scholarly journals TEACHING COURSES ONLINE: HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE?

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Davis Lazarus

Studies show that temporal factors like workload and lack of release time inhibit faculty participation in developing and teaching online courses; however, few studies exist to gauge the time commitment. This longitudinal case study, presented at the Seventh Annual Sloan-C International Conference on ALN, examined the amount of time needed to teach three asynchronous online courses at The University of Michigan-Dearborn from Winter 1999 through Winter 2000. Twenty-five students were enrolled in each course. Self-monitoring was used to measure the amount of time required to complete the following activities: 1) reading and responding to emails; 2) reading, participating in, and grading 10 online discussions; and 3) grading 15 assignments. Using a stopwatch, the investigator timed and recorded the number of minutes needed for each activity. Also, all messages and assignments were archived and frequency counts were recorded. The weekly, mean number of minutes and assignments was entered on line graphs for analysis. The data showed that teaching each online course required 3 to 7 hours per week, with the greatest number of emails and amount of time required during the first and last 2-weeks of the semesters. Participation in and grading of the discussions took the greatest amount of time and remained steady across the semester. However unlike many live courses, the students participated more in thediscussions than the instructor did. The number of assignments that were submitted each week steadily increased over each semester. This case study indicates that the time needed to teach online courses falls within the range of reasonable expectations for teaching either live or online courses and represents the beginning of this area of inquiry. Consequently, additional studies are needed with a variety of instructors across a variety of courses and disciplines to further pinpoint faculty time commitment.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Velda Arnaud ◽  
Yongsheng Sun

Student engagement in an online class has always been a challenge to faculty. We all know that online courses can be difficult for some students, and online discussions do not always turn out as planned. How do we maximize our online communication effectiveness? In a case study of an Emotional Intelligence course in a community college setting, we looked at this through a sociological lens and built on the perspective of socialization theories and conceptions to see students quickly become engaged in discussions with their classmates and openly share their concerns. Data was analyzed and lessons learned.


EAD em FOCO ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Correia

Frequentemente em cursos online, os alunos participam em discussões que ocorrem em sistemas virtuais. Estas discussões online são muitas vezes atividades obrigatórias que contam para a nota final do curso. Mesmo que, em muitas ocasiões, os alunos considerem improdutiva a exigência de participar nestas discussões, eles participam na mesma por causa do peso que têm na avaliação final. Discussões online sem significado e de pouca qualidade são muitas vezes o resultado desta atividade. Um estudo de caso foi realizado com uma disciplina online de pós-graduação em tecnologia educativa em universidade nos Estados Unidos. Este curso oferece duas estratégias inovadoras para superar os desafios colocados pelas discussões online: (1) moderação de discussões facilitadas pelos colegas; (2) curadoria de conteúdos digitais. Este estudo de caso evidencia a eficácia destas estratégias e a possibilidade de as reusar, transferir para diferentes ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem e implementar em diferentes sistemas. Palavras-chave: Discussões online, Facilitação pelos colegas, Curadoria de conteúdos digitais.  How to create and sustain high quality interactions in online courses?: The potential of peers moderation and digital curation AbstractParticipation in online discussions are often required from students while taking online classes. These are often mandatory activities that count towards the course final grade. Therefore, even though in many occasions online students find this requirement unproductive, they still participate with fear of lowering their grades. The results are often meaningless and superficial online conversations. A case study has been conducted with a postgraduate educational technology online course at a large university in the United States. This course offers two innovative strategies to overcome this issue: (1) peer facilitation, and (2) digital content curation. This case study offers evidence of these strategies effectiveness. This case study demonstrates the effectiveness of these strategies and the possibility of reusing them, transferring them to different virtual learning environments and implementing them in different systems. Keywords: Online discussions, Peer facilitation, Digital content curation.


