Beatrice Uses Individual Feedback as a Workload Management Strategy

 

Beatrice, an associate professor at a four-year institution, teaches three-credit psychology online courses at the undergraduate level. Her academic load includes teaching two courses per semester (one course is supervision), conducting research (70% of her time), and participating in service activities. She teaches online during the regular semester for 14 weeks and during the summer semester for four weeks. Her course enrollment during the regular semester varies from 40 to 100 and during the summer semester from 20 to 40. Her online courses are content-based, and her activities are based on the course textbook. Her focus for workload management is on quality individual feedback on assignments. For her courses, she uses design, support, teaching, and time allocation strategies to balance her workload based on class enrollment. Below are Beatrice’s strategies for balancing her workload.

 

Design	Organizes the course based on the textbook chapters. Employs the PowerPoint files and quiz bank that come with textbook. Works one to two weeks prior to the beginning of the course to revise her online course.
Support	Receives institutional training to prepare for online teaching. Has a teaching assistant (TA) when course enrollment is high. TA helps her manage online courses by participating in the discussions and providing most of the learner feedback.
Teaching	Uses orientation activities to reduce learners’ questions about the course structure, assignments, and other concerns during the course. When there is a large enrollment, she divides the learners into discussion groups. In the discussion forum, learners have to post a 300 to 400-word message with their results and then post a 200 to 300-word message in response to someone else’s posting. Uses a quiz bank from the textbook. Provides an opportunity for learner feedback comments through a quiz dispute box. Creates instructor presence by rapidly responding to students’ emails and through course announcements and reminders.
Time-Allocation	With high enrollment, she focuses on individual feedback rather than on course design or group discussions. Takes two days to grade assignments (five hours each day per assignment) for a class of 40 learners. Checks the LMS constantly throughout the week, including weekends. Tells learners when she is not available. Uses a Word document template with examples of comments for learner feedback on the individual assignment.

 

By using pre-designed content and selecting a key design aspect of the online course, as Beatrice does with feedback, instructors can better manage their workload when they have a course with high enrollment. Beatrice provides quick responses by email. This can be a challenge for instructors whose learners perceive that they are available 24/7. The solution is to use teaching strategies that create boundaries and communicate these boundaries to the learners. Another teaching strategy in this situation is to draft a response to the learner while it is still fresh in your mind but hold back sending the response right away. This avoids learners’ perception that you will always answer their emails immediately.

 

Reference

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