Introduction

Many folks are using this crisis moment as an opportunity to consider what we are doing in our classrooms. Our face-to-face courses have imposed a variety of structures on us (e.g., credit hours) that have shaped our teaching. But, moving towards the fall, we’d like to prompt you to think about it more in terms of the actual time spent doing the work. Think through the work you think is fair for your students to do, think about how much work you can reasonably do – and design accordingly.

How much work is too much (or too little) work for my students? How much work is too much work for my TAs or for me? How do I design an online course? 

This book will help guide your thinking about how best to design your course so it works for everyone, and offers meaningful opportunities for engagement. If you are completely new to teaching online, consider starting with our previous book 12 Key Ideas: An Introduction to Teaching Online.