Ten Timesaving Tips for Part-Time Distance Learning Faculty
by Steven N. Pyser, JD
Many educational institutions are offering distance education as an instructional option. Job opportunities for adjunct faculty are said to be growing; yet, some faculty are reluctant to venture online because of concerns about perceived preparation and time requirements. These timesaving tips are grounded in sound educational practice and organized around online instructor roles–pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical, as conceptualized by Dr. Zane Berge (Berge, 1995).
A. Pedagogical
1. Constructing a Learning Community
As an online instructor, your focus is building learning and pedagogy, and also encouraging independent scholarship in a cyber “space.” How do you create a dialogue with students, classroom buzz and interest to sustain participation while avoiding repeated instructor postings to jumpstart and perpetuate conversation? In The Courage to Teach, noted educational activist and “master teacher,” Parker Palmer, identifies an approach to pedagogical design that builds a teaching and stimulating learning space in which the voices of the individual and group are welcome. Your messages and online tone can help create fertile ground for hospitable and open discussion. Little stories of the students, the big stories of the discipline and tradition of the course materials must be honored. (Palmer, 1998, 74-77)
2. Improve Yourself
You can accomplish more when you work smarter, not harder, by investing in yourself through professional development. This increases your knowledge base and value to the institutions at which you teach. Consider joining organizations of teachers and scholars that support distance learning and your areas of academic specialization. Many communities of practice share knowledge and offer support through listservs that offer asynchronous email communication with other subscribers. See, for example, Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) http://www.merlot.org/Home.po; The Sloan Consortium http://www.sloan-c.org/; The Distance Education Clearinghouse, http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
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3. Grading Rubrics
Rubrics are effective tools for efficiently and uniformly assessing student work and providing feedback. (Pickett & Dodge, 2001) You can grade papers more easily when applying the same standards for each student submission. A sound practice for avoiding grievances about grades is to provide, with the course syllabus, rubrics for all assignments. Students may then review grading criteria before sending their assignments and can present questions to the instructor. Inexpensive commercial software is available to streamline designing rubrics.
4. Writing Style Software
Reviewing and commenting on student writing is time-consuming. Computer software is available to quickly and efficiently examine electronic documents for style faults and proper use of English. Two examples are StyleWriter-the Plain English Editor, http://www.editorsoftware.com/ and ClearEdits, http://www.clearedits.com/. These programs are used with word processing grammar and spelling checkers. When using this software, you can activate the “Track Changes” function in your word processor to show your suggested changes on the document, which you can then email to the student. For keying other feedback in Word, use the Insert > Comment and email documents to students File > Send to > Mail Recipient.
B. Managerial
5. Assessment–Macros, Grading Codes and Grading Sheets
Create a chart of your common feedback on papers and assign an explanation with comment to these codes. Type only the code number when providing feedback or, for advanced users, create macros that record and play back typed keystrokes by using “hotkeys.” Next, enter assignment grades into Excel grading sheets that you can email to students. (But be careful not to send the entire grade workbook to recipients.) Within Excel, use File > Send to > Mail Recipient > Current Sheet. To create a grade sheet using Excel, see examples at http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/teaching/epstein/excel.pdf; http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/instructors/excelsheets.htm.
6. Create a Checklist and Calendar Your Deliverables
Before beginning a new class, create a checklist of all course deliverables and due dates. At the beginning of each workshop week, review the student assignments and how you will respond. Download Microsoft’s monthly calendar and prepare a student version for distribution to the students in your syllabus. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC011645641033.aspx
7. Maintain a Time Sheet
The importance of keeping track of your time cannot be understated. John Randolph said, “Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.” Many professionals, including lawyers, accountants and other consultants, use time sheets to capture the time they spend on projects and tasks. Why not adjunct faculty? It can be done manually, or through templates available on http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx, or other commercial software. Review your time sheet after each workshop week to see how you have spent your time. No doubt you will discover Pareto’s principle, also known as The 80/20 Rule, that 80 percent of your time is spent on 20 percent of your workload. Applying 80 percent of your time to the most important 20 percent of your tasks raises your effectiveness and productivity.
8. Create a Thread for Student Questions
When starting a new class, create one stand-alone thread for student questions. This saves time by establishing a central location for receiving and responding to student questions. This simple, proactive step addresses challenges before they become larger problems, and shows your interest and concern. It should be your first stop when logging online. Students sometimes feel isolated in distance learning; it is therefore advisable to respond daily and reply within 24 hours or less.
C. Social
9. Friendly, Social Environment
Monitor the pulse and tone of your online classroom. Create ground rules; beware of “flaming” or inappropriate conduct and students who post excessively; all can stymie conversation. Model appropriate behaviors and promptly address these matters and contact students off-line, if necessary.
D. Technical
10. Dependable Technology
Check that your computer and Internet connections are reliable, and use commercially available system utility and virus protection programs to keep your system running smoothly. Also, have a backup plan with access if your primary computer is unavailable, including libraries, cyber cafés, business centers, or friends and neighbors. Refer your student technology problems to the university technical support or help desk.
Notes:
Berge, Z. L. (1995). “Facilitating Computer Conferencing: Recommendations from the Field.” Educational Technology, 35(1), 22-30.
Palmer, P. (1998). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pickett, N., & Dodge, B. (2001). “Rubrics for Web Lessons.”
Retrieved March 3, 2006, from San Diego State University Web site: http:/_/_edweb.sdsu.edu/_webquest/_rubrics/_weblessons.htm
