In Students Say Their Workload Increased During the Pandemic. Has it?, Beth McMurtie (from the Chronicle of Higher Ed) discusses the workload conundrum in the shift to remote learning: students say their workload has increased; faculty say they have scaled back. She offers a number of ways to think about this discrepancy based on interviews with Betsy Barr, who wrote this great piece called The Workload Dilemma.
Both are worth a quick read to think about strategies for helping students manage their work in ENL 265 and 266.
This is really interesting to think about. Has the workload actually increased, or does the shift in teaching/learning perspectives just make it feel this way? Sometimes I wonder if I edit MyCourses to “hide” future assignments, if students will then feel like there is less of a workload; not seeing everything all at once, but instead in smaller chunks, might make them feel less overwhelmed. It also really does feel like more only because we are glued to our devices 24/7 vs meeting face to face in a classroom 2-3 times a week. Because the information is always there, it tends to feel like more.
I have been hearing a lot about this topic as well. I think from both a student and educator standpoint that it can feel as if there is to much work or not enough work…. I think it all steps from how long we are actually spending. For example, are students spending 2 hours on a discussion board? Whereas if we were in class it would most likely be a 10-15 minute conversation. I think keeping an open communication line with students and other teachers can help in understanding the time we are living in now and how it is effecting learning and the education model.
I also think that it is realistic professor feel they are giving less work and students feel like i’s more because professors are grading fewer assignments (so it seems like less), but are still giving large amounts of readings (which is more more time intensive) for students. I definitely have significantly higher numbers of students doing poorly in the class. Particularly seniors who also seems to have serious mental and emotional strains. I’m sure this isn’t how they imagined their final year. I also noticed many of my students say they overloaded and took an extra class because it was online so they could have more time to do the work. But they aren’t really aware of the demand on top of their other life obligations. I also think that professor underestimate how much more difficult it is for students to do that level of reading or independent work in such stressful and distracting conditions.