Post #8, Reflection on Teaching: The Allness of Online Teaching.

 Once a professor gets on the online teaching train, there is no getting off...

For me it has become an obsession. I feel this massive obligation to my online students to be checking in with them several times a day, at any hour I am awake. I do it not long before I go to bed (which doesn't always mean sleep, but at least winding down) and within a half hour after rising.  

Why? Well, I am over conscientious anyway, foolishly so. But there are other reasons:

Online teaching gives one a lot of flexibility. I don't have to be in a room with them 3 hours a week. If I want to take the afternoon off and make up for it after dinner, I can (and often do). 

The students expect it, and since they are usually working jobs, they need the professor at odd times, with legitimate questions (like last night, a glitch in the test, my fault). 

Creating a robust online course means things go wrong (again, human error) and have to be addressed. 

And then there are the almighty course evaluations, which are tied to one thing more than quality, bias, content:  student expectations of the professor (which of course do relate to the other categories, or act as a filter for them). 

I hate to admit it, but after 45 years, they still make me quake, even when I know how very problematic they are in so many ways. 

I know the response:  Tell the students in the syllabus what to expect about response and grading times and stick to them, and let them live with your system. I wish it were that easy for me! 

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