Online learning has been gaining steady popularity over the years because of the many advantages it offers. One of the main advantage it provides not just learners but instructors as well is flexibility. With so many individuals struggling to balance their work and family obligations, online learning is seen as a convenient way to fulfill responsibilities at home and at work.
When we discuss about time management related to online learning, most articles focus on helping online students effectively manage their schedules so they are able to complete their online course on time. But even online instructors need help, too. Come to think of it, online instructors would need time management strategies while designing and creating online courses and during the actual implementation of the course. For this article, we will focus on the latter.
Online classes would likely have twice as much students compared to a traditional class in a brick and mortar school. And unlike in face to face classroom setting, there is no one else to assist online instructors. In addition, the absence of school hours and set class schedules, there is no limit as to when emails from students may come in.
With all these factors coming into play, online instructors would do well practicing these time management strategies to help them become more efficient:
Set Time Blocks for Instructional Activities
It will be helpful for online instructors to set daily time blocks in their calendars so they can focus on their class duties within these set times and work on other responsibilities outside these hours. The length of time devoted to online classes may vary depending on the day of the week and the activities for certain days.
It is very important for online instructors to commit to these time blocks and respond to their students’ messages on a daily basis. Longer hours may be required for assessing student work. Strategically moderate discussions twice or thrice per week instead of doing this everyday.
Provide Regular Updates on the Course Website
Regular announcements on the course website allows online instructors to communicate a uniform message to all their students, so everybody is on the same page all the time. This is helpful in minimizing confusion and ensures that all the students are aware of any updates, so instructors save time having to answer individual questions or clarifications.
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring and Grading
By involving your online students in discussion forums, instructors can lessen their activity time for mentoring and grading the students while at the same time enhance their students’ learning and leadership skills through peer-to-peer interactions. The class can be divided into small groups and assigned different discussion topics. At the end of the activity, each student will have to evaluate the contributions of their group members. Facilitators may be chosen from students in the class to guiding the group discussions.
Create an Efficient Grading System
Evaluating student assignments could consume much of an instructor’s time. Grading students and providing constructive feedback is an important component to online learning as this helps them learn and work on their areas of improvement. It will help instructors save a lot of time and still ensure quality assessment by making use of grading tools that are available through their learning management system or LMS. Other ways to provide feedback on assignments is with the use of a screen cast program. Verbal feedback can be recorded and sent via email.
By looking at alternative ways to perform certain activities and using tools to more effectively disseminate information and provide feedback, online instructors will be able to increase their efficiency and manage their time better.
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Michelle Rubio has been writing for SMEs across the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK for the last five years. She is a highly-experienced blogger and SEO copywriter, writing business blogs for various industries such as marketing, law, health and wellness, beauty, and education, particularly on creating online courses such as those offered by CourseMinded.com.
