How to save time

When working in an online environment, I felt like I had to check my messages a couple of times each day. It seemed like if I didn't, I would miss out on the immediacy of the discussions. When I read in Time Management Tips for Teaching Online and E-Learning that one thing to do is to avoid checking for postings to the discussions or submissions to the drop box several times a day. This is not necessary. Set a schedule such as checking for new discussion postings only once a day. Check the course home page for new posts or submissions at a glance I was quite surprised. I suppose I can understand why it may be necessary as an instructor, but as a student it is a different story.

Another option, reorder the discussion forums so that the current week/module’s forums are at the top of the page. This saves the time it would take to scroll down and locate the correct forum, is a simple choice to make. At one point in this course, I found the reflection/portfolio link at the top of the page. Then later in the week, it had fallen back to the bottom. I believe that I would set up preferences so that each week the postings would go to the top of the page. It would definitely save the students a bit of time.