Teaching online is a significant time commitment for those who choose to do it well. As with any profession there are those who only do the minimum requirements and are not effective or engaging instructors. The majority of instructors – both traditional and online – are teachers because they are passionate about teaching.
It’s important to note that any online educators work full-time jobs outside of their online adjunct positions. For some online instructors, their discussions and grading are completed in the evenings and on weekends when they are not working their traditional job.
For other online educators, teaching online is their part-time job while raising a family or as an option after retirement. Some part-time instructors are able to piece together multiple classes for numerous schools in order to earn a full-time income. True full-time online positions with benefits are more difficult to find, typically require a Ph.D., and have less flexibility than online adjuncting positions.
Many online instructors are parents who work around their children’s school and activity schedules. Teaching online allows parents to pick-up and drop-off their children at school, take their children to dance or soccer practice, and have a great deal of flexibility — while still earning a living wage. Well, it’s a living wage for those who are efficient anyway…
Most online teaching positions require instructors to put in 10-20 hours per week, per course. Most online courses are intensive – covering the material in 5 to 9 weeks instead of the traditional 16 week semester.
For an instructor teaching 6 courses, the minimum time expected is 60 hours per week – but the actual work hours is typically lower. The specifics vary greatly depending on the school, the type of class, and the efficiency of the instructor. For example, English classes often require a greater time commitment from instructors because of the laborious task of editing, marking up, and correcting grammar and writing errors on assignments. Math courses typically require less time as there is less lecture or guidance overall and math courses are graded and presented differently than humanities courses. Since typically all adjuncts are paid at the same rate, math instructors may take home more per hour than English instructors, depending on their level of efficiency.
It’s also important to note that the first time an instructor teaches a course the instructor should expect to spend up to double the amount of time that they will spend on future courses. Time spent creating rubrics, reading and evaluating materials (such as the text), creating lectures, etc. requires a great deal of time during the first course. Efficient and effective instructors will save all of the materials they utilize during the first course to reuse and add to in future courses – making teaching the same course again less of a time commitment.
I’d also argue that the more times an instructor has taught a class the better instructor they will be for that course as they have more time to revamp and customize materials for students. Of course, there are instructors that teach a course once and never change anything – but dedicated teachers are constantly changing, evolving, and making the material more interesting and engaging for students.
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.
