Course Management Strategies

Owned by Rob Caldwell
Last updated: Jan 28, 2021
2 min read

A course management activity is anything you do that is directly related to the teaching and learning in the course.

This includes:

  • monitoring assignment submissions,

  • communicating and reminding students of missed and/or upcoming deadlines,

  • making course progress adjustments where and when necessary,

  • managing student rosters,

  • assigning team structures,

  • grading assignments

  • submitting grades

  • taking discipline action

That's a lot! But when designing your online classroom efficiently and doing the bulk of the work ahead of time, teaching becomes engaging and fun. The online classroom presents a significant shift in the understanding of roles and responsibilities on part of both the instructor and the student. Students are expected to be responsible for constructing knowledge as opposed to sitting back and soaking up your knowledge. There are frequently group projects, presentations, and discussion forums requiring a high degree of team-work and cooperation as well as reflection on their own understanding of concepts and the development of time management skills - often the biggest single challenge for online students. 

The challenge for the online instructor is to find the degree of interaction and intervention that works with the dynamics of their online classroom. The goal is to structure the course management strategies so that the online learner is able to control their own learning experience.

Most online courses follow a defined schedule of operation from start to finish. For the student, an established pattern of course activities allows for planning and management of other non-course activities around their e-learning activities. 

It's all about time management for you too! Establishing a pattern of course activity and communicating this sequence to the learner enables the learner to develop a plan of study to address the requirements of the course.

If lessons begin and end on consistent days and assignments are due on a regular schedule the learner can plan other life activities around these aspects of their online course.

Most online courses follow a defined schedule of operation from start to finish. For the student, an established pattern of course activities allows for planning and management of other non-course activities around their e-learning activities. 

It's all about time management for you too! Establishing a pattern of course activity and communicating this sequence to the learner enables the learner to develop a plan of study to address the requirements of the course. If lessons begin and end on consistent days and assignments are due on a regular schedule the learner can plan other life activities around these aspects of their online course.

This course schedule and pattern also aids the instructor to contain the course-related activities to an appropriate duration and workload.