Yes, this means that students in programs that require more than 15 hrs of class time per week (e.g. art studio, science courses with labs, engineering) expect/assume more time on task. This may not be that different from the Arts in which students have to read multiple novels or monographs for a given course. This is why I advocate for lab work during the 1st two years of students' undergraduate programs to be self-contained and not require any homework other than preparation for the lab. For more senior labs, these should be lab courses, not lec-lab courses. Otherwise, the expectations for students to spend time on coursework becomes unreasonable.
So why am I bringing this up now? A couple of years ago, I remember reading on my end of term student ratings of instruction a couple of comments responding to my start of term advice that to do well students should be spending a minimum of two hours studying outside of class for every hour spent inside of class. The comments amounted to shock and horror that an instructor, that an educational institution would have such expectations of their students. That such expectations were unreasonable because students had a life outside of school. When I discussed this with my colleagues, the more recent ones to the teaching profession shared the students' shock and horror - a 2:1 ratio of outside:inside course work was clearly unreasonable.
When did this change? When did the understanding change that learning does not require time on task? All of the evidence I have read suggests that academic success depends upon time on task and that one of the best things that instructors can do for their students is to encourage their time on task on educationally purposeful activities. This includes doing homework (reading the text, doing practice problems), discussing class material in a study group, preparing lab reports, conducting research for term papers, spending time in the studio painting or drawing, spending time rehearsing lines, doing the grunt work of memorizing vocabulary and grammatical rules for language acquisition, memorizing the chemical formulae for functional groups, practicing conversing in the language of the discipline.
Does anyone think that three hours per week in-class is sufficient to master their coursework? Where is this resistance to the sage advice of two hours outside of class for every hour inside of class coming from? Who thinks that students do not need to spend time doing the hard messy work of learning on their own time outside of class?
In the resources below it seems like the 2:1 adage is still prevalent. But I do like Lolita Paff's Faculty Focus article and the USU estimate study hours worksheet to be a much better-nuanced consideration of this issue. Bottom line from those two resources is that it depends upon the type and difficulty of the course. But it still looks to me that it ends up being approximately 2:1 but that the hours outside of class may be differentially allocated depending upon the constellation of courses in which a student is enrolled for a given term. Something that we can do to circumvent the student complaint that they did not perform as they thought they would on an exam given the amount of time spent studying for the exam is to discuss efficient vs weak study/learning strategies. Many students still use passive learning strategies (e.g. reading over their notes, using flashcards, reading the text with a highlighter in hand) rather than active learning strategies (e.g. rewriting/reorganizing their notes, engaging in retrieval practice, reading the text with pencil and paper in hand, spacing rather than massing their study, and mixing their study time by attending to different courses). I have found that having this conversation and having students think about their approach to studying often transforms a mediocre student into a high-performing student. Many students have found the book Make It Stick to be an invaluable resource.
Resources
University website resources
- https://www.umflint.edu/advising/surviving_college
- https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/college/how-much-outside-class-study-time-is-recommended-for-every-hour-of-class-time-for-college-freshmen
- https://www.usu.edu/asc/assistance/pdf/estimate_study_hours.pdf
- https://wellness.ucsd.edu/CAPS/Documents/tx_forms/koch/college_success/college_success.pdf
- https://www.astrosociety.org/education/hints-on-how-to-succeed-in-college-classes/
- https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-collegesuccess/chapter/text-class-time-to-study-time-ratio/
- https://dus.psu.edu/academicsuccess/explanation.html
- https://www.maryville.edu/academicaffairs/credit-hourcontact-hour-guidelines/
- https://www.college.columbia.edu/coursepoints
- http://cte.rice.edu/blogarchive/2016/07/11/workload
- https://www.mcgill.ca/science/student/general/advising/skills
By the way, a minimum of two hours of out-of-class work for every hour of in-class instruction is federal law. It is the federal definition of a credit hour, and it is a requirement for accreditation by all of the major accrediting agencies. A college/university can lose their accreditation if they don't follow the guidelines set forth by the agency that they are accredited by.
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