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Calculating Time on Task

Written by CEN-PICKETAL on . Posted in Instructional Design.

How much is too much? How much is enough? Do I have a course and a half? What about studio and lab courses? How do I know?

These are questions that online faculty and online instructional designers grapple with when designing online instruction.

The magic formula is:

  1. Create solid well-written course objectives,
  2. Map course activities to the objectives,
  3. Devise mechanisms to assess and provide feedback on the activities.

If there is anything extra (that doesn’t map to the objectives, or is out of balance with other objectives) eliminate it.

But, the questions remain a challenge for anyone designing online instruction… How do you know how much is enough?

I have collected a number of tools to assist those involved in designing online courses and programs to make this calculation with more confidence.

I’d recommend using the Rice University enhanced workload estimator and information found on calculations for online lab and studio courses found at Arizona University.

In addition to these resources, there are a number of other tools, resources, and links on the SUNY Online Teaching time on task webpage noted above, as well as links to the SUNY policy, Middle States policy, and NYS DoE policy, and examples from some SUNY Institutions:

instructional design, quality, time on task