This summer, the CETL will be presenting one tip per week, to provide a more in-depth discussion of evidence-based teaching practices. If there are specific topics you would like to see CETL explore, please let us know! We also welcome guest posts from faculty who have a teaching tip they would like to share with their colleagues. 

Course Workload: Perception vs Reality (Quantity vs Quality) 

College students often cite course workload as a source of stress and have reported increases in workload in recent years. Is this a result of students’ perceptions about workload or failure to approach learning effectively? Or is there a disconnect when it comes to determining how much work to assign students for a course and how much time this work takes students to complete?  

Many of our students are not adequately prepared for the college environment due to their learning experiences during the pandemic. This does not mean that we cannot, or should not, have appropriately challenging coursework, but we can be mindful of how much we are asking students to do, especially outside of class. We might also consider the idea that a high workload does not necessarily support student learning, and that “flexibility and understanding can coexist with challenging students” (Supiano, 2022).  

As indicated in the policy on credit hours in Chapman’s Curriculum Handbook, a 3-credit, 15-week course requires approximately three in-class contact hours and six hours of assigned coursework per week. Tools such as the Course Workload Estimator can be helpful in estimating the time it will take students to complete tasks such as reading, writing assignments, and taking exams. You can hear Besty Barre, one of the creators of the workload estimator, talk more about how (and why) to use this tool in this podcast episode.   

Hogan and Sathy note in their book on inclusive teaching that an instructor’s job is “not to cover all the content, but to ensure that all students learn” (2022, p. 63). As you plan for your next class, take a closer look at your assigned learning activities, and consider the following: 

  • Do students really need to read every chapter in the textbook?  
  • Is a lengthy paper or exam necessary to show what students have learned? What are some other ways you can capture evidence of student learning?  
  • Do all the activities clearly align with course outcomes? Are they meaningful, or will students see them as busy work?  
  • Are course and assignment instructions and expectations clear?  
  • How might lessons and activities be re-focused to support learning of critical thinking skills rather than trying to teach them (to memorize) everything about a topic?  
  • Does the class include regular, low-stakes activities that are designed to help support student learning?  

Join us for our upcoming Conference on Innovative Teaching and Student Success to learn more about inclusive teaching and other strategies for supporting students in and out of the classroom.

Interested in exploring any of these ideas further or discussing how you might implement them in your own teaching practices? Is there a tip you’ve tried that you would like to share with colleagues? Contact CETL or schedule a consultation to continue the conversation.