Establishing the Rhythm and Pace of the Course

or, How to avoid totally burning out by the 6th week!

Since we began teaching online courses back in 1993, most have been scheduled for 9 weeks. The first week is typically orientation, so undergrad online courses generally include 8 weeks of academic work.

This year we're offering some new 15 week online courses. Visual and Cultural Studies is one of them. My plan is to use the longer semester to give you more of an opportunity to

Online courses can be more labor-intensive than face-to-face courses. That's partly because they're asynchronous -- there's no one time we all have to be in class together. That means we could be in class every day! Not a good idea. We have to give ourselves the time we need to read and look carefully, think about what we're doing, and prepare thoughtful questions, comments, and responses in our discussion section.

One of the advantages of online courses is the flexibility it gives each participant. You're able, to some extent, to set your own pace and to make good use of the course materials that work best for you. But because we're working together as a group, we also need to coordinate our activities. So it helps to have a clear sense of our collective expectations at the outset.

I've set up regular assignments so that most are due on Mondays and Fridays. Discussions, on the other hand, are ongoing and that's where most of our coordination is needed. If you're anything like I am, you tend to expect a rather quick response to your emails and posts. But given the volume of communications in a course, at work, and in everyday life, this can get totally out of control very quickly. So we have to work on ways to keep from being overwhelmed.

My suggestion is that we log in, on average, 3 times each week. If you post a question or comment to the discussion blog, you can expect that I'll read it and respond, if necessary, within a day or two. Posts in an online course fall somewhere between wildly spontaneous communications (text-messages and casual conversations) and formal academic essays. I expect your posts to be thoughtful but not overly edited and refined. It helps to find a balance here so that you don't feel too self-conscious and constrained, on the one hand, or cavalier and careless, on the other. I'll give you a polite and private heads-up if I think you're drifting too far to one extreme or the other.

In some cases, I may also answer your questions with questions of my own. This is to encourage you think things through on your own, and to work together and help each other. Part of what you get out of a course like this is a greater ability to analyze, troubleshoot, and solve your own problems. Another benefit is learning how to work effectively as a group. The online environment makes this easier than it is in face-to-face environments where just scheduling a time to meet can be a logistical nightmare.

Finally, and by all means, don't wait until the last minute to complete assignments. This makes it less likely you'll get the help you need when you need it most. Schedule your work in advance and make sure you have everything you need to do it effectively and thoughtfully.

I hope this helps. If you have comments or questions, let's raise them in our discussion blog.

-----------------------------
Image: Andre Brouillet, A Clinical Lesson at La Salpetriere (given by Charcot), 1887.