Total number of completed responses = 414. Breakdown of results below.
- Average time spent each week on different aspects of the coursework.
| <30m | <1hr | 1-2hr | 2-3hr | >3hr | |
| Reading assigned text | 14.00% | 29.70% | 42.50% | 11.30% | 2.40% |
| Reviewing webcast | 11.50% | 8.90% | 53.30% | 21.20% | 4.50% |
| Working on quizzes | 1.90% | 7.90% | 35.00% | 28.20% | 26.30% |
| Any other work | 15.20% | 23.10% | 35.00% | 15.40% | 9.90% |
The overall impression is that the load is roughly within the expected range for a 4MC module, though some students spend more, or less time. (The official stand in NUS is that “a 4-MC module would require 10 hours of work a week, including lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, assignments, and independent or group study”; source.) Compared to previous runs of this module, students seem to have spent more time on the quizzes, and there is also higher variance.
- Time spent on the Special Project
| <1hr | <1-2 | 2-4hr | >4hr | |
| Forming the group, etc. | 26.30% | 40.50% | 28.50% | 4.30% |
| Making the project itself. | 3.60% | 18.30% | 37.60% | 39.60% |
| Anything else | 52.80% | 21.40% | 9.90% | 5% |
Setting aside the outliers, most probably spent around 8-9hrs. Considering that the Project is 3 quizzes worth of the grade, the workload seems commensurate (not counting the outliers).
- Grades weightage of each component
| Should be lower | About right | Should be higher | |
| Attendance (5%) | 1.90% | 81.80% | 16.10% |
| Participation (5%) | 13.20% | 80.10% | 6.00% |
| Quizzes (9 of 10; 36%) | 23.40% | 65.70% | 10.60% |
| Special Project (12%) | 5.50% | 53.10% | 40.50% |
The overall feeling seems to be that the weightage of each component is about right, with some preference that the quizzes could be slightly lower and the Special project be slightly higher. This is consistent with previous semesters. (Just to let you know that I have considered adjusting the weightages before, though the math hasn’t quite work out in a way that we like. Looks like I will give that another go for the next round.)
- Any other suggestions/comments relating to workload
I’m counting 160 distinct (non “nil”) responses, so this will take a while. Overall impression so far is that the majority seems to think that the workload is manageable. Without doing an actual count, comments on the quizzes seem to dominate. I’ll be studying the returns for possibly actionable items.
