A few weeks ago I posed a question about lecturer workloads in relation to distance learning (in a ‘conventional’ university).  Thanks to those who replied and here is a brief summary for those who are interested.

 

The general view was that university managers (and I guess popular opinion) is that distance learning is a cheap option whereas, in fact, it is just as intensive in staff time, if not more so than face-to-face modes of teaching. The bulk of lecturer time is spent on two kinds of activity: first the upfront preparation of materials; and secondly, throughout the course, lots of time spent in communication with students (email, discussion lists, telephone and so on)  – advising and helping them, giving feedback, dealing with problems; updating information they need; discussing course topics; encouraging and motivating students; organising student groups etc etc!  The size of the student group you are teaching is therefore crucial in distance learning.

 

Now for the information people gave me about current practice. The workload allocation policies I was told about ranged from:

• No workload allocation at all for teaching distance learners  - except, perhaps, for the first stage of materials preparation.
• A workload allocation similar to a ‘normal’ course.  So if a particular module would have taken 3 hours per week in teaching hours (class contact) lecturers would be given 3 hours for teaching a distance learning version.
• Workload allocation based on both the size of the module being taught and the numbers of distance learning students.

 

Those working in other contexts should note that most of my replies came from people teaching in the UK in ‘new’ universities or teaching on HE courses in Further Education colleges.  There is an approach in these settings to calculating workloads on the basis of ‘teaching hours’ which has conventionally meant ‘class contact’ hours.  Of course, there are many local variations on the detail of how this is done in practice.  One or two people commented that this approach was a very unhelpful starting point for working out what staff time was really needed for teaching distance learners.

 

There was some discussion about whether there was a limit to the number of distance learners lecturers could cope with. One college had found that a lecturer could work effectively with about 20 distance learners in the equivalent of about 25% of their normal teaching workload.  In another context lecturers were limited to 76 distance learners if that was their full teaching workload.  If you do the calculations that comes to about the same thing.

 

It was disturbing to get reports of some very difficult situations which lecturers had found themselves in with lots of distance learners to teach and no time in which to do it. Going back to the first point I made, I guess we have to keep raising the issue where we can, to persuade managers and others that distance learning needs teachers and it is not just a cheap option. We still then need a fair and practical way to estimate what amount of staff time really is involved.

 

Liz

 

 

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Liz McDowell

Networked Learning Project Manager

University of Northumbria

Newcastle upon Tyne

UK, NE1 8ST

Tel. 0191-227-4483/3048

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