Call for Chapters

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

Publisher: DeGruyter Brill

Expected Publication Year: 2026

Submission Guidelines

Proposal Length: 400-500 words (not including references)

Proposal Deadline: September 15, 2025

Author Bios: 100 words per author

We invite contributions to 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

Submit a Proposal

If you are interested in contributing a chapter of 5000-7000 words, please submit a proposal abstract of 400-500 words (not including references) by September 15, 2025, and 100-word bios for each author.

Your proposal should clearly address:

1. Topic Connection: How your proposed chapter relates to time-efficiency in online teaching practice.

2. Research Foundation: Theories, frameworks, or empirical research informing your approach. We particularly welcome studies that measure both pedagogical effectiveness AND time investment, research comparing the efficiency of different instructional methods, or theoretical frameworks that account for instructor sustainability alongside student outcomes.

3. Evidence Base: Specific data, case studies, pilot studies, surveys, or other evidence supporting your discussion. This might include time-tracking studies, instructor feedback on strategy implementation, comparative analyses of high-effort vs. low-effort approaches, or documentation of long-term strategy adoption rates.

4. Practical Application: Clear explanation of how research findings translate into actionable strategies that instructors can realistically implement and maintain over time.

5. Volume Relevance: Specific contribution to the book's mission of promoting research-informed, sustainable, and efficient online instruction practices.

We look forward to proposals that will help transform online education from a time-intensive burden into a sustainable, rewarding practice that serves both educators and students effectively.

Send inquiries, possible topics, and completed proposals to the volume editors:

Dr. Michael Ahlf - mikeahlf@gmail.com

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

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 after authors are notified of proposal acceptance.

Instructors for Authors submitting Previously Published Works

Coming after authors are notified of proposal acceptance.

Instructions for Peer Reviewers

Coming with notification of peer review process.