Summary
This section introduced the issues of time to develop, to teach, and to learn. Although there is a persistent myth that online learning is a time savings, the realities are that it takes a considerable amount of time when done well.
About Learners
Learners in online classes find that they must :
- Be well organized
- Take responsibility for their learning
- Create good time management plans
- Possess excellent reading comprehension and writing skills
- Assertively seek answers to questions
Most estimates are that students will need to spend between 7–15 hours per week to meet the demands of each online course.
About Faculty
One of your primary roles as faculty will be to help learners understand how to succeed.
As for the demands on faculty in online courses, you, too, will find that teaching online requires a time commitment. Most faculty reports indicate that demand for faculty attention is highest the first two weeks of each term and the last week of the term, although much depends on how you choose to structure your course.
If you are developing a new course, or moving an existing course online, you will find that increasing demand for high-tech may increase your development time. While it's hard to give firm estimates, most estimates range from 5–30 hours of development time for each hour of instruction; a conservative estimate should be that you allot a full year before you first want to deliver your online course so be sure to plan ahead and realize that it will likely take you longer than you plan, or want, to have a course fully developed.
The last component in this section are resources then we will jump into the important component of technology for online courses.