From what i am seeing from my kids, they have more papers to write, and more projects to do, and more reading, as compared to when they had in person classes. they do have less exams. A project or paper takes longer to do than studying and taking a few exams. Normally a class might have 2 papers . a midterm, and a final. Now there are 4 papers, and still some quizzes. Or normally one be assigned 4 projects, and now there are many more to gauge the learning. There is much less in terms of lecture. So in some ways there is less class time /lecture time . I do hear that with all this said, that they are “learning less”.
For accreditation purposes, classes have to satisfy a certain number of “instructional” hours per credit, but how that happens (lecture v. autonomous work) is completely up to an instructor.
As far as “learning less”, my D20 hasn’t yet moved away from the high school student mentality, where a teacher needs to be talking at the front of the class for teaching and learning to occur. Of course, she is learning, I see and hear it as she talks about the papers she is writing and projects she is completing…she just doesn’t seem to realize it (yet).
There is also a government definition of credit hour (= 3 hours of work per week, including in-class and out-of-class; commonly 1 hour in-class and 2 hours out-of-class per week per credit hour) that is used for government financial aid purposes.
I’d still be interested in seeing next year’s numbers. That’s where the rubber meets the road.
They’re above it all…no roads. So they break-even, most schools would kill for that this year. How Harvard is impacted by the pandemic is the least interesting discussion on CC.
My D is also reporting an increase in work. Many of her classes have switched from exams to projects which are much more time consuming. Pace is also quicker this year because they are ending in person instruction before thanksgiving.
Why are you being so argumentative? I’m merely expressing a curiosity about Harvard’s books. Never said nor implied that anything nefarious was going on.
My D says she feels like some professors seem to feel like the kids have more time now. Her semester is also a little condensed since the majority of work needs to be done before Thanksgiving. Professors are trying to fit the same amount of work into a less time. Plus with no breaks in the schedule this semester kids are really burning out. She just had a massive group project in a class all sophomores in her major have to take. The professor was disappointed overall in the quality of the projects turned in. D says she’s not surprised. Some groups have remote international kids and dealing with time differences, meeting on zoom, having some kids on campus and some remote, and so on made the projects more of challenge than if they could just all hunker down together and work.
My D’s school is isolating kids with those types of symptoms until they get a couple of negative tests and their roommates are quarantined to their rooms/suites. But they have low numbers and lots of space in the isolation housing (currently there are 3 there according to today’s report). Not sure what they would do if numbers were higher.
@FourAtShore in my daughter’s case all of her classes meet synchronously over zoom for the exact amount of time they would in person, so there is no uptick in instructional time. Where she would have to read 75 pages in Italian before a class last year, the professor will now assign 100 pages and a film for the same class period. There are double the presentations and papers as well, and still the exams. She said her teachers have admitted to sometimes having trouble gauging the workload. Maybe they think these students have nothing better to do, I’m not sure. She’s still maintaining her grades as before but it is tiring to her and she’s feeling burnt out- which also makes sense because in normal times they would have been on fall break lash week.
Hey homer dog, sorry for the delay in reply. Actually all students at Bates went back. So far, 5 positives…4 students, 1 staff…multiple testing per week required for every student. 3 misses and u go home. Several kids sent home… but majority working with the college and trying… my kid states pretty dull but glad to be back. Think Bates will make it - although just starting to get cold. Glad bowdoin is bringing soph,juniors and seniors back in feb… my 2nd kid will be back at bowdoin then. he has been working and taking some college courses locally, meeting plenty of new students, mostly enjoying the pause.He had decided to transfer if bowdoin stayed remote during 2nd semester this year and just restart somewhere else as a sophomore in the fall. So glad bowdoin decided to move forward. Hope everyone healthy there!
My own thoughts on student perception of increased workload in online classes are as follows. In normal in-person lecture scenarios, students passively absorb information (or not) based on what the professor says and what peers contribute during discussion. Major assessments may be papers or other types of assignments that are submitted in toto, say, four or five times a semester. Many of these papers are garbage hodgepodges (some are not).
In an online class, students have to demonstrate weekly engagement via participation in discussion boards or quizzes. Passivity won’t cut it. I am actually assigning a little less reading this semester than I have in the past, but the difference is that online assessments force students to show that they have actually done the reading, rather than relying on lecture and other student comments to fill them in. I can definitely see how some may perceive this as “more work.” However, if you were fully doing the work assigned during non-remote semesters, there shouldn’t be any difference in workload (if you’re in one of my classes).
In short, although I do not enjoy teaching online and look forward to the time when we can meet in person, I do think that online course delivery does require more active engagement from the student, and that fact contributes to the sense that students are doing more work. What’s really happening is that they are actually having to do the work that was always expected (although often not done).
Will be interesting to see how end of semester is done. Older son at Bates will drive back home leave sat before turkey day as it is a 2 day trip. Probably going to get him to stay home for 10 days or get tested when he gets home just to be safe.
Centre college
Homer dog is a female? ??.. never crossed my mind.
I do wish professors would rethink group/partner assignments. That was definitely an area of stress for my daughter. The typical issues are absolutely exacerbated by a partner being remote. Everyone knows collaboration can be tough in the best of times, but it is an unnecessary stressor right now. It’s a whole lot easier to disappear on your partner when you’re not even at least seeing them in class.
I have a teacher friend. I can see how some students might feel like there is more work. Usually she took attendance and used that and participation to form a participation grade and also used it (only to benefit of student) to bump up a grade at end of term. Now she can’t really take attendance. She is teaching live online but the class is always recorded and that is always an option, so now attendance is not really a way to show students’ effort as part of grade. In its place (and to the students benefit if they need a few more points), she has put a few more responses and assignments. But we’re talking watch a video (20 min) and posting a paragraph response.
Clemson university leads all universities with 4,539 positive cases October 19,2020 - post and courier
@Darcy123 agree. My daughter’s last project her partner simply said she wasn’t feeling well and boom, my daughter had to do both halves and present alone.
I think the point was some colleges do not have the financial resources… do not charge 70k a year