SUMMARY
If you’re a professor who wants to help students better manage their time, reduce their stress, and prepare well for your class, read on to learn more about providing time estimates for your assignments.
Introduction
Most universities state that for a student to receive an average grade of “C” in a class, they should expect to spend three hours of class or work time for every one credit hour of the course. That means a three credit-hour class requires nine hours of time spent in class and completing assignments. Professors can more accurately determine how much time their students are spending on work outside of class by using time estimates for their assignments. Time estimates help professors ensure that they are assigning their students the right amount of homework. Providing time estimates to students can help them reduce procrastination, start assignments sooner, and improve their time management skills.
Factors to consider when generating time estimates
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How complex is the subject material? Using a class reading as an example, consider the format of the piece. Is it from a textbook, a research paper, or a general online resource? What is the page density? Reading twenty pages of a textbook with lots of graphics and photos will likely take less time than reading twenty pages of a dense research paper.
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How familiar are students with the subject matter? The Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence simply categorizes student familiarity with subject matter into no, some, and many new concepts. The more unfamiliar students are with the subject matter they are working with, the more time they will need to complete the assignment.
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How much research does the assignment require? Writing a reflective discussion post or paper will take less time than a writing task involving outside research.
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What is the purpose of the assignment? The Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence identifies different purposes such as surveying, understanding, and engaging. When students survey a text, they only need to absorb the main ideas; they may even skim over certain parts. If students need to understand a text, they are reading it sentence by sentence. And if they need to engage with a text, there may be discussion questions, practice problems, or annotations (such as in the Hypothes.is platform) involved. The more concentration involved in a reading assignment, the more time it will likely take for students to complete it.
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Other factors to consider include whether an assignment requires group work and whether an assignment includes multiple parts – in which case, you may consider breaking it down to estimate the time each part will take.
Methods for determining time estimates
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Consult an online time estimate calculator. The Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence has widely cited resources and a data-based calculator for understanding assignment time estimates. View the calculator here.
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Base your time estimates on how long it takes you to complete the same task. Generally, almost any substantive assignment will take students longer to complete than their professor. The estimates on how much time should be added vary from one and a half times as long to three times as long. Remember to consider the factors listed in the previous section when determining how much time you (the expert) need to complete an assignment in comparison to your students (who are novices to some degree).
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Ask your students to record how long it takes them to complete different assignments. This can be an effective way to determine average time estimates for the exact discussion posts, papers, or problem sets assigned in your class. In key assignment descriptions, consider asking students to leave a comment on their submission about how long the assignment took them to complete.
Once you have determined a time estimate for a reading or assignment, you may choose to put a statement such as “Estimated time to complete: 40 minutes” at the top or bottom of the assignment description or alongside the assigned reading or homework in the syllabus.
Important considerations & conclusion
It’s almost certain that the students in your class will possess different abilities and levels of comprehension. When providing time estimates, consider giving a range of times (like 30-45 minutes) or simply adding a note that exceeding the time estimate is acceptable. If many students find that an assignment took longer than the estimated time, that is useful information for planning future assignments.
While providing time estimates for assignments is not essential for students’ success, it can be useful information that helps students better manage their time and helps professors ensure that they are not under- or over-loading their students with work.
Resources
Course Workload Estimator, Rice University Center for Teaching and Excellence
Determining time on task in online courses, Empire State University
Understanding and estimating instructional time and homework, Champlain College
How much should we assign? Estimating out of class workload, Rice University Center for Teaching and Excellence