Workload and the Quality of Student Learning

Workload and The Quality of Student Learning
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Abstract
Chambers (1992) reported that an overload of academic work might, for some students, result in their adoption of a surface approach to learning. The study aims to measure students’ workload to determine whether any are at risk of being driven to adopt a surface approach as a consequence of being overloaded with academic work. In order to achieve the goal, students participated in a survey questionnaire. The survey allowed them to record their time on any academic activities for any class in their current semester in 15-minute intervals using a checklist. Although the study hypothesized that students would be working above the recommended level because Hunter College assigns them with too much academic work, the findings showed otherwise. The study affirmed that students were working below the recommended workload per week, which allowed them to engage in other academic activities. Moreover, the fact that they had minimal working hours guaranteed that they had sufficient time to engage in deep learning.
Keywords: Students, workload, academic work, overload, teachers, instructors.
Workload and The Quality of Student Learning
In higher education, instructors are perceived to be experts within their areas of specialization. Therefore, their chief responsibility is creating curricula and ensuring that students meet the expected performance standards. In order to ensure that student achieves their performance targets, instructors give students too much academic work that negatively impacts the quality of student learning. Chambers (1992) noted that students are expected to interpret the curriculum and the scope of covering the curriculum. Instead of instructors taking this role as their primary obligation, they have majorly left it to the students to determine and establish what they can do or not. There is an assumption that people who are qualified to attend universities can judge what they need to learn within their majors.
Numerous investigations show that overloading students with academic work lead to psychological distress and poor quality in the learning process. When the student’s mental and physical wellbeing is affected, the learning process is hindered, and adverse outcomes. Therefore, teachers in higher education need to consider the best ways to assist students and ensure optimal outcomes during the learning process. Students’ ability to comprehend the need or expectations from the curriculum should be treated as a primary mandate of the teachers. Chambers (1992) argued that workload is among the leading factors causing dropouts in higher education. This implies that something needs to be done to address the aspect related to this case. Many conventional students also suffer from the workload presented through the numerous courses they undertake.
In order to eliminate mental health issues and ensure that students get quality learning, it is vital to have elaborate measures to address the issues of workload and quality of student learning. The research goal is to u...