Stan Plans Ahead to Predict His Workload

 

Stan, an assistant professor at a four-year institution, teaches three-credit adult education online courses at the graduate level. His academic load involves teaching three courses per semester, conducting research, and participating in service activities. He teaches both face-to-face and online courses during the regular 15- or 16-week semester and teaches online courses during the summer. His courses average an enrollment of about 22 non-traditional learners. His experience with non-traditional learners, who work full-time and have family obligations, requires that he design his online courses with a variety of options. That means planning ahead to meet learners’ needs. For his online courses, he uses design, teaching, and time allocation strategies to balance his workload based on his learner population. Below are Stan’s strategies for balancing his workload.

 

Design	Plans his online courses ahead of time. Puts himself in the role of the learner when designing his online courses. Offers an optional face-to-face course orientation. Organizes course based on units. Uses once a week synchronous chats, group discussions, and individual assignments. Chooses not to include teamwork because his non-traditional learners would have a difficult time coordinating team tasks. Has a folder with new ideas and notes taken during the delivery of the course, which serve as guides for when redesigning the course.
Teaching	Stan’s work tapers off as learners become more independent and his role changes from that of an expert to that of a guide. His time commitment to the course is reduced as the online course progresses. Encourages learner interaction by having them critique each other’s work.
Time-Allocation	Blocks out time in the morning to check his course, responds to emails, and participate in the discussion with learners. Announces that he responds to emails within 24 hours, so that course participants know what to expect.

 

Stan understands that online courses just don’t naturally happen. They require pre-planning, organization, and intentional design. Pre-planning helps him manage his workload so that his workload doesn’t manage him during his course delivery. The course organization assists instructors in determining a framework for their content and activities, thus they know what to expect during each course sequence. Intentional design serves as the means for instructors to maximize the efficiency, effectiveness, and appeal of online teaching to meet and anticipate their learners’ needs.

 

Reference

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

Lauri Used Co-Teaching to Balance Her Workload

 

Lauri, an associate professor at a four-year institution, teaches three-credit online linguistics courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her course load is the equivalent of 2.5 courses per semester. Her courses are taught during the regular 15- or 16-week semester with an enrollment of 10 to 25 participants. She co-teaches her online courses with a colleague. In addition to teaching, she also has administrative duties as a coordinator of a certificate program. Lauri dedicates one day a week to her research. To balance her research and service responsibilities, she is not involved with teaching during the summer semester. She uses design, support, teaching, and time-allocation strategies to balance her workload. Below are Lauri’s strategies for balancing her workload.

 

Design	Co-designs with another instructor. Reduces required readings. Provides clear guidelines for discussions. Divides learners into groups.
Support	Obtains technical support through the help desk during preparation stages. Uses orientation activities as part of learner support at the beginning of the course. Shares stories of other learners on their online course experiences in previous courses.
Teaching	Sets specific guidelines for each instructor’s role. Gives rapid response to learners via email.
Time-Allocation	Has a light instructor presence during the week by answering general questions in the discussion area. Has a heavier instructor presence at the end of the week when they wrap up the discussion. Have learners summarize and lead discussions. Sets up blocks of time during the week (3 to 4 days per week). Tells her learners that she is not available on weekends.

 

 

In Lauri’s case, co-teaching seems to have worked as part of her design strategy for the type of online course she teaches. Setting up clear guidelines for co-teaching is essential for an efficient and effective online course delivery. This strategy may not work for everyone, but it is an option. It is important to check the institutions’ policies and procedures regarding co-teaching. Keep in mind that the best strategies are the ones that fit with your teaching and lifestyle.

 

For Lauri, focusing on the course during the week and avoiding weekend teaching, worked well for her to distinguish between her work and personal life. Balancing between light and heavy instructor presence during the week was an efficient way to manage the teaching workload. Selecting one day a week to work on her research prevented distractions from other responsibilities and kept her organized with her research responsibilities. Leaving the summer semester for service and research helped her balance other academic responsibilities.

