How many hours/week do we expect students (e.g., pre-service teachers) to spend on courses? How much is too little, too much, or just right? In this workshop, we will share our study of student workload in a Faculty of Education and explore how workload varies by student, program and course delivery method.
This session is relevant to all who are responsible for designing courses and structuring programs in higher education, with a specific eye cast to student workload (estimates and actuals) and the impacts that estimation errors might have on learning.
At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- identify current beliefs and practices re: estimating student workload
- describe the impact errors in student workload estimation may have on student learning
- use tools and strategies to support instructors’ course planning, design and communication with students regarding expected workload
Takeaway #1: Student workload estimates are errorful and dependent on a number of variables, including the student, the instructor, the education program, and the course delivery method.
Interactive activity for Takeaway #1: First, participants will be polled on their opinions and experiences on a series of questions related to student workload. Second, in a large group, participants will be invited to debrief and interpret poll responses and share their personal experiences (if any) on if and how they estimate student workload. Finally we will share our empirical findings from our study of student workload estimation at our Faculty of Education. (20 min)
Takeaway #2: Errors in student workload estimation can have a significant negative impact on student learning.
Interactive activity for Takeaway #2: Participants will participate in small group discussions with the choice of answer one or both of the questions below: (20 min)
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What impact do errors in student workload estimation have on student learning?
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How much is too much, too little, and just right?
Takeaways #3: There are tools and strategies available to support instructors’ course planning, design and communication with students regarding expected workload as one of the key planning components.
Interactive activity for Takeaway #3: Alone or in pairs, participants will choose one of their courses and use a student workload estimator to estimate student workload for their course. Workshop facilitators will guide them through the process of student workload estimation. Second, the estimate of student workload that each participant (or pair) calculated will be input into a database, descriptive statistics will be generated on the spot, and results will be shared with the large group. Third, participants will discuss the result of the activity as a group and share strategies at the student, instructor, and program levels. Lastly, we will ‘top up’ the discussion with other strategies. (30 min)
Q&A (10 min)
Materials required for participation - please bring with you:
- your course outline or syllabus (course you are familiar with)
- a device to access the internet (preferrable laptop or tablet for screen size)
- your curious nature