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Schedules and Workload Script

|Script |Visual |

|In this presentation, we’ll explain how ELI schedules courses and instructors while balancing |Schedule page from ELI section close |

|instructor wishes, campus needs, and ELI’s mission. |up |

|ELI’s mission is to provide high quality online courses to as many NOVA students as possible. To do |Schedule page showing multiple |

|this, ELI offers multiple sections of high demand courses. |sections for ENG 111 |

|We also offer courses in multiple sessions of varying length to give students as many options as |Animated graphic on calendar showing |

|possible. In this example, there are sixteen-week sessions, two different twelve-week sessions, and |multiple 16, 12, and 8 sections for |

|four different eight-week sessions. Note that sessions include time for holidays and |ENG 111 |

|non-instructional days. | |

|To meet our students’ needs, we will work with you, our trained and successful instructors, to |Instructor working on laptop computer |

|continue teaching with us. After your first semester teaching with ELI, additional courses will be | |

|scheduled based on student demand and your availability. | |

|Our first step in planning our schedule is to ask you what courses and sections you want to teach. |Email to instructors requesting future|

| |teaching plans |

|The college begins constructing a schedule about eight months in advance. Planning for the fall |Year calendar showing schedule |

|schedule, for example, begins in January. That’s when we contact you. |planning eight months in advance |

|Most ELI courses are taught in individual sections capped at 35 or fewer. Some ELI courses can be |Credit scale chart – Computing ELI |

|capped higher than 35 to allow additional enrollments and teaching credits. ELI uses the same scale |Course Load |

|for higher caps as the campuses: Teaching credits increase by multiples of 1.5 for each additional 26| |

|students. | |

|The compensation policy for smaller-enrollment courses is different for ELI than for campus. Because |Chart – Prorating Low-Enrollment |

|ELI courses are fully prepared in advance, and you don’t have to physically go to campus, your work is|Course Load Credits |

|more proportional to the number of students enrolled. Teaching credits are prorated for ELI courses | |

|with fewer than 24 students. You receive one half credit for each 4 students. | |

|Some ELI courses allow you to combine sections across sessions for enrollment and workload purposes. |Chart – Angela’s Workload Calculations|

|This allows ELI to better serve students and increases your potential for higher enrollments and | |

|teaching credits. In this example, Angela gets her final three credits by combining two | |

|partially-filled ELI sections. | |

|When you notify ELI of your teaching wishes, be sure to copy your dean or assistant dean. Your campus|Instructor talking with dean |

|and ELI credits are combined to determine your teaching load, which is subject to the limits in the | |

|Faculty Handbook. All teaching assignments at ELI are subject to approval by your division. | |

|ELI staff look at historical records and registration trends to estimate the demand for courses. Even|Staff working on planning board |

|if you are not scheduled for an ELI course before the traditional semester begins, we may still be | |

|able to use you later in the semester. ELI adds course sections during the semester, depending on | |

|student demand and instructor availability. If your availability for teaching an ELI course changes, | |

|please let us know as soon as possible. | |

|Well, since I’ve been teaching at ELI for a number of years, I have a pretty good idea of the usual |Interview with Don Goral |

|number of students to expect in each of my courses each semester. As a routine, I teach four online | |

|courses every fall and spring, and the combined workload is, essentially, 100 students a semester. | |

|That I can handle. That gives me, depending on exactly what the load is, it might be 13, 14, or more | |

|credits for ELI. Then I usually teach two classes on campus, wherever I’m needed. The flexibility is| |

|that if a campus class is cancelled, I have the option of uncapping one or more of my ELI classes to | |

|take up the slack. The 277 and 299 tend to be smaller, and many times I might have 10 in one class | |

|and fifteen in another, and so those numbers get collapsed into one 25-student course load. Okay, one| |

|contrast between ELI and campus courses is that there’s a lot more up-front time and effort in setting| |

|up an ELI course. I find that once a course is set up, the work is really determined by how many | |

|students I have. So, what I care about is not how large any individual class is, but how large my | |

|total student course load is. That’s what’s critical. | |

|Building ELI’s schedule each semester, with multiple sessions, sections, and course lengths, is a |Jigsaw puzzle |

|complex process that lasts throughout the semester. You play one of the most important parts in the | |

|process. Watch for ELI staff to contact you near the end of each semester about next year. Tell us | |

|your wishes and stay in touch as we coordinate them with student needs and campus planning. | |

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