Efficient eTeaching

by Mark Fullmer

When I started teaching hybrid online classes, traditional tasks took significantly more time. I had to:

  • Make (and frequently update) an online gradebook
  • Click through essays online (took longer than flipping through paper printouts)
  • Clarify through multiple emails to individual students instructions (in class, those questions were asked and answered once)
  • Provide typed feedback instead of handwritten marginalizations
  • Make, grade, and record quizzes.
  • Check multiple email accounts frequently (this pertains to all adjunct instructors, really)

Here are a few things I've found to smooth the process:
  • Allow students help explain and clarify. In a sidebar on my website I have a chat window where students can type short messages. -->
  • Post to the website answers to emailed questions I think the whole class might be wondering.
  • Develop an Excel spreadsheet that does all the calculating of grades (mine even automatically uploads it to my website whenever I save the document!). This took a little figuring out initially, but now it saves loads of time.
  • Record audio feedback instead of typed feedback. As I read drafts, I record my thoughts with a mic, save it as an mp3 file, and then upload it to my website. Admittedly this doesn't save me any time, but I can say so much more than I can type.
  • Set up an RSS feed so that essays students post to the website are automatically forwarded to my email client. By doing this I can navigate through the hundred or so student drafts I have for a given assignment with one click each. That's right, one click.
  • Use an email client (like Thunderbird) which collects and displays all emails from multiple addresses in one screen, and requires much less clicking than web-based email systems.