UCITE discussion: How much time should students spend outside class on course work?

UCITE will host a discussion on “How much time should students spend outside class on course work?” June 30 from noon to 1 p.m. in Allen Library 306.

Out of class work is undoubtedly an important part of courses, but students are not taking only one particular course. They are usually taking four other courses and sometimes more, and this should be factored into expectations.

A related question that is equally important but is not often asked is how to judge how much time your out-of-class assignments will take the average student to complete. It is hard for experts in a field to gauge how difficult a novice might find material, and this can result in a serious mismatch between how much time an instructor thinks an assignment should take and how much time a student spends on it.

At the next UCITE session, we will explore these questions so that you and your students can avoid the frustrations arising from mismatched expectations. This recent article analyzes trends in student time spent outside of class.

Pizza lunch and sodas will be provided at this session; RSVP to ucite@case.edu.