Teachers everywhere value time. There never seems to be enough for educational activities. Three areas per course that require teachers’ time and attention are course preparation, course development/curriculum development, and in-class time spent on synchronous or asynchronous activities.

Course Prep Time

Online teachers need time to prepare for each course, even if the Web site already provides the information that learners need to be able to complete each module or lesson. Starting bulletin board folders or threads, posting messages, sending group e-mail, finding and presenting supplementary information, and developing questions or information for chat sessions are some class prep activities that most online teachers face at least weekly. The type of course and the online structure for the course help determine how much course preparation is needed. Of course, all teachers need prep time, whether they work online or on campus. On-site courses often use computer technology to deliver course content and provide learners with work-related experiences, especially in Web-based or Web-enhanced on-site courses.

However, many on-site courses also rely on more traditional delivery methods, such as teacher lectures and printed textbooks. Learners may rely on hands-on experiences in a lab or workshop setting to gather important information and skills needed to succeed in the course. Teachers and course designers who are developing purely online courses (or Web-based on-site courses that in effect are online courses overseen by a teacher meeting students face to face) may need more development time to create materials that are technically effective and operational, as well as pedagogically sound.

On-site teachers, of course, also need time to develop and reproduce effective course materials. However, those teachers who use photocopiers or the university’s print shop to produce paper copies, transparencies, and slides, for example, may not need the same lead time for producing (not creating) new assignments or course content.

Course Development/Curriculum Development Time

Online classes require technical development and startup time, as well as content development. Teachers who are developing multimedia materials for on-site classes (e.g., videos, PowerPoint presentations, slide shows) or setting up in-class events (e.g., videoconferences) also need more development time. They may create materials on their own, but they also may work with IT specialists or new media experts as they collaboratively develop computer- or Web-enhanced materials. These activities must be integrated into the course framework.

Although computer- or Web-enhanced classes may rely on technology for specific learning modules, the teacher is usually present to oversee the use of the modules or to explain what to do to use the technology correctly. Unlike online courses in which the user interface must be clear and selfevident, on-site, teacher-led courses may require the use of technology, but learners have other means to gather information and get answers to their questions.

Curriculum changes also require ongoing commitments of time and energy. Teachers must be aware of institutional policies that affect courses within the curriculum, as well as the need to modify the current curriculum. As changes need to be made from outside the course, such as directives by upper-level administrators to add a new course, teachers must be involved in the curriculum-change process.

However, teachers also modify the curriculum or individual courses within it to reflect changes in subject matter and technology. The need for ongoing curriculum evaluation and modification requires ongoing allocations of time dedicated to the evaluation, modification, and creation processes. Rahman (2001) described the need for new criteria to be used when online courses and programs are evaluated. Online education can be innovative, and therefore new criteria should be established to analyze and evaluate its innovations within a discipline and education. Perhaps the criteria for allotting course preparation, curriculum development, and lead time should not be based on the type of class, or even whether it is offered on site or online, but on the variety of media and the required technical expertise needed to develop the course materials.

Educators first must identify the unique characteristics of online courses and programs. Academic communities then need to be made aware of these characteristics and become convinced that online education does a good job of delivering high-quality instruction. If all faculty and administrators understand the place that effective online education has in the institution, strategic planning for new courses or an online curriculum may be easier.

Administrators who think that once an online course is developed it is set forever—or at least for several years—are sadly mistaken. Just as on-site teachers routinely update their materials and provide new copies of documents or assign new readings based on recent periodicals or textbooks, so must online teachers (and those working with Web-enhanced courses) be able to update their course materials in multimedia formats to keep the course site and materials relevant.

Administrators also need to recognize that teachers working in on-site classes with non computerized resources may be able to work on their own, with little technical collaboration with staff members. Online teachers, on the other hand, may be required to work with course designers, IT staff, and administrators who are developing a unified appearance and structure, and common technology, for all online courses.

Teachers who develop Web-enhanced learning materials may fall between these endpoints on the curriculum-development continuum. Course development and delivery require a great investment of time and energy, and the ongoing evaluation and modification processes therefore require additional, ongoing investments of time.

Perhaps administrators should consider the types of materials and the medium/media required for presenting course information when they determine how much lead time—and the compensation and assistance required for this work—is needed to create a high-quality course. The designation of online or on site may have little meaning when determining an appropriate amount of lead time and course preparation before teachers are ready to deliver instruction.

In-Class Time

As noted in my informal survey of faculty colleagues, in-class work through e-mail, chat or whiteboard sessions, as well as grading and feedback, involves a great deal of time each week. A National Education Association (NEA) (2000) survey of faculty at universities and colleges found that two thirds of faculty members think it is highly likely that faculty members who teach in distance learning programs will have more students and will work more hours for the same pay.

The issues of teaching more students per class and doing more work for the same amount of money are primary concerns for faculty. Theoretically, because an online classroom does not have physical space or time limitations, and learners can work with an established course structure through the Web, any number of learners can be enrolled in a class. In practice, class sizes need to be limited because collaborative activities and teacher-learner discussions need to be kept small enough to be manageable and to allow the teacher/facilitator to participate with collaborating groups of learners.

As class sizes grow, more in-class time is needed for chat sessions and other synchronous activities. The numbers in a chat group, for example, should be kept small so that everyone can participate effectively and the teacher can easily facilitate the session. Increased numbers of learners also means increased numbers of e-mail messages to be sent to individuals. Although group messages and bulletin board posts can provide information to many learners at the same time, feedback about assignments, responses to individuals’ e-mail, and help provided to learners requiring additional assistance take up much more time with a larger number of learners per class.

A criticism of online education is that learners do not receive the personal touch from teachers; they only learn on their own, with minimal guidance. The quality of instruction, because there is little or no face-to-face communication, is necessarily poor. Teachers also are perceived as “cheated” in the learning situation because they cannot see the spark of understanding and learning in students’ eyes as they make important connections among ideas.

In well-designed online courses, these criticisms can be largely avoided because teachers can spend time with the group and individual class members. Frequent communication, chat sessions and other synchronous activities, and personal attention are hallmarks of good online teaching. However, online teachers can only create personal relationships with learners when the class sizes are small and there is time designed just for interpersonal communication.

Administrators need to allow online faculty adequate in-class and course prep time, as well as figure this time commitment into course load allocations and other faculty responsibilities. Workload adjustments may need to be made for online faculty so that they have the time they need to work effectively with learners and to keep designing worthwhile curricula.