science

One of the challenges of monitoring students’ work in an online class is assessing reading assignments.  Reading assessment is somewhat easier in traditional classes through class discussions, Socratic questioning, etc., which can usually give the instructor a good idea of who has read the material.  However, even with intense and careful class discussion it is still difficult to know how deeply and thoroughly students understand the material. 

One of the persistent beliefs in academia is that substantial additional time is required to facilitate online courses compared to seated classes.  My experience, which is corroborated by a small but growing body of research, (Hislop, 2001; Lazarus, 2003) challenges the idea that a reasonably-sized online class absolutely requires an inordinate amount of time.  Because there is relatively little literature describing specific strategies for time management (Shin et al., 2006), I will describe a number of simple, proven tips that may save you significant amounts of time and improve the learn