Instruction
Time Over the Web, Is it Different?
Introduction
In order to asses both the development time
and the teaching time involved in web classes, the author has kept a time log of basic
activities over three semesters--Spring 1999, Summer 1999, and Fall 1999. This report
focuses on the time and tasks involved in direct teaching activities of web based courses
in American history.
The time log was designed to attempt to
compare direct teaching activities in a regularly scheduled class with those encountered
in a web class. These activities were listed on a sheet with corresponding dates. On an
every-other-day basis hash marks for actives were recorded to the whole minute. Initially,
the activities for the web courses were inadequate to record the myriad of tasks involved,
but these were revised satisfactorily by the fourth week of the first semester.
To emphasize comparison teaching tasks from
typical regularly scheduled classes were grouped in the following categories:
general questions, before and after class
lecturing, providing information, analyses,
and/or comparisons
discussion
class management (role taking, etc.)
instructional technology management (queuing
a video, starting a Power Point presentation, etc.)
assisting students with resources, research,
and technical questions
The logged times strictly excluded all course
development activities such as preparation, reading and research, writing course
materials, publishing course materials, copying and other related professional and course
development activities.
Times logged in also excluded student advising
of both a formal nature (course selection, writing plans of study, etc.) and the informal
nature. As this project unfolded this decision was probably a mistake. My subjective view
is that it is easier to advise web based students, but that notion needs to be tested.
Results
The table below summarizes the results of the
time log through October 15, 1999.
Internet Teaching
|
Scheduled
Class Teaching
(min. per week) |
Web Class
Teaching
(min. per week) |
Web
Difference
(min. per week) |
| 1. General questions before and
after class (30) |
1. General questions (45) |
1. +45—general questions
were very similar regarding progress, assignments, personal issues |
| 2. Lecturing or providing
information, analysis, comparison (120) |
2. Providing information,
analysis, comparison (60) |
2. –60—most of the
web course information and critical analysis was posted on the web as a part of extensive
course development
|
| 3. Class discussion (30) |
3. Discussion webs, email
discussion, and other discussion (90) |
3. +60—significantly more
discussion
|
| 4. Class management tasks (9) |
4. Web class management (24) |
4. +15
|
| 5. Technical
"fidgeting" to get a video cued, or install and run instructional technology (9) |
5. Web class fidgeting (36) |
5. +17—excludes major
maintenance, downtime, diagnostics, etc. But still a significant difference
|
6. Assisting students with
technical information or resources; i.e., access to web, access and use of library
materials (15)
|
6. Giving students technical
assistance (35) |
6. +20—this average is
skewed toward the first three weeks as students become more familiar with the I-class |
| total time=213 |
total time=290 |
difference=77; 136% of the
regularly scheduled class |
|
|
|
|
