So I am on an indefinate hiatus from my teaching gig until I finish this game. For the past couple of years I have been teaching Game Design and some related subjects at one of the online universities for a number of reasons, but the game I am working on needs my full attention, I just cannot get away with both or both will suffer for it.

I didn’t realise until my break started, however, just how *much* time and attention the university courses were requiring. In their never ending quest to improve the student experience online, the requirements on the teachers have been getting more and more stringent and while this most certainly good for the students, it has taken a degree that was originally taught by professionals working in the games industry and is turning it into something that will only be able to be taught by full-time educators.

At the very least you are looking at the teaching becoming fragmented, one course only being taught by a pro. More likely though, the pros who were teaching will simply quit, after all, they are already employed, and oftentimes are teaching because they enjoy it, rather than for the salary benefits. The problem is, the games industry moves fast. Very fast. If you don’t keep a toe in the water, you get left on the shore very quickly. You’re going to end up with a group of teachers who’s skillsets become obsolete (and by extension, so will
their courses) unless you can find a way to maintain that happy balance of pro/teacher.

At this moment I am looking down the barrell of one of the few times in my recent experience when I do not have my courses constantly on my mind. The “instant access” paradigm being fronted by the online courses means students can and do contact you any time of the day (or night). You are expected to respond within 24 hours, which means if the response requires research (and my courses involve teaching game engine use, so most questions require faily extensive research and debugging) you have to get on it immediately. The end result is that you *never* have downtime, you never have a period when you can put the course out of your head. You never get a break, even if you have rigidly set schedule or clearly defined hours of contact. Being free of this constraint has been surprising mainly because I hadn’t noticed it was there until it was gone. I hadn’t noticed just how much of an impact it was having on the rest of my projects and productivity.

I hesitate to call it a negative impact, because the experience wasn’t a “negative” one. I enjoy/ed the teaching, particularly since it was in my chosen area of expertise, but in reflection the cost to the rest of my projects (also in my chosen area of expertise) may simply have been higher than I expected. I’m now in the process of rethinking my priorities, making this a permanent hiatus, rather than just a short-term one.