Course Workload Estimator

How much work should you be assigning?

Calculating Student Workload can be tricky. This is true whether we’re teaching online or in person. It gets more difficult though as we try to balance synchronous and asynchronous work and take into consideration the challenges of learning remotely during the pandemic.

The Course Workload Estimator is a valuable tool to help you get a better feel for the approximate workload of your out-of-class assignments. The Estimator is intended to support you in planning the appropriate out-of-class workload for your students, not to reduce rigor, but to reduce barriers to student success. In fact, with clearer communication about course workload expectations, student learning can be enhanced and faculty frustration can be reduced.

It is very common for faculty to underestimate how much time it would take students to complete the reading and other assignments for a course.

For instructions on how to use this calculator and interpret its results, please see Course Workload Estimator: Estimation Details (opens in new tab)