This summer I've experienced what it feels like to be a student in an online course where the workload was just outrageous...unrealistic planning on the part of the instructor...
AND what it feels like to be an instructor in an online course where the designers didn't consider the workload of the faculty... and as a result - they will not have this now trained faculty member for round 2 - what is the cost of that turnover?
Let me talk about each in turn...
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Workload for students... Yes we want rigor...and yes, interaction and meaningful engagement between student, faculty, and content...but how much is enough and how much is too much?
An example of too much!
Faculty "A" has 6 course objectives to achieve in 15 weeks (3 cr). This is a graduate level class, looking at theory and application. The 38 page syllabus details the readings, activities, and assignments for the group. Each week, participants complete readings, discuss the readings according to a different discussion protocol each week, complete activities that apply the content of the readings. These are then posted for the class to look at and comment upon.
Simultaneously, there are on-going projects: a research paper, 3 reflection papers, 2 application projects (one a group project), and an on-going journal.
Think about the goals of the course - If we are trying to understand theory from the readings (7 required texts) and our discussions - this took up almost all of my time. The readings were dense and required time to understand and process through discussions. On top of that, we had activities (sometimes multiple!) to complete, upload and then comment upon each person's work... Then the ever present on-going projects!!
So something has got to give - either the processing of the readings - In that case, the discussions become trite... or the activities and comments - which became a drudgery to get it done... or the on-going projects - another head down, get it done - but what did I really learn endeavor...
Also the instructor had us do multiple repetitions of the same type of activity - why?
Suggestion? Think about balance... Alternate reading/discussion weeks with activities/comment weeks to make the total work more meaningful and give students time to process and learn. Give a free week to work on big projects as needed.
These were not lazy students - on the contrary - very motivated and this teacher drove us beyond my comprehension -I think she just didn't have an understanding of the impact of the course design on students' learning - even with extensive feedback from us, she refused to change anything.
As a highly motivated and dedicated learner, I was driven to anger about the course, the program, and the instructor who seemed to not have a clue what she was asking of the learners in her class. In fact, when asked why she wasn't providing feedback, or participating in the discussions, she said she hadn't done the readings this semester since her plate was so full.
So I think she really did not understand what she was asking of her students... So.. test drive your course - Is it balanced??? Can you still reach your objectives, have academic rigor, and have a balanced amount of work with the design as it stands?
At the end of the day, something had to give - I chose to let the activities go in terms of the rigor, quality, and interest - because I wanted to really learn what the readings were saying - But I was still impacted, because others chose to let the readings/discussions go -so the conversation wasn't as meaningful as I needed to process everything...Sometimes a lot is simply too much!
Here's a link to my learning journal from this course with a description of how this felt in the moment http://l545lj.blogspot.com/2008/01/week-three-update.html
An example of juuuust right! Faculty "B" is also teaching graduate students in a mostly theoretical context. The course was rigorous, and in fact had some of the most meaningful discussions I have ever had - in a F2F situation or online!
The 15 week course was set up around different themes. Participants had several weekly readings about each theme. Discussion about the readings began on the Tuesday and Friday of each week. The instructor posted the readings that were due on Tuesday along with guiding questions - usually 4-5. Students chose one question to discuss as their initial post and usually each of the questions was chosen by someone - then the discussion commenced. Friday, the process started over again with the next set of readings/questions on the same theme.
The following Monday, the next theme began with the same process.
Ongoing work included:
- two 7-10 page research papers to explore themes more in-depth from the course
- a pre-post metaphor paper - Working in our field is like....(pre) - how would you change your metaphor after this course - include elements form the readings (post)
- an observation with comments from the field
There was metacognition being practiced - we were asked to think about what we were thinking and respond.
As a student in this course, I was challenged by the readings, but not overwhelmed. The discussions were amazing - because we had the time to enter into them and were engaged by the topics and the questions. The on-going work could be applied to my own practice in my job - so it was meaningful and relevant. The final post metaphor got me to think ab out my own learning and what I had actually learned during the 15 weeks.
