Activity3

Discuss a few of the time management issues that you feel are critical in an online course, possibly issues that you have dealt with personally. Discuss issues that are of concern to both instructor and student. Provide strategies and approaches for dealing with these issues.

Managing time effectively is an important self-regulated strategy for learning in any environment, as it increases learners’ efficiency and productivity in their learning. It is highly recommended for students to set aside a time to do a certain amount of studying every day especially in an online learning environment. Some online students follow a floating timetable in talking control of and evaluating one’s own learning, which is also a good technique that can be used if a learner cannot get to set aside a definite time every day for learning. However, the learner should be able to handle pressure and highly self-motivated to complete the task within the course deadline. Because, a floating timetable does not actually define when a task will be completed, or for how long it would be.

On the other hand, for online instructors, the time demands of teaching online can be overwhelming some times, but there are techniques that can greatly reduce the amount of time instructors need to spend in your online courses without sacrificing quality. As an educator, I provide audio comments to the students for evaluating their weekly assignments instead of writing feedback. Especially if I have 25 or more students in a class, time has to be managed effectively. “Audio Comments are very effective to show the instructor presence more in an online classroom setting (Time Management for Online Instructors, 2005).

Here is a screencast video I have shared to show how I provide audio feedback instead of written feedback to manager my time in my virtual classrooms: []

In relating to time management issues in an online course, a couple of examples that I would like to share from my experiences and also the strategies that affect the success of online learners are: As an instructor, for first term under-graduate students taking online courses, I maintain consistency in my class assignments as what to expect every week by encouraging a **//regular routine//** for the students and ultimately it saves time for the students to go with a steady pace in their coursework.

To engage students in the weekly discussion, I award them with 2 points as extra-credit if they respond to any of my newly posted threads within 24-hour time period. The students enjoyed the group interaction and also the extra-credit points. For any course related questions or clarifications, as Diaz & Entonado (2009) remarks, communication does not need to be made only with the instructor, also students and fellow-students can help through email. Also, students can make use of other digital media tools available on the course LMS platform such as chats, weekly discussion forums and blogs, depending on the purpose of their question or doubts to reach out and build healthy virtual learning communities. This saves time waiting for one’s response in the virtual classrooms and paves a way for healthy online learning communities.

Awarding extra-credit is a good instructional strategy and a healthy competition to the students to cheer every learner and make them get acclimatized in the online learning environment. Instructor’s guided instruction in a web-based collaborative learning environment has a positive impact on students’ performance. Online instructors are encouraged to try this technique to help students achieve effective learning performance in the web-based learning environments. During online discussion activities, applying an appropriate method of guidance is the key to in-depth learning (Hou, 2011).

Online instructors need to have a more systematic understanding of the pedagogical problem-solving approaches to online learning with group collaborative learning. Social presence is such a crucial factor for creating online communities as it is the basis for meaningful interpersonal communication and relationships, which enables learners to share knowledge during the learning process. I personally feel building online learning communities begins in the first week of class and should make it a routine to let the learners continue communicating with their class group for the rest of the course term. Establishing social presence and learning by doing can provide rich community learning experiences through a feeling of connection to both the real-world and in real-world learning relationships (Palloff & Pratt, 2007).

By lesson week 3, my first-term BS under-graduate students gets in to a steady pace with my class routine and does not feel they are lost looking for course information as where to find. I use this routine for my first-term students for successive course terms. Revere & Kovach (2011) augmented that understanding what resources are available based on time-constraints, and how they might be used to foster instructor-student interactions as well as peer interaction will contribute to, “appropriate technology integration and the fulfillment of students’ need for active course content and engaged learning” (p. 123).

Another aspect of using time was its **//variability//**, or as Meyer & McNeal (2011) describes the variability of time as, “the emphasis on giving students the flexibility to learn when the student had time to do so” (p. 49). An example of the variability of time that I use as an instructor for my 400 level under-graduate students elective subject and also follow the variability of time as a doctoral student would be: Most of my final year students taking electives in their 4 th  year BS degree program do not want to be there online at a specified time for all my weekly synchronous flex seminar sessions if they already know the subject matter well or if they just couldn’t make it due to work or being someplace at some times. I do not penalize them with points deduction, as I personally feel as adult learners studying online, if they have the self-discipline, they can do their course assignments when they want to do it, and have the time to have complete focus on the subject to finish the assigned task. The problem is when there are distractions or if the learner has to be someplace at some time, their mind wouldn’t be attentive at that time. The key is to be personally disciplined and self-motivated to take on and complete the task before the course deadline.

Online discussions need to allow group members to bring their knowledge, abilities, backgrounds, and experiences to the group process as they construct new knowledge. Although online learning provides flexibility and potential for deeper learning, online discussion needs to be structured and moderated throughout the learning process in a given time period (Du, Yu & Olinzock, 2011).

References

Díaz, L., & Entonado, F. (2009). Are the Functions of Teachers in e-Learning and Face-to-Face Learning <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Environments Really Different?. //Journal Of Educational Technology & Society, 12(//4), 331-343.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Du, J., Yu, C., & Olinzock, A. A. (2011). Enhancing collaborative learning: impact of question prompts <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">design for online discussion. //Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, 53(//1), 28-41.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Hou, H. T. (2011). A case study of online instructional collaborative discussion activities for problem- <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">solving using situated scenarios: An examination of content and behavior cluster analysis. //Computers & Education, 56,// 712-719.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Meyer, K. A., & McNeal, L. (2011). How online faculty improve student learning productivity?. //Journal Of// //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Asynchronous Learning Networks, 15( //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">3), 37-53.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Palloff, M., & Pratt, K. (2007). //Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual// //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">classroom. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> 2nd ed., San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Revere, L., & Kovach, J. V. (2011). Online technologies for engaged learning - A meaningful synthesis for <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">educators. //Quarterly Review of Distance Education//, 12(2), 113-124.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Time Management for Online Instructors. (2005). //Online Classroom,// 1-2.