MA Workload

[Tom]

I recently had an email from the chair of the School's Learning & Quality Committee (Corine) to say 'We've always worked with a notional amount of 10hrs per credit including contact time and assessment time/exam etc...'. This means that a 30 credit course should involve 30x10 = 300 hours study. Spread over approx 14 weeks this would be approx 20 hours/week. Since the MA WA has only 3 hours attendance/week this would be 17 hours/week at home.

We are past the half-way point in the year and I would be grateful if students would start thinking about (1) general comments on the workload (2) specific comments on the Content Management course.

[James]

Hi Tom,

When we started the course, Terry estimated it would be on average 6 hours per week, in addition to Wednesday afternoons.

This has probably proved accurate. I personally do not have 17 hours to spend on the MA. Ditto James G I imagine. We were careful to ask this question up front due to our full time work commitments and other stuff.

James B.

[francis]

I'd probably agree, although at the moment I am putting in considerably more than I have before with your stuff and Bentley

[David]

Tom - if Corine is correct, the implications are even more profound than your calculations. Since each year of the course consists of 3 x 30 credit courses; 10 hours per credit works out at 900 study hours per year. Given that there are 26 teaching weeks in the year, that gives us a rate of almost 35 hours per week.

That is the equivalent of a full-time job! (7 hours x 5 days). It seems to me that Terry's estimate is more realistic - are you sure Corine hasn't just got her wires crossed?

[Tom]

Corine could have made a mistake, though the quote in quote marks was a cut and paste job. Talented students can of course do the work in less time!

My recollection is that I did about half an hour per week of homework at school but since then I guess my at-desk week has never been less than 60 hours and normally more. As to how much is 'work' and how much is 'pleasure' I could not say.