Creating Margin in Your Teaching Schedule
Time to read: 3 minutes
Issue
Have you ever been overwhelmed by your teaching schedule? Maybe not because of the students or the subject, but because of how your time was set up. Imagine you just finished teaching an online course and are now going to teach a course in person, or you're doing both - sometimes simultaneously! We see you HyFlex* instructors! Making the pivot to online learning and back to face-to-face instruction several times a day (or within the week) can make us rely heavily on the tools and systems we put in place to communicate with our students.
Explore
5 strategies to help you find margin in your teaching schedule
Refer students to the schedule
Then refer them to it again. In one of my HyFlex courses, where students are logging in either online or attending in person, I communicate the daily and weekly agenda more than once and link several times to the schedule where this information is published. Course announcements can help me keep this information in front of the students on a routine basis, but so can links I place within the virtual meeting. In addition, simply mentioning these scheduling reminders out loud to a live audience or in a recording can also help students better understand what I expect from them and engage more readily.
Automate repetitive processes
Set up routine announcements in advance. Pages and modules can go live on a certain date, and reminders can be generated automatically based on completed tasks. Dive into the features of your learning management system (LMS) and determine what items in your modules can be automated.
Create simple rubrics
I am a big fan of rubrics, but I don’t always use sliding scales of points. Instead, for initial draft assignments or low-stakes activities, I often take the instructions from the assignment and list each action item as a criterion as either complete or incomplete. I then leave space to provide overall feedback. This makes grading simpler and easier to review.
Try voice-recorded feedback
I was skeptical at first at the time-saving claims of voice-recorded feedback, but now that I better understand how to use the feature, it works great! Not only does it save me time from typing but it also helps students hear my tone of voice and serves as a bonus layer to instructor-to-student engagement.
Use of a community forum
Even in my face-to-face classes, I find that a community forum discussion board streamlines Q&A, promotes engagement between students, and helps me avoid answering the same questions multiple times. By creating a FAQ discussion board and I encourage students to check there first to get their questions answered.
I allow students to ask and answer questions in the forum — giving students agency over the conversation and the resources shared.
As schools continue offering more remote learning opportunities, chances are you know a fellow faculty member who, like yourself, is balancing online and in-person courses. Share this article with a friend or colleague who is looking to find balance in delivering the best learning experience — regardless of format.
Wait, There’s More!
To find out more about our creating margin in your teaching schedule or to share feedback and suggestions of your own: sign up for the newsletter, and stay tuned for updates to the blog.
As a thank you for subscribing, you’ll get access to one of our most popular guides, an Online Course Checklist — for FREE!
*HyFlex - The hybrid flexible, or HyFlex modality is an instructional approach that combines face-to-face and online learning. Each class session is offered in person, synchronously online, and asynchronously online. Given these options, students can decide how and where to engage. This flexibility can impact how often a student physically attends class and how they interact with their instructors and peers.