next »

[mosy_worths]

I'm not sure if any remember me, but I posted awhile back about how I would be starting an online teaching position and was excited and looking for advice.

I'm now halfway through and I hate it. The students are disengaged and unprepared, and no amount of emails, phone calls, or reply posts can get them to involve themselves in class more. Over half the class are outright failing, based on participation requirements only (established by the college, not me).

In addition, I am having trouble keeping up, spending many late nights responding to posts. I am required to respond 'significantly' to all student posts, meaning 100 words or more. Not sure how to respond with 100 words or more to "i liked the sit but it was hard to see coz alot of stuff". Now do that 14 times, 6 or 7 times a week. And I'm not sure if it has to do with money or what, but no one seems to care that students are failing, only that I respond to each and every post. Oh, and the content they have created has multiple repetitions and errors, but I'm not allowed to change it, only report the issues, then deal with students who blame me for the inconsistencies.

Tell me, those of you who have had more experience, is this all normal?! And if so, why the hell do you continue to teach online?

Mosy

[fosca]

I'm allowed to make up my own content, but in terms of student behavior/achievement, yeah, that's about right.  I keep teaching online because the students want to take classes online, and the administration are very heavily pushing online classes, and it's overall less exhausting to me than face-to-face classes.

And I tell the students all of these negative things about online classes in my mandatory orientation (they have to listen to it to continue with the class), how difficult they are, how much work students need to put in, what is an appropriate response, etc., and figure when they ignore me and go on to fail, it's their choice. 

When I did teach for an online school with canned content, and the students complained about the content, I told them "I actually don't make up these assignments, I just grade them--if you have problems with them, you need to talk to the administration."  Which got the heat off me, but I also was not rehired after my first semester--and yes, I suspect those two things are related.  Then again, the students at this online school were so much worse than even my community college freshies (and these were theoretically juniors and seniors), I wasn't unhappy to stop.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

I'm so tempted to guess where you are, because I have a good guess, but I'll refrain.

The first rule in online teaching is to accept a high rate of attrition. There isn't much you can do to affect that rate.

The second rule is to copy/paste. Do you keep a word file with your most frequently used comments?

I adore teaching online and I prefer it to face-to-face for many subjects, but it has taken me five years to be really good at it.

[yemaya]

I have my suspicions as well.  I generally like the online teaching and agree with Touched that it's less exhausting, but I face the same problems with lousy school-designed content and unprepared and unmotivated students.  There's a higher failure rate, and there's also the students who go for online courses because they (inaccurately) have a rep for being the easy route to a degree.  These students sign up expecting that they'll have little to no work, and then they give up when it's harder that you thought, or they blame you.  I do tell students who complain about the content that I'm not the author, because I'm simply not taking the heat for other people's incompetence, but I do it diplomatically.  So far, I haven't been "fired," but I can sympathize with your frustration about being stuck with lousy course materials.

[mosy_worths]

Well, I guess I'll take empathy if no one can offer the opinion that this is just a class of bad seeds or difficult institution to work with, lol.

I have begun to copy and paste, which is quite helpful when over half the class hasn't competed the assignment and the rubric needs to be filled out anyway.

The confusing part in all this is students who do sloppy work on one assignment a week (out of 6) and are failing so badly there's no way to catch up. Why would they continue to do any work at all?!

I was offered another class already and I will be turning it down. At this point the work is as mind numbing as data entry and pays about the same as well. :(

[libarts]

This sounds like a bad place to work. I taught online for quite a while, and we designed our own content--and no one made me respond to each post with 100 words. That's ridiculous. I do think lower retention/success is a problem for just about every instutution that offers online classes. In my experience, the students who stuck it out were pretty motivated--above average, really. So don't let this bad experience sour you on all online teaching . . .

[mountainguy]

One thing I heard at a pedagogy conference a few years ago that stuck with me is that burnout for online instructors is inversely correlated with the amount of professional training and support they receive. So the problem may be more institutional than you.

FWIW, I've never understood the "you have no control over course content" idea in any teaching situation, online or not. I get the need for standardized learning outcomes and assignments across sections, but if the instructional process is micromanaged to the point that individual instructors are unable explain particular concepts or contradictions in the material, it becomes an exercise in frustration for all involved.

[larryc]

Are you working for the University of Phoenix or some place similar?

