Student Course Time Estimator (Beta)
To support instructors’ ability to better estimate how the shift to online delivery might change the time commitments expected of students,
UBCO and TRU are adapting a course workload estimation calculator based on a research-informed, open source tool (Workload Estimator 2.0, developed by Barre, Brown, and Esarey 1).
Our overall objective was to adapt their tool to be inclusive of a blended learning spectrum from face-to-face to fully online.
We first surveyed colleagues about their impressions of the tool. From their feedback we have developed two versions:
- Adaptation 1: Our first adaptation of the broadened the suite of learning activities while keeping the overall approach to the calculation similar to the original Barre et al.’s tools.
We felt that our interface was somewhat complex, so we adapted the tool further.
- Adaptation 2: Our most recent version changed the approach to the calculator. Rather than present all inputs on one screen at once, the current version takes a “Build” approach.
Based on the input provided, the tool calculates the total time commitment expected, and allocates activities into scheduled (set by the institution, typically live meetings) and independent
(at the discretion of the student within the parameters set by course deadlines) activities.
We would appreciate your trying out Adaptation 2 and providing feedback. Please follow the Adaptation 2 link above.
1Barre, B., Brown, A., & Esarey, J. (n.d.). Workload Estimator 2.0. Retrieved June 30, 2020,
from https://cat.wfu.edu/resources/tools/estimator2/.