From what I understand the number of hours that a student spends in class and the hours spent out of class should be a function of the number of hours awarded for the course. For example, in a 3 hour course I should be spending 3 hours in class and 6-9 hours out of class. For distance learning students I assume that this formula should translate into 9-12 hours per week. Of course, this is also assuming that this is over a normal semester or quarter. Therefore, when the time is compressed (such as during a summer semester) the time spent should increase proportionally. Okay, this all seems pretty reasonable to me; however, I've seen programs, particularly DL programs from both non-profits and name-brand publics that offer accelerated courses that will offer 3 semester hours in courses that take as little as 5 weeks. Doing the math, the time a student should expect to spend with this course would come out to 27-36 hours per week! It boggles my mind to try and figure out how anyone working full time would be able to complete such a course. What seems paradoxical to me is that these courses are often touted as something that makes it "easier" for the working adult. I became mostly aware of this issue when I started researching schools for a business oriented masters degree. Universities such as Boston U., Arizona State and Colorado State all offer programs that are based on accelerated semesters. Maybe its because of my experience with my single graduate class I'm taking this semester at the University of Florida, but I'm pretty darn sure that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to complete the content of the course in 5 weeks!!! I can certainly understand 8 week semesters and I think this is a common length; however, when I see 5 week semesters (Boston U.) something tells me that the students are being short changed in terms of an education. Where am I wrong here?
One of the courses I am taking over the Summer is "Human Biology" - this course is condensed into eight weeks. I am in week five and wrote my mid-term last week. I have to admit that the course is very challenging and it is up to the student to ensure they keep up with the lesson plan. The midterm held no punches and covered Chapters one to 13 inclusively and also required an essay ( 100 multiple choice questions and an essay in 100 minutes - not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination! ). I don't believe that I am being short changed - on the contrary, I am not being bored by having to endure this class for 16 weeks *grin* - I love a good challenge, and taking four courses this summer has been just that! I have a textbook, a teleguide and three Videotapes. Whether the student gets as much out of the course in a shorter period of time as if were held over the normal 16 week period is open for debate, however we have to grasp the same amount of information in half the time. ..I hope I was of some help
I took one five week class (B&M method) once and it was set up to be in class 5 days a week if I can remember and basically we were covering one week worth of material in one day. In my opinion there is not feasible way to retain the information needed in that time (the class btw was Anatomy and Physiology, I withdrew after a week of hell). I talked with the instructor who readily admitted that you must leave the classroom and do nothing but study all day, which was hard because I had to work. Eight week terms, are more advantageous in my opinion because you are able to retain more but still get alot done in a little time.
My experience with 8-week accelerated courses is that such a format is optimal from both a learning/retention and scheduling basis. I have no time to be bored with the material since between the readings, class discussions/postings, assignments and exams. Summer courses, not merely courses offered during the summer, are designed to be completed one-at-a-time although I was taking three concurrently earlier this summer so I chose the easiest (1-credit courses) of the required courses for the degree programme. So far based on the 10 courses I have completed at two schools I find the 8-week format ideal. There is now way I would be able to handle a 3-credit course in only 5 weeks and actual learn anything except to pass the course.
I agree with you, I think 8 weeks is perfectly reasonable at the graduate level. However, I prefer taking two courses over 16 weeks. For my undergrad I took three courses over 16 weeks without too much difficulty but I would have never attempted four. Like you I took three courses over a summer semester one time (Discrete Math II, Statistics and American History) and I swore I would never do anything like that again. I made good grades on all these courses but I was one tired student! I think most experienced adults may be able to handle a lower level undergrad course in 5 weeks, but I just don't see how its possible to offer a graduate level course in 5 weeks unless it is for people who already know the material. I suspect that many of the Executive MBA programs have students in them that already know much of the material and perhaps the five week format would work well for them. However, I cringe when I see 5 week formats as being somehow "better" for the working adult.
I teach several courses at the graduate level, and over the years have taught them in standard 15-week format, 10-week summer format, and a 7-week summer format. The quality of the work from the students is MUCH better in the 15-week semesters. In the shorter formats, students don't seem to have time for reflection, for ancillary reading and literature research, and so on. And plagiarism is clearly higher during the short semesters, with several students each semester putting together their papers by "patch writing" -- stitching together snippets of text obtained from the internet. But there's a chicken-and-egg aspect to this. The quality of work is generally poorer during the compressed semesters. But is this because the short semesters attract students who don't want to do extra reading and reflection, and who take short cuts in writing papers? Or do students who would normally perform well during a full-length semester find that they lack the time to do quality work during a short semester? Either way, I have told my program director that I won't teach during the compressed semesters again.
Since I've returned to school I've taken courses every summer semester. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to complete my program as soon as I would like. Like you I prefer the normal paced semester. So I have to ask the question, why are summer semesters compressed? Why not have a 15 week summer semester? Also, why is summer considered a "down time?" I mean are there less students because professors want to have the time off or are there less professors because students want to have the time off? Is this another chicken and egg problem?
