Tag: online academic coach

Online learning is becoming increasingly popular, and it’s easy to see why. Many factors, such as technological advancements and an increase in the number of working professionals seeking career advancement through education, have all combined to make online learning a viable and more desirable option for students. 

Higher education institutions are investing more and more resources into properly supporting and scaling their online learning environments. That’s a wise decision. All relevant forecasts suggest that online learning will only continue to rise in subsequent years, and higher education institutions would do well to invest in their online learning methodologies, processes, and partners. 

However, every opportunity presents new challenges. Many higher education institutions have turned to new avenues to help properly support their faculty and instructors in managing larger online learning environments. Instructional Connections’ Academic Coaches are one such method. These dedicated and highly qualified instructional support staff offer unique benefits to the institutions, their faculty members, and the students within the online courses and programs. Read on to learn how our Academic Coaches help higher education institutions maximize their faculty and provide the best possible classroom experiences and outcomes. 

Problems Institutions of Higher Education Face

Larger Class Sizes

A larger class size is certainly a good problem, but can pose a problem nonetheless. Larger class sizes come with a broader assortment of tasks and responsibilities for the faculty member. This is true whether in person or online. 

However, online courses can typically allow more students to enroll than traditional in-person classes with physical space limitations. A typical in-person classroom setting might be confined to only 20-50 students, while an online course could accommodate up to 100-200 students. As a result of these larger class sizes, faculty members might find themselves overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with the rigorous demands associated with supporting and managing the increase in student enrollment. 

Decrease In Quality

Rushing to enroll students in online learning can come with challenges. The more students there are in a course, the harder it can be for the faculty members to meet their needs adequately. The volume of emails, messages, and grading necessary increases with every student, and many faculty members cannot run the course the way they would if they had fewer students. The result is that the course might become more streamlined, auto-graded and simplistic. This makes the class more straightforward to manage but can lessen the quality of the class if it is not done with intention and in alignment with the best practices to assess each student’s learning properly.

Delays

Virtual communication is critical to online learning. Digital forms of communication help give students answers, impart feedback, and keep classes abreast of deadlines. However, while digital communication makes many an online learning course, it can quickly become overwhelming for the faculty member. 

An online learning course instructor could receive dozens and dozens of emails from students. Keeping up with that volume of work in and of itself can be a daunting task. It quickly becomes too much for many faculty members as they also are trying to grade, plan coursework, attend continuing education, and teach while having some semblance of a personal life. This usually results in delays in responses, which can hurt student outcomes and leave students feeling disenfranchised. A question left unanswered about course material can leave a student discouraged and disgruntled. 

This becomes especially problematic when leading an online learning course with non-traditional students (working professionals). These students are much more likely to send emails/questions late at night or over the weekend, which is usually when faculty members are trying to catch up on grading and make time for their family life. Understandably, instructors may be less likely respond to email questions in a timely manner over the weekend. Still, it’s understandable that students might be frustrated if it takes a few days to answer a simple question. Even more so, if the student is unable to get an answer regarding an assignment before that assignment is due.

How Our Academic Coaches Can Help

Saving Time

Our Academic Coaches are an additional asset for the faculty member to provide some instructional support, which multiplies their effectiveness as a course leader and faculty of record. When pressed about their challenges, course instructors are likely to put lack of bandwidth as a critical challenge. When an Instructional Connections Academic Coach works under the direction of the faculty, the Academic Coach can assist with some forms of correspondence with students, grade assignments per the faculty rubrics and inter-rater reliability, and aid with some of the more tedious and time-consuming course tasks. This frees the instructor to focus on being more strategic with their course, ensuring academic integrity, increasing student satisfaction, improving student outcomes, and making the class more enjoyable for all parties involved. 

Increasing Quality

With this amount of time back, instructors can focus on improving the quality of the course. What was the average score on the last test? How does that compare to past tests? What areas are students struggling to comprehend? Do I need to work directly with the identified at-risk students and/or need a referral to other university resources? With additional time, instructors can focus on higher-level concepts to improve student outcomes.

