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Let's talk about time 
Time is a crucial element in planning teaching and learning. So why are we so bad at estimating it? 1/
Time is a crucial element in planning teaching and learning. So why are we so bad at estimating it? 1/
Teaching and learning have a different temporal dimension online. As the time units that guide our f2f course planning have become irrelevant, we're struggling to estimate how long certain tasks will take in the online environment, both for us & for our students. 2/
Because we operate in a new learning space, we run two risks:
1) to spend too little time both for planning & teaching, leaving students with little guidance & support
2) to spend too much time, over-design the course, overwhelming students with a myriad of resources & tasks
3/
1) to spend too little time both for planning & teaching, leaving students with little guidance & support
2) to spend too much time, over-design the course, overwhelming students with a myriad of resources & tasks
3/
Trying to get this right is crucial for our well-being and that of our students. Calculating time pragmatically (yes, calculating!) helps us manage our workload and also manage student expectations. We might not get it right first time around so we need to keep trying. 4/
First things first: we can only have a realistic time estimate if we have a clear idea about our *teacher presence*. How much time are we planning to spend interacting with students? At which points does this need to be more intense? And how do you plan to provide feedback? 5/
There are tools that can help estimate Time on Task, (e.g. https://cat.wfu.edu/resources/tools/estimator2/). We need to take into account various types of learning (passive/ active, individual/collaborative, etc). Spelling out the instructions step by step, including expected outputs, can help. 6/
The Learning Designer @LDtool ( https://www.ucl.ac.uk/learning-designer/) enables you to design & plan your course in detail, incl. various activity types, time on task, sync/async, teacher presence/independent learning, etc. It's also a useful platform to share your design with peers. 7/
Don't forget your students. Make sure you communicate your expectations in terms of time & outputs clearly. Ask them for feedback often (at least in the beginning) & try to adjust accordingly. It's hard to quantify learning but a realistic estimate helps everyone involved. end/