Author(s):  
Karine Picot-Coupey ◽  
Elodie Huré ◽  
Lauren Piveteau

Purpose The purpose of this research is two-fold: (1) to investigate the challenges e-tailers are confronted with when synchronizing clicks with bricks into an omni-channel perspective and (2) to shed light on the possible ways to overcome these challenges in order to successfully implement an omni-channel strategy. Design/methodology/approach To answer our research questions, we draw on an in-depth longitudinal case study conducted within the French on-line eyewear retailer Direct Optic from January 2013 to March 2015. From an ethnographic perspective, we document the evolution of the retailing company’s decisions and processes as they moved towards defining and implementing an omni-channel strategy. Research was carried out using primary (1500+ hours of participant observation and 118 interviews) and secondary data sources. A conceptualizing content analysis was conducted both manually and with NVivo software. Findings First, our results show that the challenges faced in shifting to omni-channel strategy are so numerous and so engaging that, de facto, it is impossible to evolve directly from a multi-channel, siloed strategy to an omni-channel strategy without any transition. Second, throughout this transformative process, our result show that the challenges faced by the company evolved gradually in terms of scope and priority, and can be categorized into two main categories: the strategy-related challenges (organizational, cultural, managerial, marketing and resources) which were the highest priority in the first stage and the development-related challenges (retailing mix, information systems and CRM) which became the highest priority during the second stage. Research limitations/implications We emphasize the importance of carefully orchestrating how strategy-related and development-related challenges are addressed as, for retailers engaged in going omni-channel, this involves a complete transformation of their configuration. Originality/value Our study contributes to channel management and retailing research by (1) deepening the conceptualization of multi-, cross- and omni-channel retailing, (2) exploring the nature, importance and sequence of the strategy-related challenges and development-related challenges when shifting to an omni-channel strategy, and (3) providing insights into how successfully navigating the transformative process to be omni-channel requires investigating different possible solutions, and further testing and re-testing them, before deploying the appropriate ones. Up to our knowledge, it is one of the first studies to empirically investigate the challenges of an e-tailer when moving towards an omni-channel strategy.


Author(s):  
Brian H. Philips

There have been numerous methodologies, models, and tools created to support successful user-system interface (USI) design. One such tool is USI design guidelines, which is important for both software developers and human factors professionals in developing a good user interface. This paper discusses the creation of interactive USI design guidelines intended for software developers to use when creating applications in the Microsoft® WindowsTM graphical software environment. User-system interface design guidelines are an important part of the software design process and complement other human factors activities that support good USI design. Differences between printed and on-line guidelines documents suggest developing on-line guidelines to support the development of WindowsTM-based GE Information Services applications. The content of the GE guidelines is tailored toward company applications, using examples of both good and bad user interface designs to illustrate guideline principles. The guidelines also include a sample application that incorporates the guidelines in its user interface. Components that contribute to the effectiveness of the guidelines, such as quality, time required to use, relevance, and complexity, are explored.


Author(s):  
Rana Shahini ◽  
Hugh C. Davis ◽  
Kate Borthwick ◽  
Will Baker

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) attract worldwide learners from diverse backgrounds and cultures. When learners communicate directly in this multicultural space, there is potential for new cultural practices to be articulated or transcended into a new form of knowledge that blurs cultural boundaries. Our research is attempting to identify methods of facilitating such behaviour in MOOCs. This paper presents a case study to investigate existing cultural communicative practices between MOOC learners through their online discussions. Learners’ comments were coded and analysed against the practice-oriented Intercultural Communication Awareness (ICA) model. Results show that a very limited number of interactions had elements of transcultural awareness and that the interaction and peer communication decreased as the course proceeded. These observations suggest that a collaborative pedagogical approach may interconnect learners well in the MOOC community.


2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Polster ◽  
C Thiels ◽  
S Axer ◽  
G Classen ◽  
A Hofmann-Peters ◽  
...  

1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (02) ◽  
pp. 73-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Rowan ◽  
P. Byass ◽  
R. W. Snow

SummaryThis paper reports on a computerised approach to the management of an epidemiological field trial, which aimed at determining the effects of insecticide-impregnated bed nets on the incidence of malaria in children. The development of a data system satisfying the requirements of the project and its implementation using a database management system are discussed. The advantages of this method of management in terms of rapid processing of and access to data from the study are described, together with the completion rates and error rates observed in data collection.


Author(s):  
Alexandra Davidson ◽  
Lisa Romkey ◽  
Allison Van Beek

Due to the increasing prevalence of asynchronous learning platforms, the development and implementation of online discussion boards have become important considerations in the design of post-secondary learning environments. This research is conducted as a case study of the online discussion board use in a small engineering education graduate course, consisting of in-class and online discussion components. By varying the structure of the online discussion board to allow different types of student interaction, the study identifies trends in discussion board use, specifically pertaining to student participation, student collaboration, and the integration between in-class and online discussions. As a result, the study provides insight into the utility and limitations of online discussion boards in post-secondary courses.  


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-152
Author(s):  
J. Deus ◽  
C. Junque ◽  
J. Pujol ◽  
P. Vendrell ◽  
M. Vila ◽  
...  

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