Rhianna is a healthcare
professor and also holds an administrative position at a four-year
research-based institution. She teaches cohort courses at the doctoral level,
both online and face-to-face. Her online course is offered every other year to
meet the cohort requirement. Enrollment ranges from 15 to 33 participants. As a
full professor with an administrative role, Rhianna is also involved in service
activities and does a fair amount of traveling. Her online course for the
cohort-based program is process-based. She uses design, support, teaching, and
time allocation strategies to help balance her workload.
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Design
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- Uses a consistent design
framework for all courses.
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Lays out the content, based
on modules, and breaks information into topic areas.
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Develops PowerPoint files
with voiceovers.
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Creates questions for the
discussion forums.
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Identifies appropriate
assignments that capture the content.
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Determines the course pace.
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Refines the course as she
progresses with her teaching.
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Gives access to the online
course material to students prior to the beginning of the semester.
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Communicates to learners
that the entire online course is available ahead of time.
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Support
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- Has support staff to assist
in uploading materials (PowerPoint files and voiceovers) to the learning
management system.
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Reuses materials from
semester to semester saving her time for other academic responsibilities.
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Teaching
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- With the cohort-based program, student orientation is
provided at the beginning of the program when learners get to know each other.
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Divides learners into
groups of five or six participants. Each participant posts comments
individually and interacts with others and the instructor in the discussion
forum.
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During the discussions, she
avoids answering immediately; rather she reflects on her response and waits
to post it until the next day.
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Uses cooperative strategies
in which learners work in groups, but develop individual research questions,
participate in discussions to learn from each other, and determine how they
will implement their individual study.
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Time-Allocation
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- Allocates a considerable
amount of time for her online course during the initial design phase.
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Blocks out times in her
calendar for her work on the course during the semester.
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Her time commitment becomes
lighter as the cohort group begins to take on more responsibilities.
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When there are more
learners enrolled in her online course, there will be more time intensity on
her part.
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Spends 8-10 hours per week checking
her course daily, sometimes in the evening, but mostly in the morning.
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Adjustd her schedule to
meet her course participants’ needs.
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Teaching online in a cohort
program is a design approach that can be a time saver. Instructors can follow a
standard design established by the program and yet can shape their online
courses based on their personality. Cohort learners tend to get to know each other
as a learning community from the beginning of the program through a general
orientation. This prevents having to create an orientation for each online
course and facilitates relationship and trust-building early on. Because
learners are part of a cohort, the instructor can better predict learner
behavior and anticipate course activities. For online instructors, this means
having a better sense of time allocation.
Reference
Conceição,
S. C. O, Lehman, R. M. (2011). Managing Online Instructor Workload:
Strategies for Finding Balance and Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
