[MUSIC] >> In this episode, we look at the concept of time in an online context. We examine some of the common myths and perceptions, and we offer some useful strategies for time management. >> You can save time online, by effective, use of the technology. >> I don't think online teaching actually saves time. I don't think that's what it's about. >> I think online learning can save time for both teachers and students because both parties can log on when they know that they're at their most productive. >> I think, a long time ago, I thought it was going to be time saving. But I haven't found it to be time saving. I think I, I wonder whether the powers that thinking it might be time saving. >> One, one of the interesting questions over the years is whether teaching and studying online saves people time. Does it save the student time, does it save the teacher time? I, I think that's the wrong question. >> Technology is an amplifier of human process if someone is ineffective in what they're doing. It'll just amplify that degree of ineffectiveness. If someone is effective and productive in what they're doing, then effective use of technology will amplify that. >> Using digital technologies works if you, your pedagogy is a simple pedagogy. It doesn't overlap. It doesn't seem like it's going to help. It seems like it's going to be more work. And that's a common refrain. Oh, I haven't got time to do an online one as well. I haven't got time to do the extra work that it takes to do one online because they don't understand how it could reduce the workload. >> What I think the internet does when you use it seriously in your teaching and learning, is it gives you more control over your time. >> I find it quite unusual that I can sit in my own home, and the flexibility that I have over my own time. It buys me more time to think if I read a student's response and messageboard. I might go away and have a cup of tea. Reflect on it. And then go back and answer it. >> Actually, you'll find it hasn't affected it. It's just changed how I use the time. >> I don't have to spend any more time, it's just different time. Whereas if I had to mark folios, I'd be stuck in a room for days on end, marking them. Now I can mark them in dribs and drabs. At home, or at work, or on the train with my computer. I don't necessarily have to be in a particular space. I can be anywhere where I can connect to the internet. >> I'm going in for a shorter time period every day, and I consistently make it every day during semester time. >> And it really requires not doing a block of kind of one hour a week or three hours a week, or whatever it, it is, depending on the number of students. It's about kind of, I call spinning the top where you have to kind of be there. Give small bits of feedback regularly. And that's much more satisfying for the students because it's, it's that sort of ever presence thing that I'm, and that mentoring thing. you know, I'm there with them throughout the process. >> The biggest pitfall teaching online is that your classroom is always with you. It's like having your Blackberry there. You always feel compelled to check and see if you got an email. The same if you have an online classroom, you're sitting there you think I've got 15 minutes let's see what people are doing. >> I necessarily put boundaries around the amount of time that I will spend online and in the online environment. >> I've seen unfortunate staff members who are willing to answer their emails and talk to their online students, 24 hours a day. I think that clearly is unsustainable. >> That's my real issue at the moment is trying to work out a way to cut down the amount of time that I am online. >> Initially, what I say to colleagues is, If you're going to start doing this, it's going to take double the time first time. Second iteration or the second year, you'll be much more in control of it. By the third year, it shouldn't be taking you any extra time than it did before. >> When you teach online you have to realize that the students won't be sticking to the same time schedule. >> When you submit everything electronically, what what is an ideal time? And often we make it something like 9 AM on a Monday, so students can use the weekend to work, but with the explicit fragment if you're going to ask for an extension, for example, you may make it before 4 o'clock on a Friday. >> If you use the internet to shift time around in that way, the student can do the task when it suits them, rather than when it's just scheduled in. >> You can upload at 4 AM. And so, they aren't really, it's not very strict. And it's yeah, it can really, you can manage it around your life. [BLANK_AUDIO]