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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
