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[yemaya]

I'm going to be starting a new venture teaching online.  The courses are 8 weeks in length.  While it's possible to do a BA in my field entirely online at this university, the students are, for the most part, non-majors.  It's a legitimate and respectable brick and mortar school and not a diploma mill, but it does have a big nontraditional student body and the online program is designed to be accelerated.  Would I be wrong then, to assume that this means that I'm teaching what is ordinarily a 15 or 16-week course in 8 weeks and to design the workload accordingly?  Or, should I be scaling back a bit?

[antiphon1]

A three hour class is a three hour (or whatever class regardless of the semester length.   However, you may need to adjust deadlines for your grading load. 

[kohelet]

Yeyema, I've been in a very similar situation--moving a class from a regular f2f semester to a compressed online summer semester--and that's the assumption I made.  I made this explicit with my students.  I have as one of my introductory posts in a "Course Q&A" forum something about the workload, and how they should be glad to know that I've taught this as a "regular" semester course and that they're getting all the same learning opportunities, but that it's going to be a heckuvalot of work.  They've always been very receptive to having the bar set high at the beginning of the course.  These are graduate students in a professional degree program, though; I'm pretty sure my undergraduates would react differently.  To protect the legitimacy of the degree, though, I see this as the only real option.

. . . All that said, I'm also a believer in teaching a narrower range of topics very well--so that they really get it (GROK IT!)--instead of a teaching a broader range of topics such that it will all be forgotten 3 months later, but that's my philosophy in f2f courses as well.

. . . AND, I'm also a believer in adapting my teaching style to the online environment, so same learning objectives and roughly the same workload, but somewhat different pedagogy.

[littlefred]

Yemaya, I would probably ask the chair, but from my own experience, usually it is made to cover the same material as a full course.

However, that may or may not mean they do the same number of assignments. There are, of course, differences in delivery which may eliminate or change assignments, but you may also be expected to change some expectations to meet the work level expected.

I have develolped several classes with this model of a full course in a compressed time frame. Some have been the same amount of work expected, but the ones that seem to work out the best are the ones where we cut the number of assignments, or tweaked them to cover a few things at one time rather than expect them to complete all of the workload from a full-term course.

*other than reading. The amount of reading really becomes a lot, very quickly, but if you communicate it at the beginning, I find there is a better success rate.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. I'd be happy to share other ideas if you need them!

[proftowanda]

I also am kind enough to reassure my online students that, since they are paying the same tuition for the same three credits, they will get the equivalent workload -- but the workload may not include quite the same components.  

Now, that's owing to my online courses being intro-level, with a lot of 13th-graders, and I have found that they just may not be able to do the same longer paper as in my face-to-face courses, because most literally need "face time" with me to make that work (that is, to get them to go to the campus library to do the work).  Also, when my online courses also are accelerated courses with shorter terms, the total amound of work would not work; many would not keep up with the shorter assignments due several times per week.  

So the longer assignment is replaced with more complex work to do, more analysis and synthesis of course readings, in other assignments.  But again, the total amount of work and time spent on the course is designed to be the same for the same amount of credits -- and, again, the same amount of tuition.  If not, my conscience would bother me about having students spend so much to then do and get so much less.

[yemaya]

Ideas are welcome.  These are history courses, and it's all undergrads.  My thought was to take my traditional 16-week class and to spend more time focusing on the high points rather than covering quite as much material as I did in the classroom.  I do want to emphasize primary sources.  I'm thinking of having a short paper analyzing a history website for my survey-level course. 

In the past, I've had anywhere from 2 major papers and 2 exams to 6 or 7 papers and no exams for a writing-intensive course. I'm not sure that this is appropriate for an online course.  My thought was to have 2-3 shorter papers, weekly quizzes and discussion board.  I'm not sure about the reading load.  Normally, I'd have about 50 pages of textbook-type reading a week and anywhere from 5-30 pages of primary source reading, depending on the difficulty of the material.

[madhatter]

What others have said. We have 15 week ftf classes and then 8 week online classes in the summer. Same workload, compressed format. I've had to streamline some of the assignments and shorten the cycle between them, but the content is the same and the workload is definitely more intense... for the students and for me.

[kohelet]

Just to drop in a timely anecdote:  I had 15 students enrolled for my online course.  The syllabus became available a couple of days ago.  I'm down to 10.  :-)

[yemaya]

Just to drop in a timely anecdote:  I had 15 students enrolled for my online course.  The syllabus became available a couple of days ago.  I'm down to 10.  :-)

Good point.  I am new to this institution.  In addition to keeping the class substantive without overloading them, I have to consider my own workload.  I have no idea what the typical class size is because that too, will factor into the workload I give them.

What others have said. We have 15 week ftf classes and then 8 week online classes in the summer. Same workload, compressed format. I've had to streamline some of the assignments and shorten the cycle between them, but the content is the same and the workload is definitely more intense... for the students and for me.

Thanks!

[spork]

You will need to simplify things to minimize the time you spend navigating the user interface and grading assignments. For example, have students submit writing as online text rather than attachments that you must download, save, and re-upload to send back to students.

I recommend creating a bunch of short assignments based on readings, worth about 30 percent of the final grade, to force students to keep pace.

Many students assume that online courses are easier than f2f courses, when they require greater motivation and time management skills. Emphasize from the beginning that you are doing a full semester's worth of work in half the time.

[yemaya]

Thanks Spork!  A good point.