I have five syllabi/course information packets finished for my fall classes; one more syllabus is almost done for a class that starts in October - three course information packets have already been distributed to students for the first set of 8-week classes starting 8/25. With my compressed online classes, scheduling is different and at least for my classes, students need to be ready to start work on or before the first day of class, which means they need the book, should have read the first chapter or two before class starts and be prepared to post assignments starting the first day. The early bird gets the worm - the late bird gets eaten by the cat, as they say! Sooooo, even though Im officially on vacation and spending time in the Redwoods this week, Im also already getting and responding to student emails [32 so far!!], the early birds are posting to our course management system Blackboard already [6 so far] and I check our registration system WebAdvisor daily so I can send the course info to anyone who registers late. It takes a little adjustment on both sides of the lectern but by redistributing the workload like this, it allows me to manage my classes with a very high degree of student contact and interaction, yet still have a great deal of freedom for things I want to do, even though I generally work more hours than I would in a classroom. The students who have taken my classes before know they can also redistribute their workload by starting early and relieve some of the crunch in their own lives so having it available early helps them too. The down side is that I work 365 days during the year, sometimes for just an hour or two and sometimes way more than 8 hours.....but the upside is that right now Im working in a gorgeous cabin in Trinidad and will have time for at least one lovely hike today plus a visit to the Eureka zoo and we are attending a fund-raiser this evening - as always with smartphone in hand to reply to student questions if necessary and laptop in the cabin for more intensive work needs. This may not work for everyone but it sure works for me!!
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 17:42:25 +0000
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