Reducing Workload

 

Creating course materials, teaching, and managing the distance learning environment all take time.  What strategies do you use to help you work more efficiently without sacrificing student learning? Share your ideas with us.

 

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IDEA: (You mean beyond overloading the TA!?) - Organisation

 

Actually this course is giving me quite a few ideas many (ok... some) of which I'll test next semester. The reusable objects coupled with the use of the WebCT suggestion is one of the best. I used WebCT before NMSU, but this year having small classes I found it unnecessary. Also, having to prepare two new no-manual courses (third one in the summer) I found that I am less organized than I ought to be. However once settled I think I will use visual/animation support whenever possible. In long term I consider organisation and course stability to be the best time-saver regardless of the level of technological involvment. I just have the feeling that creating electronic objects may not help some of us - I would just feel the need to constantly tinker with them.

Adrian Unc tttttttttttt

 

 

IDEA: Using WebCT to save time.

I was one of the last hold outs in my department when it comes to using WebCT. In fact, I didn't start using until last summer when I I forced to do so because I was teaching an all online class. Now I find it an indispensable time saver, especially when it comes to classroom management materials. A simple example is giving students progress reports. WebCT does it for me; as long as I keep up with posting their grades, WebCT allows a student access their average any time they like, keeping me from having to print out individual progress reports every week or two.

 

Students and instructors being able to write at any time of day or night when it's convenient appears to be one of the great benefits of going online for learning and teaching. Online teaching give us opportunity to utilize internet sources but you have to be very organized:)- marija Dimitrijevic

 

 

 

WebCT is also a perfect tool for giving quizzes and tests and saves me considerable time grading them. Finally, it allows for students to post assignments, even if they can't attend class, saving me considerable time in grading late work. All in all, I would utilize it for even for classes that are not online, just to keep paperwork at a minimum. - Kurt Depner

 

 

IDEA: Create Reusable Objects.

I frequently create video and text tutorials for my students. When I first began doing this, I personalized the tutorials to include such info as login information, etc. After recreating several tutorials because of changing login info, I realized that I was working harder, not smarter. Now, when I create a tutorial, I keep it generic and put the personal information in the directions prior to the link to the tutorial. This has saved me quite a bit of time and given me a wide selection of tutorials I can reuse any time for any class.

 

 

IDEA: Devoting class time for students to work (start) their assignment

For some assignments, I give students some class time (maybe 5-10 minutes depending on the assignment and of course what else is going on that lesson) to work on their assignment. I try to do this as much as possible before the assignment is due versus the day before its due to discourage procastination. For most students, this work time is the first time they have even looked at the assignment, so this short time is for them to start it. I've noticed that the biggest barrier to most assignments is actually starting them! Five to ten minutes of course isn't really enough time for them to get much done, but at least they will have looked at the assignment and can ask questions (to me or their classmates) about the assignment. Hopefully they walk away from this understanding what they have to do and how this assignment fits into their busy schedule. During this short in class activity, I encourage them to talk to one another (or me). Most students found this technique to reduce their workload (if nothing else the perception of it). (contributed by Randy Carlson)

 

 

IDEA: In-Class Project Time

My graduate classes meet only once a week for over 2 hours. When using a team project as part of the course, I like to give them time in-class to meet on their project. Susan Wilson

 

 

IDEA: Grading of Online Assignments

I ceased making answer keys for assignments after my second semester of online teaching. Here is what I do for each assignment: When the first student submits their work I go ahead and grade their assignment while having the text handy to fill in any gaps in my own knowledge. Then after I upload this person's work I then use this first graded assignment as a key, again to augment where I myself cannot recall that correct information. --Gil Verser

 

 

IDEA: Grading short assignments in class

So far, I only teach f2f classes, mostly in developmental composition. The students often need grammar instruction, which I usually accomplish by using exercises in their text. If I have them do the exercises as a quiz, they exchange papers and grade each other. This accomplishes two things. They have the immediacy of going over the material so that they can ask questions and get a better grasp on the concepts, and I only have to record instead of do the grading.

 

Sometimes I have them work on exercises in groups and then discuss the answers in class. I then only need to record participation. --Margaret Loring

 

 

IDEA: Group Project Day & Check-in Day; Selective Home-work submission

For a class that requires the submission of an in-depth group project, assign one "project work & Check-in with instructor" day once every two weeks. During this session, as the groups work on their project, each group meets individually with the instructor to ask questions, present their work and get feedback. To ensure that the groups are working on making progress, specific parts of the project (i.e. identified client, client needs, identified problems etc. in a consulting class) are due in to the instructor on each group work day.

 

Second idea works very well in my grad ANOVA class. The professor assigns home-work on a regular basis but collects it randomly. In either case, regardless of whether the work is collected, she solves the problems in class. This strategy is effective for my class because we always have the work ready and it cuts down on grading for her. Yasanthi

 

IDEA: clickers!

In a large class, using clickers more often, and assigning a higher percentage of the course grade as clicker points seem like a good idea to reduce the workload of both the students and the instructors.

aysegul.

aself evaluation.  I use this grading method on course content, where I want the student to learn the process or procedure of the assignment more than the actual content they create. 

 

IDEA:  Self Checking

 

When the students are ask to do an assignment that learning the process/procedure is the goal rather than the content, I set up a grading rubric for the student to self-check their progress.

 

Jackie

 

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