The first rule in online teaching is to accept a high rate of attrition. There isn't much you can do to affect that rate.

The second rule is to copy/paste.

Yes and yes. And get your job satisfaction from your best students, not from your worst.

[zuzu_]

I just wanted echo larryc's point about throwing your mental energy into the few students who are showing interest and making an effort. Lavish attention on them; use your copy/paste sheet for the rest.

Another mental trick is to remember that even the crappy students may be good people. We tend to equate students' identities with how well they perform in our class. It might make you feel less angry and frustrated if you think about these students as good people who are in over their heads in a foreign cultural environment.

I agree that not having control of course content makes all of the difference. When I was in a similarly restrictive situation, I just worked around everything as much as possible. What's the worst case scenario? You don't get renewed. What's the best case scenario? Students actually have a productive learning experience.

I thought I hated online instruction after two years teaching with a course-in-a-can for-profit place, until I finally got a new job with full autonomy course design. Now I find online instructional design surprisingly exhilarating--so much so that I may even do a dissertation on it.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

Another mental trick is to remember that even the crappy students may be good people. We tend to equate students' identities with how well they perform in our class. It might make you feel less angry and frustrated if you think about these students as good people who are in over their heads in a foreign cultural environment.

Yes! They are also busy people. I am currently enrolled in online courses myself, and I haven't engaged in the course as much I'm supposed to this week, because I haven't had a moment to breathe. Many students who are in online classes don't have enough time for them, and that's a matter of life circumstances, not stupidity. (Well, not entirely.)

[erikjensen]

Wow, sorry to see that you've had such a negative experience with online teaching. I agree with others that attrition will be worse than campus-based courses. But the quality of the work I receive online is sometimes incredible and the teaching experience is generally enjoyable. One key for me is that I try to screen out students who are unlikely to be successful (at this time). Students must take several self-tests (introduction to online learning, introduction to the course, etc.) and any students who don't complete the required work for the first week get dropped as a "no show".

It sounds like your school might be more interested in money and customer satisfaction than learning, so perhaps these options are not available to you.

[yemaya]

I thought I hated online instruction after two years teaching with a course-in-a-can for-profit place, until I finally got a new job with full autonomy course design. Now I find online instructional design surprisingly exhilarating--so much so that I may even do a dissertation on it.

I'm also sympathetic.  I teach at one of these places and hope to find a better job as soon as humanly possible.  I don't mind the students - most of them are decent human beings - but I have absolutely no say in the course and if I'm feeling generous, I'd describe the materials are shoddy.  I'm also not allowed to penalize students for cheating beyond a slap on the wrist (i.e. don't do it again), yet the school doesn't seem to understand why plagiarism and other forms of cheating are rampant. 

[csgirl]

Wow, I teach online and see none of this. I design my own materials, try to keep the students engaged via online discussion, and require pretty much the same work as in my FtoF courses. I certainly have students who flake out on me, but I see the same thing in the FtoF courses.

Just curious - for those of you who can't use your own materials - are you teaching at for-profits, CC's, or non-profit 4 year schools? 

[octoprof]

Wow, I teach online and see none of this. I design my own materials, try to keep the students engaged via online discussion, and require pretty much the same work as in my FtoF courses. I certainly have students who flake out on me, but I see the same thing in the FtoF courses.

Just curious - for those of you who can't use your own materials - are you teaching at for-profits, CC's, or non-profit 4 year schools?  

Are you teaching online at the same place you are teaching face to face, csgirl? I think that might be the difference.

I teach online at the same place I teach face to face (state university). I have full autonomy over course development/design/material and have loved loved loved developing online courses. My school has a reasonable amount of training and instruction support expertise available as well.

Attrition is higher in online than in face to face, for sure. However, my online students tend to, on average, perform the same or slightly better than my face to face students and my hybrid course students.  

[roaringmice]

I teach online at a university with canned content, but we're allowed to change assignments and etc. other than in the first week (as some students may have already begun the week one materials before the course starts.) In addition, I do not have to respond to every single student post - I just need to respond often and substantially.

The canned content of the course I teach is really pretty good. And I add to it, of course.

Cheating is taken extremely seriously at my university. The university has never failed to back me up when I've penalized a student for plagiarism and reported them.

Perhaps I'm lucky?