation	Uses automated grading on quizzes and group grading instead of individual grading. Provides grading online all the time versus intense grading done for face-to-face courses. Spends 20 hours per week for his online course and allocates 10 to 15 hours for his research activities.

 

For instructors whose responsibilities involve teaching, research, and service, teaching online during shorter semesters in contrast to long semesters can be an effective strategy for balancing workload. Service activities such as committee meetings, conference participation, and institutional projects, can be time-consuming and side-track instructors from teaching and research. Online teaching and research activities require focus, discipline, committed blocks of time, and anticipation of course responsibilities. By choosing to teach online during short semesters, instructors can dedicate focused time to their research, collecting fieldwork data from anywhere.

 

Reference

Conceição, S. C. O, Lehman, R. M. (2011). Managing Online Instructor Workload: Strategies for Finding Balance and Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kay Blocks Out Time for Her Online Courses

 

Kay is a Clinical Assistant Professor at a four-year institution on a 12-month contract. She teaches 3 to 4-credit undergraduate courses in the discipline of health care. Her courses are offered during the regular 15- or 16-week semester and during the 12-week summer semester. Her online course enrollment varies from 20 participants during the regular semester to 12 participants during the summer semester. Her responsibilities focus on teaching, administration, and service. Kay’s teaching workload involves 12 units per semester: 7 to 10 credits of teaching, one credit for service, 1 to 3 credits for administration, and 0.5 credit for e-learning for the department. She teaches two online courses during the summer semester. As part of her administrative duties, she coordinates a program within her discipline. Her face-to-face courses are hands-on and interactive. When moving her courses to the online environment, Kay had to rethink her workload by incorporating design, support, teaching, and time allocation strategies.

 

Design	Focuses on how to distribute course activities to balance her workload among all courses in each semester. Spends 10 to 12 hours preparing the online courses before the course starts. Designs throughout the course duration and spends four hours per week designing the course during the semester.
Support	Seeks course innovation by attending conferences and involving learners in sharing resources. Uses one-on-one support from the teaching and learning center at her institution, peer support, and institutional support through the help desk.
Teaching	Uses group discussions, games, and creative activities as her teaching strategies. Develops a detailed syllabus about course expectations. Communicates to learners her guidelines for responding to their emails (within 48 hours) and communicates her level of participation during the course delivery. First checks the discussion forum and emails and then moves on to other aspects of the online course.
Time-Allocation	Is disciplined with her schedule for the online courses. Mondays and Wednesdays, she blocks out time from 9:00 AM to noon for online courses by closing her office door and letting other colleagues know that she is teaching at that time. Reserves time in her calendar for teaching online.  Checks her courses every day as a cross out mental check list for the day. Allows some flexibility in case personal issues arise. When a personal issue occurs, she rearranges her schedule.

 

Kay’s workload focuses primarily on teaching and service. Thus, blocking out time for the online courses is critical for helping her manage her workload. Kay closes her office door during these times to avoid distractions and dedicates exclusive time for her learners. In doing this, she shows colleagues that she is allocating specific time for her online courses during regular work hours. Kay is very disciplined with implementing her closed-door approach and checking her online courses every day as a way to mentally cross off her daily tasks.

 

Reference

Conceição, S. C. O, Lehman, R. M. (2011). Managing Online Instructor Workload: Strategies for Finding Balance and Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Chuck Manages His Time Rather Than Time Managing Him

Chuck, a teaching academic staff at a four-year institution, teaches early childhood online courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His teaching workload varies from semester to semester and his course duration lasts from 10, 12, to 16 weeks. Course enrollment varies from 25 to 28 participants. On a given semester, including summer, he teaches two face-to-face courses and one online course. As part of his workload assignment, he is also the program manager. For Chuck, a Type-A personality, teaching online is a 24/7 commitment. It is difficult for him to disconnect; however, he has developed strategies to manage his time. He uses design, support, teaching, and time-allocation strategies to manage his workload. Below are Chuck’s strategies for balancing her workload.

 

Design	Online courses repeat from year to year, so he spends time during the prior semester to prepare for the subsequent offering.
Support	Uses a course orientation with detailed information about the online course as an introduction to the online environment and creation of a context for learner comfort. Uses the help desk for learner support when technical problems arise.
Teaching	Uses group discussions, audio-narrated PowerPoints, audio announcements, and project presentations to accomplish that.
Time-Allocation	Dedicates 20 hours a week to teaching his online courses. Blocks out time daily to check the online course, usually, he does this in the early morning or evening. Checks on the course a little bit every day, rather than in large chunks of time. Manages learner expectations by telling them through explicit communication when he will respond. Has a flurry of learner activity at the beginning of the week and a slower pace toward the end of the week.

 

Managing his time rather than time managing him can be a challenge for online instructors, mainly for Chuck who enjoys being connected 24/7. But this can be a trap. To resolve this challenge, it is important to identify time allocation strategies that can help instructors better manage their time. Over time, Chuck developed strategies that met his needs and created a course that built community.

 

What can you do to avoid being constantly connected with your course? How can you share course responsibility with your learners? How can you allocate your time more efficiently?

Chuck sets up blocks of time to be connected to his online course, uses the community-building approach to involve course participants in learning from and assisting each other, and has a good sense of the pace of his online course.

 

Reference

 

Conceição, S. C. O, Lehman, R. M. (2011). Managing Online Instructor Workload: Strategies for Finding Balance and Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.