Summer is a down time because that is when the students are needed back on the farm to perform manual labor. I’m not making that up, it is a tradition that has held for hundreds of years. Class time for a three credit class should be about 48 contact hours and 96 concentration hours, so a 3 credit course should be about 144 hours of work (ish, + or – about 25%, why that is called 3 credits is beyond my knowledge). The DL classes I have taken at Aspen University tell you the expected time for each module, and there are 8 modules per class. The times range from 12 hours to 28 hours. For an average of 96 to 224 hours. As a comparison, I have taken community college B&M classes that required about 200 total hours, and graduate B&M classes at (what I think) is a decent school, Temple University, where I literally showed up for the first day of class and the final (only) exam. DEL
I recently taught a business law course as an adjunct at a university in their adult ed degree completion program. It was in-person at a B&M university, so it's not quite the same as DL, but geared to a similar demographic. We met 4 hours one night a week for 5 weeks and they received 3 UG credit hours. I don't know how that works. I always thought it was supposed to be 45 or 48 hours of class time for 3 credits. This isn't a fly-by-night, this a small but respected and fully-accredited B&M university located in a metro area, it has over 100 years of tradition, it has lovely ivy-covered brick buildings on campus. Are the standards less now? How does it work?
Two questions: 1) Are there any differences between undergrad and postgrad semester hours, or are they basically the same? In the British system, for example, a postgraduate student would expect to have much less class contact and much more private research / reading. The ratio of 1(class hour):2(hours reading) or 1:3, seems similar for u/g, but way out for p/g. 2) How does a British (Irish, SA etc) postgrad degree translate into semester hours? For example, what would a SATS MTh (or other equivalent research degree) be worth in terms of semester hours? Thanks, Peter
Rev. Peter: 1) The undergrad expectations would be 3 hours a week of reading and research for each 1 hour of credit. Not sure of graduate expectations. 2) A 3 semester hour course would meet 3 hours a week for 15 weeks for a total of 45 contact hours. A 3 quarter course would meet meet 3 hours a week for 10 weeks for a total of 30 contact hours. The American MA degree is either 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours. Assuming that each course is 3 credits, that would be 10 courses on the semester (15 wk.) system or 15 courses on the quarter (10 wk.) system. This would involve meeting for 450 hours of in-class time over the entire degree program, to-wit: for sem hrs: 45 contact hours/course x 10 courses = 450 hrs. for qtr hrs: 30 contact hours/course x 15 courses = 450 hrs. Then figure some multiple for out of class reading & research time. Now, the thesis portion of the master's degree is usually worth 6 semester hours or 9 quarter hours, which would be reckoned as the equivalent effort of 90 hrs. in-class time (though there is no actual class time for a thesis, even at B&M schools) plus some multiple for out-of-class time. The other thing to compare is the length of the thesis. The typical American master's thesis is supposed to be about 60 pages which, at roughly 250 words/page, comes to about 15,000 words.
One possible measure for grad student expectations vs. undergrad expectations might be as follows. As a City U MBA student, a few of my classes (Managerial Communications, Managerial Economics, and Applied Statistical Processes) were combined graduate/undergrad courses. They met 5 hrs/night, 2 nights/week for 5 weeks, for a total of 50 contact hours. Undergrads received 5 qtr hrs credit, while grad students received only 3 qtr hrs credit. Could it be that grad students should be putting 5 hours outside reading & research per 1 hour of seat time compared to the undergrad 3:1 ratio? If so, the 450 hrs of seat time in an American MA ought to be matched by 2250 hrs of reading/research, for a total of 2700 hrs of studies.
For my one graduate course I'm taking this semester, I am finding that I put in about 18 hours a week for reading and homework. Its a three hour course over a compressed semester (12 weeks instead of 15 or 16.) Rescaling to a normal semester would translate to about 14.5 hours per week which is about a 5:1 ratio (at least for me) so what you are saying seems to make sense. Thinking about it a little more, a five week quarter seems doable, but how can any graduate level course have a 5 week semester?!!
Thanks for the replies so far, I think I'm starting to build up a clearer picture. Ted, you wrote: Would an American MA usually be completed in one year? If so, on the basis of your calculations, that would seem to indicate approx 56 hours of study per week (allowing for 4 weeks of holidays) if it was a calander year, much more if an academic year. Would this be correct? This is where I'm starting to struggle - take a SATS MTh for example, which is a typical British-style research degree, which requires a thesis of 120-140 pages - is this only comparable to 12-15 semester hours (18-24 quarter hours)? This doesn't seem to be a fair evaluation or comparison of degrees. American degrees seem to be much less research orientated - from what you have written only approx 20% of a Masters degree is research, whereas most (taught) british degrees would be about 50/50, expecting a thesis of c.20-000 words. Regards, Peter
As far as time to completion for an American MA degree, one year might be do-able in certain situations. In the traditional B&M context, if you have enough financial backing from Daddy Warbucks or rich Uncle George or some other nice benefactor who will relieve you of the obligation to actually work for a living, and you choose a small non-thesis MA-only grad program, you might get away with trying 12 hours a term (24 semester hours or 36 quarters in the regular academic year) and then take 6 semester hours or nine quarters of coursework during the summer term. If you plan on writing a thesis, you should plan on one year of doing the thesis and nothing but the thesis, which will increase your time to completion to two years. If you expect to go to a larger doctoral granting university for your MA, I wouldn't try more than 9 hours a term even without an assistantship, which would make for two years time to completion for a non-thesis MA or two and a half years time to completion for a thesis MA. If you plan on riding in on a teaching assistantship, expect to reduce your coursework to 6 hours a term, with a time to completion of three years. If you plan on having a full-time job and taking only one class per term at a largely traditional school, expect to graduate on a five-year plan. However, there are many one-year coursework-only masters degrees offered by non-traditional schools which use compressed semesters.
