Learning Activity Estimator

Estimate how long a learning activity will take your students. Describe the activity in the section that fits it and read off the hours — then enter them in the Credit Hour Planner to check a module against its time budget.

Your entries will be saved automatically as you go.

Click a section heading to expand or collapse that section.

Click the panels with an arrow for background on where the numbers come from.

Reading

Use this to estimate the workload of any assigned reading: texts, supplemental materials, case studies, blogs, journal entries, and more. Refine the estimate with the page density, difficulty and reading purpose dropdowns (the panel below explains what each one means). Describe one reading assignment at a time, or estimate the total time for a larger work and divide it across your course.

A blog post or journal entry is usually a page or two at the 450-word density.

Estimated reading rate   About 0.00 hours

Where this estimated reading rate comes from

The rate is looked up from three things you choose above. Page density is words per page: about 450 for a paperback or article, 600 for an academic monograph, 750 for a textbook. Difficulty is how much of the material is new to the student. Purpose is what they are reading for: surveying it for the main ideas, understanding it, or engaging with it critically.

The table behind the lookup is built from Keith Rayner’s synthesis of reading science: a skilled adult reader’s optimal rate is about 300 words per minute, with comprehension dropping off above that. Real-world rates run somewhat slower.

“Engage” reading is treated as roughly equivalent to reading for memorization (about 138 words per minute or slower) — the original authors note this probably still understates the time.

Rates range from 67 pages/hour (light paperback, familiar material, skimming) down to 5 pages/hour (dense textbook, all new concepts, critical engagement).

Writing

Papers and writing assignments, blog posts, journal entries, wiki contributions, and the written report for a project. Describe one piece of writing: how long it is and what kind of writing it is.

Blog posts, journal entries and wiki contributions are usually reflection or narrative writing with little drafting. A word count is converted to pages at the density you choose.

Estimated writing rate   About 0.00 hours

Where this estimated writing rate comes from

These are the most speculative estimates in the tool. They rest largely on Torrance et al.’s study of 493 students writing 1,500-word essays, who reported spending 9 to 15 hours per assignment.

The table assumes students write at a constant rate (unrealistic), that reflection essays take half the time of arguments, and that research papers take twice as long as arguments. The original authors flag these linear relationships as “highly unlikely” but useful as a starting point.

Rates range from 45 minutes per page to 10 hours per page. If they look wrong for your assignment, set the rate manually.

Discussion & peer feedback

Discussion posts and replies, peer review comments, and comments on classmates’ blogs, journals or wiki pages. Count the posts one student writes for the activity, including replies, and how long each one is.

An initial post plus two replies is three posts. The time includes reading what classmates wrote.

About 0.00 hours

Where this discussion estimate comes from

These assumptions are not covered by the published methodology; they are taken from the original tool’s code.

Text posts: 250 words of composed discussion writing per hour — slower than drafting prose, since posts involve reading peers and composing a response.

Audio / video posts: 20 minutes of student work per finished minute of recording, covering planning, recording, re-recording, and uploading.

Media & live sessions

Mini-lecture videos, other videos, podcasts, webinar sessions, and simulations or eLearning tutorials. Count the items and their running time.

Counted at running time: a live webinar runs its scheduled length, a self-paced tutorial the time it says it takes. Add time separately if students are asked to take notes or complete a task while watching.

About 0.00 hours

Quizzes & tests

A quiz, test or pre-assessment: the time students spend sitting it, plus any preparation you expect.

The Credit Hour Planner suggests about 3 hours of preparation for an assessment. Leave it at zero for a low-stakes quiz or a pre-assessment.

About 0.00 hours

Projects & other activities

Case studies, experiential learning, research activities, individual and group assignments, projects and presentations. There is no research-based rate for these, so the Credit Hour Planner’s typical time is filled in as a starting point for you to adjust.

Experiential learning is attending an event, an interview, a field trip, a lab. Choosing an activity fills in its typical time; edit the hours to fit yours.

About 0.00 hours

Your estimates

0.00 Total hours for the activities described above

Estimated time by activity
Activity Based on Hours
Total 0.00

Each section estimates one activity at a time. To check a whole module against its time budget, enter these hours in the Credit Hour Planner’s module planner.