Pre-written courses are nice because you don't have to do anything
but teach. The flip side is that if there's an assignment you think
could be done more effectively in a different way, you can't change
it.
What kind of turnaround do they expect with grading? Some schools
give only two days, others three, and some give a week. Depending on
how many students you have, two days could be very difficult.
Is this your first online class and are you teaching full time and
just doing this in your spare time? If so, a two-day grading
requirement in a writing class will be very difficult. You should
negotiate that with your online dean and just let them know that
grading writing takes a LOT of time and you're working a day job too
so 2 days won't be possible most weeks. Maybe they'll work with you
that.
Do you know yet how many students you will have? I've had as many as
30 students in an online writing class.
Have you seen the course to see how many hours you'll have to put in
on facilitating discussions and grading writing?
Will you have to set up groups for peer review (that takes a LOT of
time, too).
What are the requirements for grading the writing papers? Some
schools require a certain number and/or kind of comments on graded
work that you send back to students. For example, one school where I
taught Eng comp required instructors to mark writing errors and
explain corrections and then write several statements about content
for every paragraph of writing and then complete a rubric and then
write at least two paragraphs of summary comments. WHEW -- try doing
that for 30 papers in two days!!!
But..... the good news is that it can be done. The most important tip
is to keep a word document with all the writing comments you make on
papers and another document with every content comment you make on
every paper for every assignment. Then the next time you teach the
course, you have your comments ready to copy/paste - just do a few
minor changes to personalize the comments a little bit for each
student.
Actually for grading writing I have macros set up so that I can hit
one key and my comments are typed automatically in blue bold print.
For example, students have trouble with apostrophes and possessive
noun forms. So I hit a pre-programmed key on my keyboard and the
words "use apostrophe with possessive nouns" is typed right after the
error in the paper.
I've taught Eng comp and developmental writing online for several
different schools around the country for about 3 years. I finally
gave up teaching Eng and writing because the work is double what it
is for other subjects and the pay is the same. I just got an offer to
teach writing classes for a university that pays 1500 for a 5 week
class and caps the enrollment at 12-15 for writing classes. I've
asked to see the curriculum before I decide -- it depends on how many
and what types of writing assignments they have in the course.
If I can help in any way, please let me know.
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