Managing your time when teaching a class online can seem overwhelming. There is always something to do, whether it be responding to emails and answering questions, reviewing discussion boards, sending announcements, or grading assignments, preparing lectures and course activities, and recording videos. Here are some helpful tips for managing your time when teaching in an online environment.
Weekly Ed-Tech Spotlight:
Captioning course videos can be time-consuming, even though ordering auto-cations only takes one button, those captions always have some lines that need to be fixed by editing the captions. One option to lighten the time commitment and turn this chore into a learning opportunity is inviting students to edit the captions, perhaps for extra-credit or for a certain portion of participation. Editing captions can serve as an excellent review of the material, and students who did it could be encouraged to become peer instructors in Q&A sessions.
1. Develop a Routine
Set aside blocks of time, an hour or two at a stretch, for completing specific tasks such as answering emails, grading assignments, or reading and responding to discussion posts. Try to complete a few tasks each day so they don’t pile up towards the end of the week. Adding the blocks of time to your calendar for specific tasks helps you stay committed and focused, and gives you the satisfaction of checking tasks off your to-do list regularly.
2. Establish Rules and Expectations
Establishing rules and expectations for students right from the start is essential. These rules and expectations will help to minimize confusion and decrease the number of individual questions. Rules might include things such as assignment and email naming conventions, for example, Lastname_Assignment1.filetype. Having students save their assignments with the assignment name and their last name helps to organize and keep track of all the submitted files if you download for grading. Asking students to include the course name and brief description or question in their email subject line is also helpful. Providing poor and good quality examples for the students is beneficial. For example, a poor example subject line might be one that just says “Question.” A good example might be “Course name, question about grade on assignment 1.” Reducing the amount of time you have to search or get clarification on which course a student is asking about or organizing assignment files will in return provide you with more time for other things.
Be sure you also set expectations for your response time to email. Trying to always answer immediately is a recipe for burnout! Let students know if it will take you up to 36 hours to respond, and block out time on your schedule for that task so you aren’t tempted to send just one little reply immediately.
3. Communicate Frequently and Clearly with the Whole Class
Utilize Canvas Announcements to communicate regularly with your students. Send reminders about each week’s course activities and assignment due dates. By anticipating questions and providing clear instructions, you may reduce the number of student emails asking questions. If you receive more than one question from students on the same topic, send out a Canvas Announcement clarifying that topic for everyone. If a two students have a question about an assignment or topic, chances are that others do too.
Creating a Q&A discussion board using Canvas Discussions or Piazza can also limit the number of student questions and emails. Have students use this dedicated Q&A board to post their course related questions. You can block off time in your schedule to answer questions posted to the discussion board. An added bonus is that students can answer each other’s questions, as well.
It is also important to let students know when and how they can expect to get a response from you about their questions. You want to make it clear, for example, that if they send an email after 9pm they can expect to receive a response the following day, or whatever response window you decide to use. You want to make it clear that teaching online is not a 24/7 job and that there are certain periods of time when you are off the clock.
4. Hold Office Hours
Holding regularly scheduled office hours can provide a time to give feedback to students on assignments and answer questions about concepts covered in class. Remote office hours are possible using Zoom or BlueJeans or even a Google chatroom.
5. Use Canvas to Automate as Much as Possible
Take advantage of the tools Canvas provides to automate as much as you can. Canvas announcements can be written ahead of time and scheduled to publish at specific times. Block out some time to write up and schedule a few week’s worth of reminders and announcements so they can automatically be sent out to students.
Canvas Quizzes has many features that facilitate administering exams: timed exams, release dates, closing dates, section-specific exams. In addition to multiple choice, fill-in-blank and other common question types, it has an Essay question option where students can type, and attach images, audio and video in the text response field, and a File Upload question option for attaching text files or PDF scans of handwritten work. You can set correct or partially correct answers on many question types, which can mean less work grading the completed tests.
Speedgrader can make grading assignments faster and easier. Speedgrader allows you to view student submissions, annotate in the margins, provide written and oral feedback, and enter a grade all right within Canvas. You can even create and use clickable rubrics to help clarify expectations to students, streamline the grading process, and keep grading fair and consistent.
If you’d like to speak with a consultant about which strategies and tools may suit you best, please reach out to the LSATSLearningTeachingConsultants@umich.edu. We’ll be happy to help!
