This is a very good question. Truthfully, I do not think the question is really which format, online or onground, takes more time. I think the most important factor is the instructor. For example, if an instructor is designing an online class for the first time, it may take them more time. Quality also counts. That being said, for me, I believe that designing an online class takes much more time. I just finished designing an intro to sociology course for online, and it took me much longer. Research, writing out all the lectures, finding the much more needed multi media content and so on took a lot of time. However, with time, it gets easier. It all goes to what you love. I am passionate about online learning and teaching, so it works for me...
Do you think that students feel that online courses may be easier?
I disagree. It takes more time (in hours) to set up an online program because all the details have to be thought out and put into place before the class begins. However, the time per student may be less, because once the course is developed it is easier to facilitate the class to a larger audience.
Marcia...love the point of updating curriculum. Fresh work is helpful for the student and the instructor.
Good point Sara....a lot does depend on the type of class you are facilitating.
Overall, I disagree that less time is spent overall in the development of an online course. It can depend upon the institution where the course is taught. At some colleges, an instructor can fully develop a course. At other colleges, courses are in place, but they often need iterative updating. It is important to be sure items posted in a course meet a variety of criteria, accreditation standards, state standards, college standards, and, for instance, if a department or a college uses a certain academic style--APA, MLA, CMS, CSE, etc., the wording, images, and subsequent citation should follow the style to reinforce knowledge and application.
It is helpful if courses are designed so that updating them is relatively user-friendly. Often, of course, someone needs to sign off on a course or update before it is put into place, but it is particularly helpful if this is a relatively uncomplicated process so that updates are easily put into place.
Updating curriculum can also avoid any use of what used to be known as "fraternity files," where various papers were kept for use again and again. Fresh assignments can provide opportunities where students need to submit their own work.
It is true that classroom situations may involve physical organization, getting material out of ones car or a faculty workroom, making sure the Internet is up, the projector in the classroom is functioning, or that there are physical copies of an exercise ready to be handed out. Similar activities can be involved when creating course curriculum in that it is necessary to be sure everything physical is accessible. As the class progresses, although an online class, from my experience, is more organized in that I am not carrying around things I need for the classroom, an online class, depending upon what type of assignments have been put into place, involves intensive time in analysis and grading. Often online programs have weekly grading deadlines to be adhered to despite anything unusual that might come up.
I have taken online classes, but have not yet facilitated one, so I can't speak from experience, but I would imagine that they can take about the same amount of time to put together. I think it depends greatly on the type of class and the comfort level of the instructor.
If you're a newer instructor, you may put in an inordinate amount of time preparing for an on-ground class because you want to be sure you have enough to fill the time. On the other hand, with an online class this may not be as big of a worry.
I understand it does take a great deal of time preparing all of the digital components on an online course, but once those are done, it may take much less time to prepare for subsequent teachings of the same course.
Either way, I think it really depends on the instructor and how much time he/she is willing to put into the material.
Do you think the more you teach the class online, the less time it will take?
From what I have seen thus far, I do not agree. It appears that I will have to quickly become acquainted with new technological methods of instruction and student interaction, in addition to delving into my subject matter once again in order to refresh my memory and refine my knowledge. I estimate the my preparation time with double, at least.
I definitely disagree. In a classroom, you can see the expressions of students faces that indicate to facilitators the student's understanding, or our need to go more into detail. In preparing an online course the facilitator must anticipate questions students may have regarding lectures, assignments,quizzes, etc. I think more examples need to be included in online courses. Because the facilitator is not immediately there to assist students I think more details of course content must be included to avoid any frustration on the student's. For example, when teaching Access I would show my students a 4-drawer filing cabinet and explain how the software worked much in the same way as the drawers in the filing cabinet. I would not be able to do that with online students, so I would need to explain in much more detail how the filing cabinet correlates to the tables associated in Access. I could use graphics of the filing cabinet, but then again more time is needed to prepare the graphic versus walking over to a filing cabinet.
I have not taught an on-line course thus far, so cannot speak from experience, but from the information thus far, and from taking a few on-line courses, it seems that the time required to set up an on-line course would be more significant at the beginning than a "traditional" course. However, once it is completed, I have heard from other Instructors that the time spent in conducting the class is less. It would seem that in both cases, it is essential that adequate time be taken to set up the class for student success. John Eliassen
I disagree. I am currently converting our entire curriculum from in-class to online, and I've found that it takes far more to develop the online course.
When in a class, you are engaged in much more student/instructor interaction, and a lot of topics are brought up in questions that the students ask during the lecture. This allows for a far more streamlined lesson plan, as you can assume that the discussion will go deeper.
From what I've seen, thus far, in an online environment that dynamic isn't as prevalent. Due to that, your lesson plans/lectures must be far more detailed to encompass what is being missed in that live classroom intimacy between the students and the instructor.
I believe that it takes more time to develop an online class than an onsite one because everything must be in writing for an online class.
This includes detailed instructions that are clearly defined.
In an onsite class the instructor can easily explain expectations for written assignments and quizzes, etc. in a matter of minutes while in an online environment students simply read the instructions and follow them. IF directions are unclear students will submit a wide variety of different types of assignments since the instructions were vague in nature.
There is nothing worse than finding spelling errors in an online class. Makes the student wonder how good the class just is!
how do you think personality comes through for an online class?
I disagree. I believe that statement is exactly opposite of the reality of developing online courses. Because you do not have the face-to-face lecture that will cover most content, the instructor has to spend more time developing that lecture content into effective instructional content that doesn't depend on his/her presentation of the content.
Kristin
I disagree with the assertion that it is more time consuming to develop the same course for face to face delivery than to build it for online delivery.
Online delivery must be more carefully constructed and each element of the construction must be checked twice to ensure proper spelling, effective use of language, and to ensure the functionality of all parts of of the course.
Developing face to face courses is done in a general sense at the beginning of the term but modifications can be made throughout the term to fit circumstances that happen in and out of the class. This is not the case with the online medium.
Spelling errors are horrible online. A developer needs to have someone review thier work online.
Shelley -
I think that the time to develop an online course is actually more. In an online course there is absolutely no room for errors! If there is an error that is made, it is very hard to correct since sometimes it's not easy to contact every student. But in a traditional course, if an error is made, the students can usually be told about it within 1 or 2 classes sessions, and then everything is OK.
