Where do I start? Teaching online at GCU does not allow for a healthy work/life balance, and your job is really not a teaching job, but a glorified grader job. All you do is grade. You do not get the same time off as traditional campus. In fact, in the winter, your classes pause for two weeks, but you still have to go to an office where you have to grade the work submitted, and if you want time off, you have to ask for it and get subs. I have also had courses start on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. During Thanksgiving week, or any other week with a holiday, such as Labor Day, you are still responsible for five days of work, which often results in working on the holidays themselves. There are no separate sick days if you teach online, and it is not a remote position. Everyone teaches from the same syllabus and cannot deviate from it. Once one class ends, a new one begins the following week, and the course load is never below 4 courses at a time with a minimum of 25 students. Faculty expectations get increasingly higher, and the job becomes more of a data entry job the longer one stays. The job leaves people so exhausted that many spend the weekends sleeping and not having lives. Also, instructors are expected to work at least one day each weekend. Exit packages are sent poorly with open parts of the box and breakables not protected. Former employees are unable to access their student evaluations upon leaving. For a Christian university, it sure does a poor job of exhibiting Christian values to its employees. Even the traditional campus employees are not allowed bathroom breaks because the dean of one of the colleges walks around to make sure everyone is at their desk.
