Distance Teaching & Learning Workshop

Workshop "Managing Workload When Teaching Online" http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference Managing workload can be a cause for anxiety for instructors who teach online, attributed by the demands from the administration; a perception that the online environment is omnipresent and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; a lack of understanding of the elements that make up the distance learning environment; inexperience in designing online instruction; and a lack of awareness of the importance of being present with learners online. All of these factors can make the instructor feel overwhelmed. Four strategies can be critical approaches for instructors to manage workload: design, support, teaching, and time allocation. Design strategies involve approaches used before the course starts and often during instruction. These strategies include: pre-planning, anticipating course responsibilities, prioritizing course activities, anticipating student-learning needs, and reflecting on and revising courses already taught. Support strategies include one-on-one support, institutional support, peer support, and external support. These support strategies involve approaches used before and during the online course and depend on the instructors’ level of experience in online teaching, type of course taught, and student need. Teaching strategies are the ones instructors use before and during the online course to manage workload and they involve administrative, facilitative, and evaluative tasks. Time allocation strategies seem to be the most critical ones for instructors. For some instructors, designing a course can take between 10 to 120 hours the first time around. Moreover, design time varies from discipline to discipline, support received from the institution, number of students in the course, and the type of technology used. The workshop will reflect on workload strategies used when teaching online and identify strategies for managing workload and prioritizing time and will provide small group opportunities to analyze workload strategies through instructor cases and use a template to identify teaching tasks and prioritize time.