{"id":226,"date":"2012-07-12T23:51:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T23:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/15-time-saving-tips-for-teaching-online\/"},"modified":"2012-07-12T23:51:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T23:51:00","slug":"15-time-saving-tips-for-teaching-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/15-time-saving-tips-for-teaching-online\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Time-Saving Tips for Teaching Online"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"float: right; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daylife.com\/image\/00br8tuaZJgJu?utm_source=zemanta&amp;utm_medium=p&amp;utm_content=00br8tuaZJgJu&amp;utm_campaign=z1\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PLANTATION, FL- NOVEMBER 02:  Howie Brown adju...\" border=\"0\" class=\"zemanta-img-inserted\" height=\"100\" src=\"http:\/\/cache.daylife.com\/imageserve\/00br8tuaZJgJu\/150x100.jpg\" style=\"border: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center; width: 150px;\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><\/span>Online learning saves time for students.  Students in online courses have 24\/7 access to their course materials,  other students, and their instructor. For working students, this is an  incredible benefit. But we often hear that online learning takes a lot  of an instructor\u2019s time. I have found that it can be, but when a course  is set up in advance to take advantage of a learning management system\u2019s  features, a lot of time can be saved. Many of these techniques make for  a more engaging experience for the students and less stress for the  instructor. Note: this is an update of a post from 2009 that adds tips that teachers have sent in since then. Thanks everyone!<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of my favorite time-saving tips. Please add to them!<\/p>\n<p>1. Create a &#8220;Welcome Letter&#8221; that not only introduces the instructor and the course but gives detailed instructions on how to access the course and where to get help. Here is <a href=\"http:\/\/mycr.redwoods.edu\/access\/content\/user\/gcain684\/Documents\/welcome\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">our example from DE 101<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>2. Create a comprehensive syllabus.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Utilize  a &#8220;Week Zero,&#8221; a module that explains to new students how to be an  online student and use the learning management system (LMS).<\/li>\n<li>Direct students to tech support and the help desk as much as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Create a course \u201cscavenger hunt.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. Use a syllabus quiz.<\/p>\n<p>4. Make your course easy to navigate.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep as much content as you can no more than two clicks away.<\/li>\n<li>Use a consistent format week-to-week or module-to-module.<\/li>\n<li>Remove buttons or tools you are not using. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5. Schedule your time.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not work on your online course because you can; work on it because you have scheduled the time.<\/li>\n<li>Let the students know your schedule.<\/li>\n<li>Access your course consistently (e.g. three times a week) and respond to email promptly (with-in 48 hours).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6. Be strict about forms of communication. E.g. ONLY take assignmnts in drop box; only accept e-mail in 1 acct. etc.<\/p>\n<p>7. Automate your course as much as possible.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Take advantage of the time-release feature of announcements.<\/li>\n<li>Record and reuse lectures.<\/li>\n<li>Let the LMS handle as much of the grading as you can.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>8. Distributing and exchanging documents.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use the assignment feature of your LMS instead of e-mail.<\/li>\n<li>Have the students attach documents to a forum posting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>9. Centralize question and answers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use a discussion forum for \u201cFrequently Asked Questions.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Create a FAQ page.<\/li>\n<li>Ask students to ask questions in the forum rather than e-mail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>10. Use online groups with a deliverable<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Let the students do the work.<\/li>\n<li>Do not respond to every posting, respond to the group deliverable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>11. Use a &#8220;common responses&#8221; file to quickly paste in answers to common questions.<\/p>\n<p>12.  Allow students to facilitate online discussions.<\/p>\n<p>13.  Use a detailed grading rubric to help answer questions in advance.<\/p>\n<p>14.  Encourage student-student interaction and study groups.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Give them the space to solve problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>15. Communicate to entire class in general terms using audio and\/or video on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<p>What about you? How do you streamline your online teaching process? Leave a comment below if you have any time saving tips.  <\/p>\n<div style=\"height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=e70723ec-3f56-4a3e-b946-a2cf048ceee4\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Online learning saves time for students. Students in online courses have 24\/7 access to their course materials, other students, and their instructor. For working students, this is an incredible benefit. But we often hear that online learning takes a lot &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/15-time-saving-tips-for-teaching-online\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,433,263,28],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elearning","category-teaching","category-teaching-tips","category-time-management","tag-online-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}