Students' Misconceptions about Time Management

When students begin considering taking online classes, most think it will be easier than campus classes. Of course they know that commuting and having to attend class on certain days and times are no longer issues. Add to that the flexibility to schedule around work hours and childcare, there just is not contest between taking online and f2f classes.

What new online students fail to realize is that, while they don't have to schedule going to class, they DO need to schedule reading, writing, studying, assignments, and discussions. Most online classes required asynchronous discussions with a minimum number of participation days per week, and often a minimum level of quality contributions. All of this takes time.

So let's compare the time factor. In f2f classes, commuting/parking/walking to the class building might take an hour. Reversing the process and arriving home adds another hour. We'll use once-a-week night classes for our example. When I taught evening classes at local universities, a quarter term class met for four hours one night a week. A semester term class met for three hours once a week. Professors expected a minimum of 6 hours of homework for undergrads and double that for graduate students.

One aspect of online learning that no one talks about is that students always factor in the precise number of hours required to sit in class when determining how many hours they will need for online learning. The fact is, though, that what they can accomplish in a 3-hour f2f class will take 3-4 times LONGER in an online class. Why? Because in a f2f class, discussions are conducted by talking and listening. This doesn't take a lot of time, nor does it take a lot of critical thinking and reflection. In an online class, this short verbal discussion time increases significantly because, rather than talking without much though, students need to WRITE their thoughts in a cohesive and precise manner for effective communication. Added to that, instead of listening to others in a f2f class, students in online classes must READ what others are communicating, reflect on the meaning and intent of those contributions, and then formulate their own responses in WRITING. All of the reading and writing takes much longer in an online class than talking/listening takes in a f2f class.  

Added all together, WITHOUT taking into consideration the reading/writing issue, that would be approximately 8-10 hours a week for undergrad students taking a night class on campus. Once the reading/writing element is added to that total, students should be prepared for approximately 10-15 hours a week working on discussions, assignments, and studying for an online class. For some reason, most students think that they can take an online class, and make A's, with only a few hours a week. They seem to simply subtract the commuting and seat time from the equation from the f2f class timeframe and think that the hours that are left is the timeframe for an online class. This is a huge mistake and can lead to failing grades and/or dropping out of online classes.

We need to find more effective ways to prepare students for time management in online classes. I'll talk about this in another blog post and in my new book (to be published next month) about student success strategies in the online classroom.

Have you had online students who expressed surprise and dismay about the amount of time needed to be successful in your class? What did you say to them and were you able to convince them to put in the required time to be successful?