I had a wonderful conversation with our campus Distance Learning administrator yesterday. We share a number of EdTech interests that most recently has included AI. The conversation turned to how crazy busy she has been – not just this summer – but for the last several years.
It has been relentless in terms of the big issues to address. This past year, we served together on an accessibility taskforce to address the new regulations. It was great that they were postponed BUT we had to assume the deadline was real and it required some heavy lifting to get it done on time. And the Canvas cyberattack during your last week of spring classes really piled on what she had to deal with. Not to mention program-related efforts to update online teaching standards, explore microcredential solutions, and work to structure quality improvements to our online classes. All of that is layered on top of the normal online program workload in support of half of our campus enrollment.
The conversation brought back memories of the stress that often comes with administrative roles. In my many years as an administrator, I often mused about the “rhythm” of the workflow and the workload. Or rather, the lack of a rhythm. The academic calendar fosters intense waves of workload and factors in a chaotic workflow. When we first launched our eLearning program, we seemingly had the staff and the time to prep for each term. And summers used to be the “catch-up” and “work-ahead” time of the year. That quickly disappeared as summer sessions went almost totally online and the regular term enrollments exploded. I remember that day one of my staff members turned away from his monitor and noted that “there is no longer any down time”. And he was right. By that point, we had added a 5 week Wintermester starting the day after Christmas. We had completely filled the year with online classes.
The reality of our online program existence is that our role on campus has become much larger – but staffing and budget have lagged dramatically. This has emerged as one of our greatest challenges. There seems to be so much to do. And oddly, college leadership still lacks familiarity with online instruction. Most have never taught – or never taught an online class. There is no understanding of what we should be doing to improve our online classes or the resources needed to accomplish that.
In my view, online administrators and staff deal with the greatest workload/workflow on campus and are at greatest risk of excessive stress and burnout. It is resulting in a higher turnover in staff as well as health-related impacts from the workload and associated stress. In the short-term, efforts to reduce the stress (delaying projects, actually using your vacation days) are essential. But longer-term, online programs need more staffing and related budget for professional development.
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