Have you ever had one of those experiences where you really wanted to do something, pushed hard to be able to do it, and then when you were granted permission you found out you were way over your head? Man, I've felt that way the past two weeks, but this week in particular.
I have been teaching for Indiana Wesleyan University for nearly 12 years. Due to the explosion in online education, our onsite program is struggling and the number of courses I am being offered to teach has dwindled from six to one a year. That's not good on the old family budget! I started asking to teach online about two years ago. I was always turned down and told, "You are too valuable to our onsite program and we don't want to lose you to online." I assured people that I would make onsite a priority, but I needed a couple of online classes a year. I was finally approved a couple of months ago and started my training two weeks ago.
Wow! The first week of training took up a bit of time (about 14 hours). This past week was supposed to take 18-22 hours - to give us a feel of what a real online class would be like. Right! I spent nearly 40 hours just on the program, doing my online assignments to learn how to use the program and grading fake papers that were all jacked up! I mean, I had one three page paper I graded with 35 errors!!!!
Next week is the third and final week of this training process. If I complete it without losing the rest of my mind, I might be "hired" by the online division. If not, I will continue teaching onsite in a very limited capacity.
To top it all off, I'm still working on my coaching certification for the Wesleyan Coaching Network! Anyway, I'm not really whining. Seriously. But I may have bitten off more than I can possibly chew, let alone eat!
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