From the chatter in the discussion area at the end, I was not alone in my happiness with the course - well designed, met its objectives, didn't torture anyone, and was still challenging.
What can guide us?
So while academic rigor and interaction are important, so too is time - give students ample time to read and process the readings - balance the workload - if there is too much content, maybe the course needs to be a 2-semester course. Don't give students busywork - make it meaningful -make the discussions interesting - Build in choice.
Repeatable rhythms also helped in Class "B" - After the first 2 weeks, everyone knew exactly what to do - so that cognitive load was lifted and we could focus on the learning - In Class "A" each week felt like a free-for-all - and precious time was lost trying to figure out what was due, when, and how... rather than on the content itself...
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Workload for faculty
An example of too much!
In the post entitled Exploitative below, I describe in detail the reasons for the horror I felt after realizing that the contract I just signed to teach this course meant that every waking hour away from my 9-5 job would require me to be at work for the students in the 2 classes described below in order to fulfill the requirements of the contract.
This course has undergraduate students, returning to college after many years, who need writing support. The goals of the design of activities and the level of required faculty interactions are meant to ensure student success. So far, I agree that the design of the course is excellent - content is appropriate, resources abundant, sequences are chunked and scaffolded appropriately. Faculty interactions are indeed organized, meaningful, and supportive...
So what's wrong?? - Class size!! 40 students per faculty member with multiple detailed feedbacks required several times per week is simply outrageous. What the company feels will take faculty 4 hours to complete each night, has taken me 7 and more - now granted it is my first time through the course - but the sheer amount of time to draft feedback and post it to each individual student's forum, plus post grades and comment on weekly progress, plus engage in discussions meant to process the content(read more details below) is frankly nothing less than exploitation of faculty.
However, if the class size were reduced by 50%, this would be more humane for the faculty and surely more impactful for students... because I can see burn out just around the corner and what will happen - I'll become a teacher who thinks, "Let me just get this done!!!!!!!!" which I have never been before... rather than one who knows and cares about her students and their progress - They WILL become simply numbers to process...
OK, let's turn away from this horror show to look at how it can be....
An example of juuuust right!
This is a graduate course that has multi-media components, course readings, applications, learning log entries, unit quizzes and essays, on-the-job activities, graded and non-graded discussions, and a final research paper with action plan for improvement.
The designers of this course and the administrators really thought about students and faculty in the design of this course.
Class size is maximum of 10! Students have a balanced amount of work each week and faculty are responsible for facilitating the learning through discussions and feedback to log entries, essays, and the final paper (all of which have clear rubrics for grading)
The course has a repeated rhythm, with detailed learning guide and faculty guide. The Course Management System assists with some of the workload - quizzes are graded automatically - and the timing of assignments that are graded is spread out evenly for students and faculty.
I feel like I have the opportunity to really get to know my students and help them in their progress throughout the course. This has been a very enjoyable experience, well-supported on the back-end for technical questions and other issues as they arise. I hope I get the chance to teach another course for this organization - The pay for this course is 40% of the other course bundle with only 25% of the students. The time invested is about 10 hours per week - more on heavy feedback weeks (4 times in the course) as opposed to 35 or more in the other!
What can guide us as we design courses for ourselves or others?
Course size!
Think about the course, the work, the feedback required - if you can't automate tasks and grading, then you need to carefully consider how many students you can really manage effectively - 15-20 max!
How many activities are going to require feedback? and when? You need to pace the course in a reasonable way for you and your students.
One size doesn't fit all - Students will probably need more support early in the course - so plan for a higher degree of faculty/student interaction in the beginning - to make sure students know what to do - how to do it like you want it - and where to place it - so design for this - fewer activities at the beginning so everyone gets off on the right foot and no one is overwhelmed!
We know that retention in online courses is impacted by how connected students feel to the course/instructor - do they feel a real presence there on the other end? If you can't make that happen, then you need fewer students...
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