OK, this is a grim online class...

[regentrude]

I've done a few online courses. Mostly I've not completed either because the number of hours was too high to complete it and way more than advertised (on that one I think the teacher had crammed in too much. Videos plus homework plus forum stuff was just far too many hours a week.)

 

Can I ask a question: how much time were you required to spend?

 

ETA: I am asking because many of our students have unrealistic expectations about the time they are expected to spend. For a 4 hour course, they should plan to work an additional 8 hours outside of class each week. So, a 4 credit hour online course should consume around of 12 hours/week to be at a comparable level.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Can I ask a question: how much time were you required to spend?

 

ETA: I am asking because many of our students have unrealistic expectations about the time they are expected to spend. For a 4 hour course, they should plan to work an additional 8 hours outside of class each week. So, a 4 credit hour online course should consume around of 12 hours/week to be at a comparable level.

 

Maybe she means the time required to check in and do specific tasks on-line was too much.  I do find it rather odd that for the on-line stuff I looked into they require one to be logged on for 6 hours per week.  Classes are normally 3 hours per week (for 3 credits).  So I'm not sure why check in time is double that for on-line.

 

I do think I'll do the next class on-line.  Mostly I just don't like the class times for the live class.  They are all during the day.  That's not impossible, but not ideal. 

 

Either way, I have plenty of time to spend on it so I'm not worried about that part. 

[regentrude]

Maybe she means the time required to check in and do specific tasks on-line was too much.  I do find it rather odd that for the on-line stuff I looked into they require one to be logged on for 6 hours per week.  Classes are normally 3 hours per week (for 3 credits).  So I'm not sure why check in time is double that for on-line.

 

Does the work include assigned reading or assignments like problem sets?

If the assigned reading is offered electronically as opposed to a physical textbook, the time requirement may be a way to get students to spend the time to actually read the assigned reading materials - which would be required out-of-class time for a student in a in seat class who was using a physical textbook.

Same for assignments: if you actually do assignments on the computer, that would substitute for the time during which in-seat students work on their assignments off line outside of class.

 

Requiring 6 hours of time logged on may simply be a way to make sure students spend enough time on task. It is a big problem in a presence class to get students to put in enough hours; in an online class, this must be even more of a problem.

[lailasmum]

Can I ask a question: how much time were you required to spend?

 

ETA: I am asking because many of our students have unrealistic expectations about the time they are expected to spend. For a 4 hour course, they should plan to work an additional 8 hours outside of class each week. So, a 4 credit hour online course should consume around of 12 hours/week to be at a comparable level.

 

For that one course in particular we were told 8-10 hrs per week on top of the videos which took about 4 hrs. In practice, I seemed to be spending at least twice that just to scrape through all the expected homework. I do just think the balance was off for that particular course though as I'm not the only one who had issues and I've done other online courses that were much better. Each week seemed to cover too much at high speed (but with no prerequisite of knowledge) and then also had fairly extensive homework on each little area but without the information being covered within the videos in any depth. So it required lots of extra research time/plus forum time to even feel like I could attempt the homework which bumped it all up. If the course had been run at half speed then I think the format would have been manageable and I would have had the time to feel like I actually learned the content rather than just getting through it in a kind of cramming manner. In the end I decided it wasn't worth the time. 

 

The other courses I've completed successfully have been more measured in the content for each week. There have been extra areas of research, but we've been pointed towards good sources of information rather than left to flounder in a subject we knew little about. The homework has also been entirely related to the actual video content from the teacher rather than the research.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Does the work include assigned reading or assignments like problem sets?

If the assigned reading is offered electronically as opposed to a physical textbook, the time requirement may be a way to get students to spend the time to actually read the assigned reading materials - which would be required out-of-class time for a student in a in seat class who was using a physical textbook.

Same for assignments: if you actually do assignments on the computer, that would substitute for the time during which in-seat students work on their assignments off line outside of class.

 

Requiring 6 hours of time logged on may simply be a way to make sure students spend enough time on task. It is a big problem in a presence class to get students to put in enough hours; in an online class, this must be even more of a problem.

 

Yeah I really do not know (yet).  The class I'm doing now takes me about 6 hours per week.  Three for the class and three for studying/homework.  Probably on the low end, but it's not a difficult course.