Has anyone taught a course where you did not get to design the course-- your responsibilitie were just to e-mail and communicate with students, type commentary on their written work, and grade? What was the experience like?
I'm thinking I won't mind it since creating an online course is so much work-- and the pay for this university is VERY low (around $1100 a course)-- but I worry about disliking the curriculum.
I've not heard of this situation before, but I've seen some math courses that were designed around the self-paced software - the teacher served basically as the tutor - the software did the instruction, practice, and testing. The good teachers did plenty of tutoring, and the poor ones sat and graded papers for regular classes.
In this case I would be in charge of the grading/commenting and e-mailing. The student would be all across the country so it would be an online constructed course and I'd work from home. I think I'm going to try it.
> I've not heard of this situation before, but I've seen some > math courses that were designed around the self-paced > software - the teacher served basically as the tutor - the > software did the instruction, practice, and testing. The > good teachers did plenty of tutoring, and the poor ones sat > and graded papers for regular classes.
Is it independent study where students enroll whenever they want and then do the work in a certain period of time? Or do you facilitate discussions and grade their work on a schedule?
I've done everything in online teaching -- independent self-study and weekly facilitated courses. Right now I've got one school that provides all the lesson info and I get to create the assignments. I have another school where everything is already written and set up and I cannot change anything. Then my last school is the one where I wrote the courses I'm teaching.
These are all graduate and undergraduate college and univ courses that begin and end on a schedule and students complete their work on a weekly due date schedule.
Lee
On 11/05/07, rw wrote: > In this case I would be in charge of the grading/commenting and > e-mailing. The student would be all across the country so it > would be an online constructed course and I'd work from home. I > think I'm going to try it. > > >> I've not heard of this situation before, but I've seen some >> math courses that were designed around the self-paced >> software - the teacher served basically as the tutor - the >> software did the instruction, practice, and testing. The >> good teachers did plenty of tutoring, and the poor ones sat >> and graded papers for regular classes.
It's not independent study-- it's a regularly 8-week college writing course where everyone starts at the same time, has the same deadlines, etc.
I figure I'll try it. Since I have a different full-time job to be creative in, it might be nice to have a pre-designed course anyway, particularly considering its very low pay.
On 11/22/07, where is it? independent study or facilitated? wrote: > Is it independent study where students enroll whenever they want > and then do the work in a certain period of time? Or do you > facilitate discussions and grade their work on a schedule? > > I've done everything in online teaching -- independent self-study > and weekly facilitated courses. Right now I've got one school that > provides all the lesson info and I get to create the assignments. > I have another school where everything is already written and set > up and I cannot change anything. Then my last school is the one > where I wrote the courses I'm teaching. > > These are all graduate and undergraduate college and univ courses > that begin and end on a schedule and students complete their work > on a weekly due date schedule. > > Lee > > > > On 11/05/07, rw wrote: >> In this case I would be in charge of the grading/commenting and >> e-mailing. The student would be all across the country so it >> would be an online constructed course and I'd work from home. I >> think I'm going to try it. >> >> >>> I've not heard of this situation before, but I've seen some >>> math courses that were designed around the self-paced >>> software - the teacher served basically as the tutor - the >>> software did the instruction, practice, and testing. The >>> good teachers did plenty of tutoring, and the poor ones sat >>> and graded papers for regular classes.
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.
I've not heard of this situation before, but I've seen some
math courses that were designed around the self-paced
software - the teacher served basically as the tutor - the
software did the instruction, practice, and testing. The
good teachers did plenty of tutoring, and the poor ones sat
and graded pape...See More