Student Workload & Reading Standards Policy

1. Purpose & Scope

This policy establishes institutional standards for student workload assignment and reading expectations at the university level. It ensures compliance with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) accreditation requirements and is grounded in the Carnegie Unit credit hour framework as codified in federal regulation.

This policy applies to all degree-granting programs, including on-campus, online, hybrid, and blended delivery formats. Faculty, instructional designers, department chairs, and curriculum committees are responsible for applying these standards when designing courses and assigning readings.

2. Regulatory & Accreditation Basis

The following federal and accreditation standards form the foundation of this policy:

• 34 CFR 600.2 — Federal Definition of the Credit Hour: One credit hour = one hour of classroom instruction + minimum two hours of out-of-class student work per week × approximately 15 weeks per semester.
• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching — Original developer of the Carnegie Unit standard (1906), the universal benchmark for academic workload across U.S. higher education.
• MSCHE Accreditation Standards — Require demonstrable, documented equivalency of student learning time to resident instruction credit hour norms.
• Rayner et al. (2016), Psychological Science in the Public Interest — Peer-reviewed benchmark for college reading rates and comprehension at speed.
• Carver (1992) — Widely cited academic standard for reading speed classification by purpose (memorization, study, skimming).

3. Credit Hour Workload Standard

In accordance with 34 CFR 600.2, the institution defines one semester credit hour as follows:

Note: For a standard 3-credit, 16-week course, a student should expect approximately 4.7 hours of out-of-class work per week (totaling ~4,500 minutes per semester).

4. College-Level Reading Rate Standards

Assigned reading quantities must be calibrated to realistic reading rates for college-level students. The following standards, derived from peer-reviewed research, shall guide syllabus construction:

Baseline Planning Rule: Faculty shall plan reading assignments at approximately 2 minutes per page for standard academic materials. Additional time must be allocated for highly technical content, dense primary sources, or materials requiring annotation.

5. Time-on-Task Requirements for Online & Blended Courses

For all distance education courses — consistent with MSCHE accreditation standards — the institution requires documented equivalency to resident instruction. The following time-on-task benchmarks apply:

• A 3-credit online course requires a target of 9 hours of student time-on-task per week.
• Time-on-task includes: readings, video lectures, discussion board participation, assignments, quizzes, and course navigation.
• Syllabi must include a Time-on-Task Estimate section that itemizes the anticipated weekly time investment for each course activity.
• Reading loads shall be estimated using the tiered reading rate scale in Section 4.

Faculty teaching online courses are required to use the institutional Workload Calculator Tool to verify compliance before course publication. Documentation of the calculation must be retained in the course file.

Reference: Wake Forest University and Rice University Teaching Excellence frameworks are recommended supplementary references for workload calibration.

6. Faculty Responsibilities

• Design course reading assignments consistent with the credit hour standard (Section 3) and reading rate benchmarks (Section 4).
• Include a Time-on-Task estimate in all syllabi, broken down by activity type.
• Use the institutional Workload Calculator to document compliance prior to course launch.
• Review and adjust reading loads each term based on student performance data and course evaluation feedback.
• Ensure that highly technical or specialized reading materials receive additional time allocations beyond the 2-minute-per-page baseline.

7. Policy Compliance & Review

Adherence to this policy is subject to annual review by the Office of Academic Affairs and the Curriculum Committee. Non-compliance identified during academic audits or MSCHE accreditation reviews will require prompt corrective action by the responsible department chair.

This policy shall be reviewed annually and updated as needed to reflect changes in federal regulation, MSCHE standards, or advances in reading research.

8. Authoritative References

• U.S. Department of Education — 34 CFR 600.2 (Federal Credit Hour Definition)
• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching — carnegiefoundation.org
• MSCHE Accreditation Standards, current edition — MSCHE.org
• Rayner, K. et al. (2016). Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
• Carver, R.P. (1992). Reading Research Quarterly, 27(4).
• Wake Forest University Center for the Advancement of Teaching — cat.wfu.edu/resources/workload
• Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence — cte.rice.edu/blog/2016/workload

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