Often, teaching online (as well as students taking courses online) receive a bad rap. While, yes, the world of online education is far from perfect, the same can be said for traditional education and classrooms as well. While there are many aspects of online education that I wish were different, I can only control what happens within my own classroom and ensure that it is the best place for students to learn.
Before entering the world of online teaching and becoming an online adjunct/instructor for a college or university, it’s vital that one knows that teaching online is truly a lot of work, even for those who are experienced teachers in a traditional classroom. I guarantee that I spend more time, hour for hour, teaching my online courses than I do when I am teaching face-to-face, this is for a variety of reasons, but it should be known that just as taking a course online is not inherently “easier,” teaching a course online isn’t inherently “easier” either.
Recently, I’ve been working with online instructors who are relatively new to the online modality. Often, they are shocked by the number of hours they are spending logging into their classrooms and the amount of time and dedication being an effective online instructor entails. As I tell them, it does become easier with time – but it does take a great deal of time, organization, and self-motivation to be a phenomenal online instructor.
For most schools, instructors will be given a course shell that includes assignments, discussion questions, etc. It is then up to the instructor to flesh out the course and enhance learning for the student. Especially the first two or three times one teaches the course, it can take a great deal of time to develop online lectures, develop discussion question responses, find additional resources to share with students, and simply read the materials for the course. However, efficiency should increase each time an instructor teaches the course as they know more readily how to respond to question, where to find information to help students, and save their documents for the future.
As a traditional teacher, it’s tempting to think that a face-to-face course will transfer seamlessly to an online course, but often this is not the case. I have spent weeks developing an revamping a course I taught in a traditional classroom for the online environment, and the type and method of teaching is completely different.
Besides the initial setup of the course, a great deal of time is also spent within the online classroom throughout the course. As an instructor, I login to my classroom at least once per day (yes, including weekends and holidays!) to check for questions and grade, respond to discussion threads, etc. Grading and providing adequate feedback on assignments also requires a significant amount of time and effort.
Perhaps teaching online only feels like it takes significantly more time and effort than a traditional classroom because it is more frequently and more concentrated. In a traditional classroom, an instructor might only meet with the course for 2 ½ hours per week and this is spread out over 16 weeks. For an online course, it might last 5 to 9 weeks – but an instructor is spending at least an hour per day (including weekends) within the course. No matter the logistics, there is no doubt that teaching online truly is a lot of work and definitely not as cushy as it is sometimes portrayed!
About the Author
Jamie Weitl is a WAHM teaching for several online universities and raising three precocious little ones. In her spare time she enjoys writing, baking, and running. For more info, see my Google Plus Profile.
