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Teachers everywhere value time. There never seems to be enough for
educational activities. Three areas per course that require teachers’ time
and attention are course preparation, course development/curriculum
development, and in-class time spent on synchronous or asynchronous
activities.
Course Prep Time
Online teachers need time to prepare for each course, even if the Web site
already provides the information that learners need to be able to complete
each module or lesson. Starting bulletin board folders or threads, posting
messages, sending group e-mail, finding and presenting supplementary
information, and developing questions or information for chat sessions are
some class prep activities that most online teachers face at least weekly.
The type of course and the online structure for the course help determine
how much course preparation is needed.
Of course, all teachers need prep time, whether they work online or on
campus. On-site courses often use computer technology to deliver course
content and provide learners with work-related experiences, especially in
Web-based or Web-enhanced on-site courses.
However, many on-site courses also rely on more traditional delivery
methods, such as teacher lectures and printed textbooks. Learners may rely
on hands-on experiences in a lab or workshop setting to gather important
information and skills needed to succeed in the course. Teachers and course
designers who are developing purely online courses (or Web-based on-site
courses that in effect are online courses overseen by a teacher meeting
students face to face) may need more development time to create materials
that are technically effective and operational, as well as pedagogically
sound.
On-site teachers, of course, also need time to develop and reproduce
effective course materials. However, those teachers who use photocopiers
or the university’s print shop to produce paper copies, transparencies, and
slides, for example, may not need the same lead time for producing (not
creating) new assignments or course content.
Course Development/Curriculum Development Time
Online classes require technical development and startup time, as well as
content development. Teachers who are developing multimedia materials
for on-site classes (e.g., videos, PowerPoint presentations, slide shows) or
setting up in-class events (e.g., videoconferences) also need more development
time. They may create materials on their own, but they also may
work with IT specialists or new media experts as they collaboratively develop
computer- or Web-enhanced materials. These activities must be integrated
into the course framework.
Although computer- or Web-enhanced classes may rely on technology for
specific learning modules, the teacher is usually present to oversee the use
of the modules or to explain what to do to use the technology correctly.
Unlike online courses in which the user interface must be clear and selfevident,
on-site, teacher-led courses may require the use of technology,
but learners have other means to gather information and get answers to
their questions.
Curriculum changes also require ongoing commitments of time and energy.
Teachers must be aware of institutional policies that affect courses within
the curriculum, as well as the need to modify the current curriculum. As
changes need to be made from outside the course, such as directives by
upper-level administrators to add a new course, teachers must be involved
in the curriculum-change process.
However, teachers also modify the curriculum or individual courses within
it to reflect changes in subject matter and technology. The need for ongoing
curriculum evaluation and modification requires ongoing allocations of
time dedicated to the evaluation, modification, and creation processes.
Rahman (2001) described the need for new criteria to be used when online
courses and programs are evaluated. Online education can be innovative,
and therefore new criteria should be established to analyze and evaluate
its innovations within a discipline and education. Perhaps the criteria for
allotting course preparation, curriculum development, and lead time
should not be based on the type of class, or even whether it is offered on
site or online, but on the variety of media and the required technical
expertise needed to develop the course materials.
Educators first must identify the unique
characteristics of online courses and programs. Academic communities
then need to be made aware of these characteristics and become convinced
that online education does a good job of delivering high-quality instruction.
If all faculty and administrators understand the place that effective
online education has in the institution, strategic planning for new courses
or an online curriculum may be easier.
Administrators who think that once an online course is developed it is set
forever—or at least for several years—are sadly mistaken. Just as on-site
teachers routinely update their materials and provide new copies of
documents or assign new readings based on recent periodicals or textbooks,
so must online teachers (and those working with Web-enhanced courses)
be able to update their course materials in multimedia formats to keep the
course site and materials relevant.
Administrators also need to recognize that teachers working in on-site
classes with non computerized resources may be able to work on their own,
with little technical collaboration with staff members. Online teachers, on
the other hand, may be required to work with course designers, IT staff,
and administrators who are developing a unified appearance and structure,
and common technology, for all online courses.
Teachers who develop Web-enhanced learning materials may fall between
these endpoints on the curriculum-development continuum. Course
development and delivery require a great investment of time and energy,
and the ongoing evaluation and modification processes therefore require
additional, ongoing investments of time.
Perhaps administrators should consider the types of materials and the
medium/media required for presenting course information when they
determine how much lead time—and the compensation and assistance
required for this work—is needed to create a high-quality course. The
designation of online or on site may have little meaning when determining
an appropriate amount of lead time and course preparation before teachers
are ready to deliver instruction.
In-Class Time
As noted in my informal survey of faculty colleagues, in-class work through
e-mail, chat or whiteboard sessions, as well as grading and feedback,
involves a great deal of time each week. A National Education Association
(NEA) (2000) survey of faculty at universities and colleges found that two thirds
of faculty members think it is highly likely that faculty members who
teach in distance learning programs will have more students and will work
more hours for the same pay.
The issues of teaching more students per class and doing more work for the
same amount of money are primary concerns for faculty. Theoretically,
because an online classroom does not have physical space or time
limitations, and learners can work with an established course structure
through the Web, any number of learners can be enrolled in a class. In
practice, class sizes need to be limited because collaborative activities and
teacher-learner discussions need to be kept small enough to be manageable
and to allow the teacher/facilitator to participate with collaborating groups
of learners.
As class sizes grow, more in-class time is needed for chat sessions and other
synchronous activities. The numbers in a chat group, for example, should
be kept small so that everyone can participate effectively and the teacher
can easily facilitate the session. Increased numbers of learners also means
increased numbers of e-mail messages to be sent to individuals. Although
group messages and bulletin board posts can provide information to many
learners at the same time, feedback about assignments, responses to
individuals’ e-mail, and help provided to learners requiring additional
assistance take up much more time with a larger number of learners per
class.
A criticism of online education is that learners do not receive the personal
touch from teachers; they only learn on their own, with minimal guidance.
The quality of instruction, because there is little or no face-to-face
communication, is necessarily poor. Teachers also are perceived as
“cheated” in the learning situation because they cannot see the spark of
understanding and learning in students’ eyes as they make important
connections among ideas.
In well-designed online courses, these criticisms can be largely avoided
because teachers can spend time with the group and individual class
members. Frequent communication, chat sessions and other synchronous
activities, and personal attention are hallmarks of good online teaching.
However, online teachers can only create personal relationships with
learners when the class sizes are small and there is time designed just for
interpersonal communication.
Administrators need to allow online faculty adequate in-class and course
prep time, as well as figure this time commitment into course load
allocations and other faculty responsibilities. Workload adjustments may
need to be made for online faculty so that they have the time they need
to work effectively with learners and to keep designing worthwhile
curricula.
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