 

Reference

 

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

Instructors’ Stories about Balancing Workload

 

For the next few weeks, we will share instructors’ stories about balancing their workload when teaching online based on the approaches they used. These stories are the result of 14 interviews with online instructors in higher education. More detailed instructors’ stories can be found in our book, Managing Online Instructor Workload: Strategies for Finding Balance and Success, published in 2011.

 

The 14 stories we selected represent a variety of disciplines (education, health care, linguistics, sociology, science, and early childhood), positions held (tenure-track instructor, teaching academic staff, learning designers, consultants, etc.), course duration (semester, 3-6 weeks, etc.), level of instruction (graduate or undergraduate), and instructor experience. We use pseudonyms to identify the instructors in our stories and maintain confidentiality. The aim is to focus on the strategies that most concern instructors who teach online. In some cases, these strategies overlap. It is our hope that you will be able to identify with some of these stories, learn from them, and apply them to your own practice.  

 

Stay tuned!

 

References

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

Using the Template for Managing Tasks and Prioritizing Time

 

As we noted in our previous postings, our “Being There for the Online Learner Model” and “Framework for Creating Presence” (Lehman & Conceição, 2010) were developed to help you understand that presence, which is “perceptual” in nature, is an important part of designing and delivering an online course. With this in mind, you are better able to bring the human aspect into your online course, make it a personal experience, and more effectively engage your students.

This week, we’re introducing our “Template for Managing Tasks and Prioritizing Time,” found in our book, Managing Online Instructor Workload: Strategies for Finding Balance and Success (Conceição & Lehman, 2011). This template helps you look at any type of course from a broad perspective and better manage your tasks and time.

• For new courses, the template can help you estimate the tasks you may do and the time you may spend during the design and delivery of the course. 
• For converting courses, the template can assist you in rethinking how you can teach your course in the new environment.
• For existing online courses, the template can help you revisit your tasks and your time spent to become more efficient and effective when teaching the same course again. 

 

Template for Managing Tasks and Prioritizing Time

 

Course Sequence	Type of Task	Week #	Time Spent
Before the course	Design
During and end of course	Administrative
	Facilitative
	Evaluative

 

Download the Template for Managing Tasks and Prioritizing Time.

 

In addition to the template, our book provides examples of how this template can be used in each of the three instances. It also suggests strategies that instructors can use to maintain their quality of life. Teaching online can be overwhelming if you let it control you. Managing workload and prioritizing time help put you “in control.”

 

References

Lehman, R. M. & Conceição, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

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

Looking at Online Instructor Workload from Course Task Categories

 

It’s helpful to divide the tasks into categories. Though not all-inclusive, we’ve identified four task categories: design, administrative, facilitative, and evaluative.

 

Design Tasks

Design Tasks occur mainly before the course begins and are determined by the type of course that is being taught - a new course, a converted course, or a revised course. These tasks also indicate your role or roles and clarify your workload, which depends on the type and focus of the content, the course format, interactive strategies, technology use, and the support provided.

Administrative Tasks

Administrative Tasks involve those non-content course areas of communication, management, and support. Workload in this category is determined by the number of students enrolled, their experience, and the technology used. Administrative tasks start before the course begins with the orientation activities for learners. During the course, these tasks involve continuing communication (for example, twitter), managing assignments, and providing technical support.

Facilitative Tasks

Facilitative Tasks require instructor and learner engagement. Here, workload is determined by the depth of engagement during the delivery of course. To help manage workload in this category, you can limit the number of learner posts, set strict discussion guidelines, use group work to share class leadership with learners, and avoid group work when there is high enrollment or when learners have time constraints. You might also choose to hold synchronous chats when course content requires demonstration, language skills, or participation with guest speakers.

 

Evaluative Tasks

Evaluative Tasks include individual and group/team assessment and involve formative feedback on learner experience. To manage evaluation, first determine appropriate approaches, then consider enrollment, course strategies, the technology used, and the time of evaluation. You might also want to use a grading grid and create a file with feedback comments to help save. Other options are group rather than individual grading, peer grading, prompt feedback to save time, and assigning virtual team projects.

Once a starting point for course design has been determined, you should select a framework for designing the course. A suggested framework is our "Framework for Designing Online Courses with a Sense of Presence."

 

References

 

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

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching: How to “be there” for distance learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.