Overwhelm comes with the territory of the teacher. But the online classroom is especially fragmenting. I think this is due to the fact that we work with so many intangibles. Instead of a stack of papers, we have a set of online submissions. Instead of a series of conversations in person during a set time before or after class, communication with our students is distributed across our weeks, often in short replies to their emails, and embedded in online discussions. It demands more of our mental capacity. And when the demand on our mental capacity increases, the temperature on the overwhelmometer rises.
I was talking with a good friend this week who is teaching his first online course, and he is experiencing this in full force. I’d like to share with you the two pieces of advice that I shared with him.
When you are overwhelmed by your online course(s)
1. Give yourself permission to keep things simple. My friend is developing his course while teaching it. He’s teaching week one, while creating content and learning activities for weeks two and three. You can feel the weight of this can’t you? I told him to keep his course as simple as possible, to put 25% of his energies into development and 75% of his energy into facilitating the course. Student evaluations tell us this over and over: course design is important, but how we facilitate the course is what really matters to them.
2. Focus your teaching energy on the top 3 habits of the excellent online teacher. The first is proactive communication. Be consistent with getting out your weekly email, and prompt in replies. The second is to be prompt in your grading. Put assignment grading in your calendar so that you can make sure it gets done. The third is to give your students meaningful and useful feedback in discussions and on larger assignments. If you are overwhelmed, I want to be that voice of assurance that says, “You don’t need to work yourself to death this week; just figure out how you can engage these three things well, and you’re going to be okay.”
I want to see online educators move technology into the background so that they can do what they do best--teaching. My hope is to help teachers transition from face-to-face settings to the online classroom with a sense of confidence gained through the competence they develop.
Having recognized that the absence of of face to face teaching does not mean the absence of being overwhelmed at times, it is imperative to follow a stratetegic plan of focussing more energy on facilitating the course as mentioned in this article. Maintaining the 3 habits of an excellent online teacher are on point. As teachers we need to be proactive with our communication to our students, being on time with grading assignments and dicussions and giving them meaningful and positive feedback. If we get lax, they get lax. I learned that with paper grading. Feedback is also absolutely important for all learners validating what they have learned. Thanks.
I agree in any teaching format: communication, consistency, immediate feedback are essential.
Yes Allison,
Feedback is so important! During the Distance Learning last 4th quarter, all of the levels of our courses were lumped together i.e. all 2D’s got the same assignment, all 3D got the same as well. So we were 3 teachers with MANY students and i was constantly looking online and grading anything that was turned in. I almost always provided some type of feedback regarding their work. Either correcting a misunderstanding they had, or suggesting some further work on the project. Your statement “if you get lax, they get lax hit me because we had HORRIBLE engagement with our students and I had a very long list of parents to contact because the students were not engaging. I realize I will need to make my courses extra stimulating (with videos, online galleries, how-to videos of me demonstrating a technique, and any other things I hope to learn during this course.
Our team of three teachers who had the responsibility of all sections of English for the eleventh grade devised a system to keep from becoming overwhelmed and be able to stay current with responses, instruction, and grading. We developed a chart to cover the hours of 8 a.m. to 7:0 p.m. We separated the tasks into three categories: Messages (responding to questions from students), Assignments (assigned lessons), and Grading (assessments). The chart included the days Monday through Friday. Each of us signed up for the tasks throughout the day (5 days of the week). We did not focus on our own 150 students that we had in a regular brick and mortar building. We taught the eleventh grade as a whole and responded to Messages, Assignment, and Grading as they came up–randomly. Soon students discovered that all their teachers were on the same page and monitoring them in real-time (except for those doing assignments in the middle of the night.). Real-time to them was getting an almost immediate response to questions or feedback on their work.
Using this chart as our guide helped us feel organized and less overwhelmed.
Thank you for your tips. I find them very useful.