The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide

by Bonni Stachowiak, Robert Talbert (Foreword)

The Productive Online and Offline Professor assists those who teach online and blended courses with managing their personal productivity. Faculty are often expected to provide support and feedback to learners outside of normal work hours in non-traditional classes. Programs that are designed with more asynchronous content may cause faculty to perceive that it is difficult to ever press the "off button" on their teaching.The author offers guidance and suggests software tools for streamlining communication and productivity that enable faculty to better balance their lives while giving rich feedback to students.

Genres: Teaching, Education, Productivity

220 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 27, 2020

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid book exploring how to organize an online and offline academic life. The chapter on emails is basic. The chapter on modes of goal setting is strong. In between, there is attention to how an individual can become more productive.

It accomplishes what it says on the tin. Yep.

The challenge with this book is that it ignores the context of university employment. While emails can be 'managed' - what is happening in higher education that email levels are so bonkers? We can organize our schedules - but why are so many self evident statements being 'discussed' in meetings? The invention of work that is not required means that individuals have to be organized and productive. However if pointless, weird and random 'discussions' were removed from international higher education, then strong, clear tasks could be completed for both teaching and research.

Sadly, we now live in a system where attending meetings and answering emails is the work of our universities. We have lost our way. This book helps us create a new pathway on this journey. But the question is - are we going in the wrong direction?

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’d give it 2.5 stars. It wasn’t what I was quite anticipating, so that!s on me. I love Bonni’s podcast and have learned a lot from her overall. However, this book overwhelmed me more than offering the practical suggestions I was looking for. For example, the part of getting to “inbox zero” was great. I did it and it felt amazing. However, she then described several apps and add-ins to include with email and that was overkill. Same with adding things like Remind, Slack, etc. How can setting several other digital platforms, even if they aggregate in one place (yet another thing to set up and manage’ each more productive. Also, she discussed PKM, which I had never heard of, for several pages before describing the acronym and used PLM multiple times without ever defining. I had to look it up. I will continue to heartily recommend the podcast, but not this book.

[Xu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought the book to support Bonni. Her podcast is a amazing.

I do have to admit that I wish more new content was included in the book. Majority of the ideas have been conveyed fully through her website and podcasts.

[Stan Skrabut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a huge fan of Bonni Stachowiak's ever since I started listening to her podcast, Teaching in Higher Ed. If you have not listened to this podcast and you are an educator, you need to listen to this podcast. She brings on wonderful guests who share important educational strategies and a lot of these strategies focus on productivity, but also really focus on impact. She just released a new book, The Productive Online and Offline Professor . It's packed full of great tips and strategies for getting more time in your life. It is certainly a book that I would recommend for others. Read more

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book includes numerous ideas and tips for organizing your daily workflow as a professor. Even instructors who teach face-to-face can benefit from some of these suggestions. The challenge teaching online is determining when to "shut off" and when working hours cease (it feels like you can spend the entire day in front of the computer). Having an organization system in place can help you set "working hours" and assign specific tasks to your days based on time-sensitive items on your calendar, which means more time to spend doing other things you enjoy that you otherwise seem to run out of time for.

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Stachowiak's podcast that focuses on learning/teaching in higher education. This book is an extension of many of her ideas and productivity tips. I loved the stuff in the book on calendaring and setting up your email to reflect a to-do list. It's something I've needed to do and the book gave me a road map for getting it done efficiently. It's definitely not the level of Deep Work--which was a game changer for me, but does contain some higher ed specific tips that are really necessary.

My advice: borrow the book but check it out.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was such a fan of Bonni’s podcast, I couldn’t wait to read her book! I even facilitated a discussion with other faculty members!! This book gave very practical tips for being more productive. I was grateful to be introduced to so many new tools. The one thing I would have encouraged was to widen the perspective that this is the “best way”. I think organization is a very individual thing, and there are several different ways to achieve productivity.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am huge fan of Bonni Stachoviak's podcast, 'Teaching in Higher Ed.' So, I was very interested in learning more about her approaches to being more productive. In her book, she delivers! If you teach in higher ed, you'll find a number of approaches and tools for becoming more productive. Now, I just need to put to practice some of the ideas she shares.

[Gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great suggestions. I love Bonni’e podcast. The book references loads of resources and refers you to a website, but I couldn’t find any of the resources on the website. I hope they post them soon!

[Georgianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read

As an online part time educator working for multiple institutes while working full time his book was a must read that provided tangible and actionable strategies to improve my functioning.

[Aaron Cummins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

Efficiency is a challenge. This book helped me see practical ways I can work more efficiently, thus freeing up time to focus on what's important

[George Woodbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

As this semester ends, this was a great time to read this book. I picked up some good ideas, and look forward to implementing these ideas as I start to put together next semester’s classes.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical with lots of immediately applicable ideas.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid productivity read for professors. Always want more detailed tips, but a useful book.