Volume 4
Volume 4, Number 57 |
August 17, 2006 |
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Gregory W. Hislop
Heidi J. C. Ellis
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Abstract: During the past decade, the use of online education to deliver information systems courses and even entire degree programs has increased significantly. One result of this growth in distance education is that an increasing number of faculty members are being asked to teach an expanding number and variety of courses in an online format. The time required to teach an online course impacts scheduling, course delivery costs, and faculty incentive to teach online. Therefore, a precise assessment of the time required to teach online is necessary in order to accurately plan and motivate faculty. However, most studies on time to teach online are survey-based or anecdotal in nature. There is little research on faculty effort based on measurement of time, as the quantitative measurement of faculty effort is a difficult task. This paper discusses the issues involved in measuring the time required to teach a course online as compared to traditional, face-to-face delivery. It examines recent reported research results including results of the authors’ work in this area. It then discusses problems in accurately measuring the time to teach and possible solutions to these problems. This discussion is intended to support further studies in this important area of inquiry.
Keywords: online education, teaching online
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Recommended Citation: Hislop and Ellis (2006). Issues in Measuring Time to Teach Information Systems Online. Information Systems Education Journal, 4 (57). http://isedj.org/4/57/. ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2004: §3425. ISSN: 1542-7382.)