Time Management
During this quarter, my students have two weeks to complete a module. I find that this time frame does not work for me. My students do not submit their work until the end of the two weeks. Therefore, I feel like I am always behind the eight ball when it comes to responding to them. I also believe that this abundance of time effects the learning process.
Cherise,
Do you have control over changing it? What about breaking those in to at least weekly assignments? At least then students get in to a routine that something is due each week and more evenly breaks up your load...
Herbert Brown III
I feel time management is the biggest problem in my classes. Some students actually fail because they wait to the last minute to do their work. I send out e-mail at the start of class and weekly reminders to inform them about their time management and how important it is to their success in this class and life. Do you have any more recommendation to improve students time management?
Kim,
The first couple of online courses I taught allowed all of the assignments, etc. to be completed at the students' leisure up to the end of the course. I quickly realized that very few of my students had the ability to self-regulate their time and responsibilities relative to the course. I now provide hard deadlines for all assignments that I require. This also allows me to guide the students learning in better ways. I don't have students just completing introductory materials when much of the rest of the class is on the more advanced topics. I also have deadlines for discussion forums as well to make sure the class stays on track. Then you have a better idea of where the students are at throughout the course and can provide them assistance before the end of the course when they don't have anything completed.
Herbert Brown III
At the school I teach at we have our online courses set up as weekly assignments. We still see a lot of the students waiting until the end of the week to complete these assignments, but they are still in the class the next week and our feedback is required no later than three days after all assignment deadlines have passed.
So the weekly schedule works good at our institution. But I think where a problem is happening is our staffs, Time Management grading everything, since each staff member is assigned 3-4 classes of 20-30 students each.
This is giving our instructors about 60-120 assignments to grade each week. That is a lot!
I agree that time management seems to be an issue with some students. To assist them with this I send out weekly emails and announcements as reminders as to what is coming up and various hints for success. It helps to keeps students on track. I also find that providing adequate feedback in the grade comments help students get back on track. For instance some new online students think that all the work can be completed and submitted as one at the end of the five week session. They are surprised when they see points taken off for late submissions or no submissions. Within the first week of class students see the grade comments and some get back on track.
Afrodite,
All good points. I think it is important to give students a little more guidance, especially early in their coursework, to help them build time management skills. Many people do not have good time management and organization skills. By providing them "prompts" we are helping them learn to manage their time.
Herbert Brown III
Providing students with "prompts" during the course has improved the students' timely submission of course assignments in my experience as well. It has also helped to keep me on track with grading assignments in a timely manner. As others have mentioned, I did feel as if I was bombarded with assignments to grade because students were submitting on the last day, etc.
Many of the students that I have taught in the online learning environment are working full time or have families to take care of, and a little reminder or extra push may be all they need to remind them of a deadline or stress the importance of completing coursework in a timely manner. Helping the students learn to manage their time results in a win-win situation for the student and instructor.
Does your CMS have the capability to send out automated emails? If that could be done ahead of the school term with set reminder messages for due dates, I bet that would be a time management help for the instructor and student.
Shelly,
That would be helpful. Our CMS does not provide that functionality, but I could easily do that manually. Just make up the message information to send out each semester, and make a note in my calendar when to send the messages to the class. Good idea.
Herbert Brown III
Afrodite,
I like what you do in terms of sending out reminders and hints for success. What do some of your "hints for success" look like? Perhaps you could share an example.
Thanks, Maren
I agree that time management is critical in online educational success. I facilitate courses that last 5-weeks long. Often, I see how quickly students can get behind and become frustrated in just the first week going into the second week. I try to stress the importance of staying on task from day 1. Some ways I do this is by calling and touching base with each student in the first day or so of class starting. I do my best to talk with each student or at the very least communicate via email or text. I have had students thank me for reaching out so early. I think this has prevented many students from getting lost in the early stage of the class.
I find that if you remind your students, and also give them the feedback regarding how timeliness will have a positive impact on them knowing their grades by receiving them soon after submitting the work, is very helpful to not only the learning process, but time for the instructor with which to more objectively grade the work.
I do feel like a two week course is a stretch and that it is extremely important in this case to manage your time wisely and get to the points of the lesson in an effective manner that lets the learner feel as though they are getting the most out of the online or classromm experience.
I agree that two weeks is a good amount of time and I agree with the idea that students will cram the information in at the last minute. I think that on some level that it is the nature of society these days. One thing I like to do is constantly remind the students about the assignment due and during chat times, ask them what they are going to write about and the different arguments they are going to explore. At the very least this will help them get their thoughts organized as they start. At the end of the day, however, getting things in at the last minute is a trait shared among all students....what strategies have others found to be effective?
Scott
Time Management is a key function in the success of an online course. Both for the student and the instructor. For the student I stress every week the requirements due and that I am very strict on deadlines and the penalty for late work. I reason with them that I personally want them to succeed in my course. I also encourage them to communicate with me and insure that they get immediate feedback on any and all issues.
A few students in our program wait until the last minute to complete their on line training. but when a stundent chooses to do this usually there are consequences that I explain before the start of the course. Remember it is the students choice.
Jim,
You may be held to the specifics of your institution; however, I know in my early experiences I tried to have open-ended deadlines in the course. What I found was that many students put off the work until about the last 1-2 weeks of the course and thought they could do it all then...obviously they could not. Since then I help them with their time management by providing key deadlines for materials throughout the course. I do try to be a little flexible when life issues arise; however, this definitely helps the students stay on track.
Herbert Brown III
It is very normal for students to procrastinate turning in assignments regardless of the timeline that is provided. I have been teaching online for 14 years and regardless of the school for which I have taught, many students wait until the final day to submit assignments. Something I have discovered is that many students are so busy during the week that they reserve a lot of time on weekends to dedicate to their assignments.
Since time management is a constraint for everyone, I have also found it helpful to discuss time management strategies with the students so that they can make more effective use of time. However, I tie these concepts back to their lives and expand it well beyond the benefits of time management for a course. Instead, the benefits of time management can be applied to a professional career and to teach students that time is the most valuable resource they have because lost time is lost forever.
It is also helpful to explain to students that if they all wait until the last minute to turn in assignments that it will create a horrible time crunch on the instructor and that will limit how quickly an instructor can respond to the student. In other words, it is beneficial for the instructor to explain his or her situation in order to create a team effort. Students do not think about these things so it is important to mention them. The analogy is when someone in a work environment delays doing his or her job that affects a team effort.
Finally, it is helpful to include time management concepts in discussions or in course announcements as reminders especially when important assignments or assessments are coming due in the near future. Students will get distracted and it is the role and duty of the instructor to send periodic reminders to an entire class or to an individual student as needed.
