I have a phone interview with Phoenix. When I was filling out the written interview a question said that it was expected that you invest between 20 and 25 hours per week on the course. Is that a realistic expectation? For those of you who work for Phoenix, how many hours do you work per week? Also, how many courses are you given per term? Thanks,
In your first few courses you will spend that much time until you get the hang of things. Once you start teaching the same class over and over, your time commitment is about ten hours/week per class. Once you become established, you can expect steady work. The most you can teach is four courses per term, so 16 per year is the max. There are exceptions to that, but it is usually followed. There is a boat-load of CJ instructors, so you should probably expect less than the maximum load.
YES, it is a realistic expectation. For your first class expect to spend stupid amounts of time creating weekly posts of all sorts, and learning the shortcuts as you go. And don't forget that you will have a mentor to answer to, who will send you weekly discussion questions as well. I am teaching my first course, but expect that if I teach it again I could shave off a third of that time simply because I've got all the posts and templates already made, and I know the assignments so I wouldn't have to take that extra time when grading to make sure I know what I'm talking about! I say IF I teach it again because I'm not sure if my time is worth the pittance they pay at this point. I might do it again just to see if I could get really efficient and make it worth it.
I've been with UoP for about a year, and my time has definitely slimmed down since I started. I have the hang of grading the assignments now, and I know the content well enough to write posts on the fly. I've only taught one course at a time, and I'm fine with that. I like it, don't get me wrong, but if other, more financially rewarding opportunities presented themselves, I'd jump on them in a heart beat. -Matt
