When teaching online, it’s worth taking time to think about how long online activities will take. Some tasks will take a bit longer online than face to face, so planning time well will avoid overloading your students, and will help you keep a good rhythm to your online teaching.
Things to consider
Orientation time
At the start of the unit, it might take your students longer to work out what they need to do, or where they need to look. Factor this time in and make your initial tasks easy and quick to help them gain confidence.
Reading time
Be realistic about the length of texts you ask student to read in addition to the online task they have to complete (eg a discussion task), particularly for students who have English as an additional language.
Thinking time
Some students jump right into an online task, but others like to have time to think, particularly when writing their thoughts, which are more permanent than spoken conversation. Allow students enough time to consider before expecting a response.
Interaction time
Interacting online in a discussion takes time. Students need to read others’ responses, consider them, think about ways to respond, reply, and read others’ replies. This can happen over several days, if the discussion is not run synchronously (ie live, at a designated time).
Putting it together
When you plan your online activity, try to add together all the time needed to complete the task. Give students a realistic expectation of how long it will take, so they can plan their time.
A discussion task involving reading text, answering questions in a discussion forum, and replying to others might look like this:
| Activity | Time |
|---|---|
| Orientation | 5 minutes (understand the prompt, find the resources) |
| Reading | 30 minutes (depending on the text given) |
| Thinking | 20 minutes (to craft their response) |
| Interaction | 30 minutes (to post their responses, read others and reply) |
| Total activity | 1 hour and 25 minutes |
Further information
For help with how to implement online tasks and activities, see a list of DEO Teaching Online guides.