About 60-70% of faculty believe that teaching online courses is more work intensive than teaching face-to-face courses. Factors include course preparation before teaching, managing sometimes unwieldy online discussions, and even fielding student questions around the clock. While teaching online can be time demanding, faculty can use a variety of strategies, including simple, quick tasks to do before the course starts, to better manage their workload while instructing their online course. Most importantly, when instructors can keep their workload to a manageable level when teaching online, they will reduce stress, which translates to a better overall experience for both online instructors and students.

Learning Goals

After viewing this Magna 20-Minute Mentor, participants will be able to:

• Identify communication strategies to use in online courses
• Describe the benefits of providing clear and detailed expectations to students
• Implement several time management strategies faculty can use while teaching online
• Explore the benefits of more fully utilizing the LMS tools and functions when teaching online
• Efficiently encourage student participation which in turn reduces the instructor’s workload

Topics Covered

Various strategies for managing online instructor workload, including efficiencies in:

• Course communication
• Student engagement
• Course content
• LMS features
• Assessment