It has become aparent that the management of time can not possibly be overstated.
I think managing a work/personal life balance could be challenging if working from home exclusively. Setting a schedule and publishing office hours may be helpful.
There will be challenges. Recognize those challenges (with the biggest being lack of face2face contact with students) and identify specific strategies to overcome the challenges. There are a number of online delivery models. Two given were ADDIE and Gagnes which give the events of instructions. In other words, how will instruction flow, start to finish with each lesson. These model of delivery help with developing a good course, maximizes learning impact and minimizes the workload. as with all teachers, careful not to burnout. Pace yourself, draw the line between personal and work.
SETH SORONNADI
I like that "Using these strategies can help prevent teaching burnout. It will also help instructors develop an appropriate online management system to give them balance every time they teach online."
Organization also takes the form of scheduling specific time for virtual office hours. Experienced online instructors find this practice to be a timesaver for answering questions and meeting learner concerns. Online instructors also utilize the strategy for anticipating and setting aside time for periods when there will be either heavy grading or heavy discussion periods.
The teacher should model behaviors that are expected of students. Time management should not only be planned but also followed. Work-life balance is needed. Teachers need to set boundaries for the online hours.
Building a class throug the entire process--plan, design, organization, implementation, etc. are all part of the online course roadmap to a successful class just as in a face to face environment. The last unit on priorities is the key to maintaining sanity, both in time management for the course and for personal life. It is totally necessary to block out specific times on a calendar for all the course events so that students and instructors alike know where they are going. The instructor must also block out times for personal life. When all is said and done though, it is all pretty useless unless you stick to the plan. It will not take the students long to figure whether they are dealing with a 24/7 instructor or not.
Online teaching is a learning environment for the instructor as well as the students.
It is wise to develop a work-life balance. Keep distractions out. Organize your workload. And be disciplined in your Organization.
Organization, organization, organization. As I anticipate my school district will at least start the year virtually, the more I can work on tranforming my F2F classes to online this summer, the better prepared I will be to actually implement this--and help our new teachers--when we do beging teaching online or hybrid. I liked the idea of a pre-test for technology skills and I am thinking of incorportaing that into the first recommended Biography assignment (a fun way to start relationship building in the class might be a quizzizz using the informatin shared in the bios, including mine). I plan to use Gagne's outline to build most modules, and pretty much the format these modules have been in-- information, thinking break, snall quiz to move on, then larger quiz, in addition to group projects and a wiki for each class.
Management of time is important. I need to work on this one myself!
Prioritizing teaching and life is basically developing a work-life balance. To do this, managing your time is essential. To manage your time, you need to be "organized, disciplined, distinguish between work and personal life, and yet be flexible."
Teaching online presents issues for instructors. The following needs consideration: organization, discipline, flexibility and distinguishing between work and personal life.
In the Workload Management Strategies (WLMS) for teaching an online course, module two titled, WLMS for teaching online, I learned the various characteristics that an effective online instructor should have. I have also been exposed to the challenges to teaching an online course, from both the instructor and student perspective. One factor I didn’t consider is that both the teacher and the student will have less social time with their peers. This may be beneficial in some ways, however, not all the time. I believe both the instructor and student need to actively become more social outside of the virtual classroom to mediate this potential problem. This module mentions the need for organization and establishing policies and procedures at the beginning of the class in order to save yourself, the instructor, time when the online course is taking place. Lastly, setting a schedule is critical to maintaining a work/life balance, be organized and create a schedule for yourself and try to keep it.
As an Administrator of an online course, I should manage time and function, establish rules and regulations, and demonstrate leadership qualities.
It is importand to make sure that you plan and create a viable schedule that makes sense within the scope of your life. The times that you are available to students need to be clearly conveyed to aviod frustration among students, or for them to assume that you are ALWAYS online and avilable to assist them. Then more planning that is done for the overall design and function of the course prior to the course being active, the more time the instructor has to support students.
Essential to facing the challenges in online teaching and student learning for success is time management, organization, planning, and communication for both instructor and student. The key is leading by example and being a positive influence. It's essential to balance setting boundries and closely monitoring while giving students the responsiblity for their own learning.
Time management is crucial and being able to separate work from life makes for a better instructor. If you don't have a list of priorities that need to get done and organized, you can't expect that from your students.
I am reminded to alllocate a specific time to 'plan'. Although, sometimes, this will be flexible, most of the time it will be standard. As noted, this will ensure that I exhibit less distractions and focus on my obligations. Also, I will place at the forefront the following: Managing time and function, establishing rules and regulations, and always demonstrate leadership qualities.
With these constant reminders, I will be able to increase my valuable time (and) reduce overload while prioritizing teaching and living.
Something that resonated with me was the topic prioritizing teaching and life. In the brick wall classroom there is not thought to balancing life with work and this is what leads to burn out in teachers. I am glad that they are presenting this topic in the online classroom. It is important to have boundries and keep work hours, work hours, and home life, home life. I think that it could be a challenge in the online classroom to comsume all of your time like a real classroom does, however, it might even be more. Your work is always beside you and so you might give in to doing more hours at home. I will definately take these considerations into my online classroom.
