Get Your Students Hired
I try to maintain the same schedule when it comes to teaching online. I schedule time to ready and answer my emails, grad e assignments and participate within my discussion boards. I find that it takes more time for me to do the discussion board participation so I usually take are after all of my assignments are done. This allows me to focus more on what the student has posted and how I can add value to the classroom.
Sherrilyn
Marcia,
It's good to have general guidelines, but students have to understand they are general guidelines on time. It may take one students more or less to work through the assignments, but I like some guideline at least. Sounds like you are setting your own personal guidelines as well. Nice job.
Thanks for your input.
Often colleges will provide information as to how much time is to be spent for each class taught. This is often available when an instructor begins to teach a class, or fills out accreditation paperwork. Time needed can vary weekly, but I find I need to set aside ten to twelve hours a week to grade assignments. Every class I have taught online uses a lot of writing. This is fine, and I think this is an important skill, and assessing assignments is an important part of teaching. This also involves posting grades, grading comments, and occasionally edited copies of essays.
Planning Live Chats and delivering them is also an important part of the process. Reviewing text books, online, library references, and other ancillary material can be important to bring pertinent information to the Live Chats. Every now and then extra administrative tasks show up, and they often must be done now or very quickly. Often this is distracting from the overall educational process, but dealing with this type of thing as quickly and efficiently as possible allows an instructor to return to focus on teaching.
Usually at least Monday through Thursday, I am focused on aspects of teaching in order to accomplish everything I need to do for the week, although I will check emails and so forth on the weekend.
Chris,
Easier said than done, but keep trying. You and your family all deserve some quality time. Keep it up. Thanks for your input.
I try not to bring work home with me. This will allow me to focus more on family and hobbies without work interfering.
Sara,
You are so right. We can lose our balance so quickly and we have to develop techniques that work for us. We're all different, so that's a challenge. Thanks for your input.
Hello Dr. Crews and colleagues, :-)
It's very easy to lose balance between work and life when teaching online. If you work online at home, there's the tendency to say, "I'll look at the classroom later. I need to go food shopping now.†Or, you might decide to go to the beach and save your work for the afternoon or evening. For me, it's best to do work first thing in the morning and then proceed to my personal life afterwards. Unless I have an online meeting, I don't go into my home office after I'm finished with work, just as I wouldn't go back to my ground teaching job after school is over for the day.
Best,
Sara Fine
Virginia,
Great. The point you made about prioritizing tasks is important. I have heard more and more recently that it's not about time management, but priority management. Thanks!
One can develop a routine. I prioritize tasks that have deadlines.
Lists and calendars are life savers.
Virginia
Shannon,
Proactive communication is great. I tell my students all the time that proactive communication is the best. Thanks!
I have found the best way to balance work and life while teaching online is to actively communicate schedules and tasks with my husband. We have four very small children and I also have a full time executive career that requires travel. Without fully setting boundaries and communicating when situations change, I would anticipate the introduction of unnecessary stress and frustration.
Lindsay,
It may help to set aside certain days to write/research and others for grading/communicating. And, schedule a day (one per week at least) for YOU! You deserve it.
This is very, very hard for me, especially because I am currently completing my dissertation and working on that from home as well. I don't have any kids, so I don't have to worry about that. However, my big issue is that I constantly feel like I should be doing something. If I'm not grading, I should be writing/researching/transcribing...etc.
One thing that I've started doing to work on this issue is actually timing how much of my week is spent on each task. I downloaded an app and every time I sit down to work on teaching-related tasks, I start the timer. I'm hoping this will give me a better idea of where my time goes and will allow me to develop a more rigid schedule. The end goal, of course, is to have somewhat of a life!
-Lindsay
Rosalind,
Prioritization is as important, if not more, than time management. I have heard so many times that it's not about time management, but priority management. Thanks for your comments.
I have to be organized. I prioritize things to do each day. I have found that when I prioritize, I clear my to do list. I try to make sure I schedule teaching time within my daily schedule and make time for work and my personal life so I accomplish my tasks as well as have a quality personal life.
Dehlly,
It is important to realize we have different roles in life. There are times for separation and times for integration. Thanks.
Michelle,
We learn so much from our past and current experiences. Keep learning. Thanks again.
Hi Dr. Crews,
I definitely learned very quickly that what I was doing was going to lead to burnout very quickly. I utilize my experiences of "doing it wrong" with all the faculty I train and coach.
Michelle
I KEEP BOTH LIVES SEPARATE AS MUCH AS I CAN.
I SET MY TIME TO WORK, I DO IT EVERY DAY.
Michelle,
You learn quickly that you can't and shouldn't be a 24/7 online instructor. You deserve the "clocked out" time. You have learned a lot from your experience as an online teacher. Thanks for sharing.