Providing Quicker Responses and Grading

An online course can go by in the blink of an eye, especially if it is not a traditional semester, 15-16 week course, but an accelerated course (5 to 9 weeks long). Delays in providing instruction support or grading assignments an additional week or two can significantly impact student outcomes. Many higher education online courses will have one or more assignments and graded discussion threads due each week. Failure to provide feedback promptly might result in students making the same mistakes on consecutive assignments. Instructional Connections Academic Coaches provide additional instructional support to ensure that grading and substantive feedback are given in a timely manner as assigned using inter-rater reliability activities prescribed by the faculty, resulting in a more streamlined and effective course. 

Partner with Instructional Connections

Are you an institution of higher education looking to support your faculty within their online courses? Our Academic Coaches are perfect for supporting your instructors and improving student outcomes and experience.

Our Academic Coaches are:

• Industry Professionals with graduate degrees in their area of expertise/subject matter area.
• Fully Vetted and Contracted by Instructional Connections
• Approved by the university and programs for which they are assigned with the online courses.
• Strategic partners to our institution’s leadership and their faculty members.

Interested in learning how our Academic Coaches can help your institution better student outcomes? Contact Instructional Connections today to learn more!

Time management is an essential part of everyone’s life. This is especially true for academic coaches with specific duties requiring careful planning. Many faculty report working around 54 hours per week, 

One can find numerous time management advice and solutions that could help with the organization of tasks. Yet, there is no magic recipe for managing time for any specific area.

Here are some hacks that can help academic coaches stay organized and manage their time better. 

Organization is Key

Time management means organizing all aspects of your life at home and work. Ideally, you’d want to do all tasks structured and efficiently. To have uninterrupted flow in your daily tasks, arrange and label items in your working environment in a way that structures your day but does not overwhelm you. 

To-do List and Routine Tasks

Check which of your routine tasks can be automated, delegated, or adjusted. Identify the most important ones and find ways to deal with the rest to save time.

Little organizational reminders like writing down your to-do list to avoid forgetting something can help. Remember to write even minor tasks, especially if they are time-sensitive. Once done, list the tasks by level of importance and plan your day accordingly.

If you benefit from an Academic Coach or Teaching Assistant assigned to your online course, delegate some tasks to them, such as grading or answering simple emails.  Be sure to provide detailed rubrics and inter-rater reliability activities to ensure the grading will be consistent with your standards and expectations.

The Importance of Planning Your Day

Try to estimate how much time you’ll need to complete a certain task. Allocating sufficient time to complete a task and ticking it off the to-do list will allow you to promptly complete it and move on to the next. This way, you can focus on completing one task before starting another and getting your work to flow smoothly.

Avoid picking one task, completing it halfway, and starting on something else. This will only create a chaotic and unproductive day.

Utilize Technology to Its Full Extent

Technology was invented to make our lives easy. Use all the available relevant technology for your online course. Use online planners for yourself and reach out to social groups or forums to share best practices or resources.

Enjoy all the help you can get from relevant programs. This will make your job easier and allow you more time to complete other tasks. 

Procrastination Is the Enemy

Putting off things we don’t like doing for later is another way of wasting time and still having to complete those things. Finish the things you must do before the things you enjoy doing. Remove all possible obstacles interrupting you during working hours and obtain a tunnel-vision mentality – focusing on one task at a time. 

For example, people spend a lot of time reading emails and not replying immediately, only to re-read them so they can respond. Email notifications can interrupt your working process, so turn them off. Choose a time when you will read and answer emails so you don’t feel distracted and aren’t split-tasking, which will slow you down.

The Best Online Academic Coach for Your Distance Learning Program

Instructional Connections is a third-party service provider of high-quality, asynchronous instructional support services to colleges and universities that offer online courses and degree programs. IC provides “Academic Coaches” to institutions that offer online courses and programs with a highly effective, scalable, and affordable instructional model. This model enables the faculty of record to focus and manage their time effectively on delivering learning objectives and outcomes while allowing the institution to scale the course to meet student enrollment demands.

Contact us today for any inquiries you may have, and we’ll be happy to provide the information you need.