Call for Chapters

Time-Efficient Practice:
Strategies for Avoiding Tricks, Traps, and Time Sinks in Online Teaching

Publisher: DeGruyter Brill

Expected Publication Year: 2026

We are preparing an innovative edited volume addressing a critical yet under-explored dimension of online education: time-efficiency in practice in online education.

Online instructors face a persistent dilemma: promising pedagogical strategies and recommended practices often demand time investments that prove unsustainable in the long term. Well-intentioned techniques may sound compelling in theory but fail when instructors - whether tenured faculty, clinical educators, or adjunct lecturers - cannot efficiently implement them within workload-based time constraints.

This volume tackles the practical reality that even excellent strategies are often abandoned. This may be due to learning curves that are too steep, leading instructors to drop a new technique before attaining proficiency and realizing returns on invested time, or because a strategy's ongoing demands are too burdensome. Inefficiencies affect more than individual courses; they contribute to instructor burnout and limit the time available for research, peer review, writing, and other essential academic pursuits.

Time-Efficient Practice will provide evidence-based guidance for making informed decisions about instructional investments. We seek chapters that balance pedagogical effectiveness with practical sustainability, helping educators choose strategies they can maintain long-term without sacrificing instructional quality, rigor, or personal and student well-being.

The target audience for this volume includes current instructors engaged in online teaching; instructional designers who work with faculty developing online courses; staff in centers for teaching excellence; students in teacher education programs likely to engage in online teaching; administrators, mentors, or senior faculty in a position to suggest instructional techniques or strategies; and researchers developing new techniques or strategies who have not previously considered required time investment as a necessary analysis point.

Topics of broad interest include, but are not limited to:

Time Investment Frameworks

• Benchmarking realistic time expectations for online instruction across different course types and institutional contexts

• Strategic time allocation models: How to divide instructor effort for maximum impact

• The hidden time costs of "innovative" pedagogical strategies: What the literature doesn't tell you

Efficiency Research and ROI Analysis

• Cost-benefit analysis of high-investment pedagogical strategies: When is extra effort worth it?

• Measuring pedagogical return on investment: Developing metrics that matter to instructors

• Comparative efficiency studies of popular online teaching methods (discussion forums vs. video feedback vs. synchronous sessions)

Time-Saving Strategies That Actually Work

• Automation and AI tools for online instruction: Separating hype from practical reality

• Streamlined grading and feedback systems that maintain educational quality

• Template-based course design: Creating reusable frameworks without sacrificing personalization

• Efficient student engagement techniques that don't require constant instructor presence

Identifying and Avoiding Time Traps

• Low-ROI instructional practices: What strategies do experienced instructors abandon and why?

• The "learning curve trap": When promising tools take too long to master

• Perfectionism vs. effectiveness: Finding the sweet spot in online course development

• Technology time sinks: When digital tools create more work than they save

Sustainable Practice Models

• Workload management strategies for different faculty types (contingent, clinical, tenure-track)

• Building time-efficient online teaching habits that prevent burnout

• Scaling personalized instruction without scaling time investment

• Time-conscious approaches to accessibility and inclusive design

Institutional and Systemic Considerations

• Supporting instructor time efficiency through institutional policy and resource allocation

• Training models that help instructors adopt efficient practices quickly

• Administrative practices that either support or undermine instructor time management

Proposals are now closed! We thank all of our distinguished colleagues for their wonderful submissions and look forward to working with through the peer review and publication process!

Dr. Michael Ahlf - mikeahlf@gmail.com

Dr. Sara McNeil - smcneil@central.uh.edu

Upcoming Important Dates

• June 2025: Call for Chapters

• September 15, 2025: Chapter Proposals due

• October 15, 2025: Chapter authors notified of proposal acceptance (or not) with feedback

• January 15, 2026: Chapters due from authors to editors

• January 30, 2026: Editors submit preliminary chapters to Brill, and Peer Review is organized

• March 1, 2026: Peer reviewers complete and submit feedback

• April 15, 2026: After peer review, authors revise and submit revised chapters to editors in Brill format

• May 2026: Revisions delivered to Brill

• Summer or Fall 2026: Brill publication date

Instructions for Authors writing Original Chapters

Coming Soon!

Instructors for Authors submitting Previously Published Works

Coming Soon!

Instructions for Peer Reviewers

Coming with notification of peer review process.