Despite
high administrative hopes to the contrary, online courses are actually more
time-consuming than on-campus education, at least for the academics who have to
plan them. Preparing to teach an online course takes more time than readying a
traditional lecture course, according to a survey of more than 2,000 educators conducted
by the National Tertiary Education Union, a trade union for Australian
higher-ed employees.
Analysis of the survey responses by John Kenny and Andrew Fluck, senior lecturers at the
University of Tasmania in science education and IT education, respectively,
found that academics said they needed 10 hours to plan a one-hour lecture for
online students vs. eight hours for an hourlong in-person lecture. Similarly,
preparing an online tutorial required six hours compared to five hours for an on-campus
version.
Kenny
and Fluck found that reviewing and updating materials for online courses also took
significantly longer, as did consultation and assessment moderation for online
students. The researchers saw no generational disparity in the prep time needed
by older academics as compared to their younger, presumably more tech-savvy
counterparts.
As
Education Dive noted, many administrators have viewed online classes as freeing
up more faculty time for research, but this study suggests the added prep time
required for online teaching may actually have the opposite effect.
