When Daylight Saving Becomes Costly Online

This weekend marks the end of daylight saving time in the U.S. which means we will set our clocks back one hour. The times of year when daylight saving time goes on or off  can cause a confusing day or two as we adjust to the change, whether we had prepared for it or not.

Daylight saving time can also be costly in the virtual classroom if you are not prepared for it.  If you will be doing a live virtual event in the fall or spring near the daylight saving time switch, pay close attention to time zone differences since not all states or countries observe daylight saving time uniformly.

What this can mean for virtual instructors or participants is that if did not take into account daylight saving time changes when announcing the start or end time of your session and, you may accidentally indicate the wrong time.

For example, in the U.S. Arizona  and Hawaii  do not observe daylight saving time.  Elsewhere around the world, people change their clocks, but not the same date as we change in the U.S. Many countries in Europe marked the end of daylight saving time on October 30 this year as compared to November 6 in the U.S.  And in other parts of the world such as Africa, Asia and parts of Latin America do not observe daylight saving time at all.

To help make sense of which locations are changing their time and on what days, use online resources such as  Daylight Saving Time by Country and Daylight Saving Time Around the World 2011.

These tools can help you to avoid showing up in your virtual classroom an hour early or late.  And for those of you who are setting your clocks back an hour this weekend, enjoy the extra hour of sleep!

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