Summary of Responses: Reading Assignment Quantity Guidelines

This Peer Guideline was generated by specific faculty developers for the use throughout their professional network after the 2003 POD Conference through the efforts of Lydia Stawasz Soleil, Ph.D., Associate Director Instructional Resources Center of the University of California, Irvine.

I. Does anyone have any references or even rules of thumb as to how to decide how much reading is reasonable to assign college students:

(a) in different types of courses (science, humanities, etc.
(b) for different sources of reading assignments (textbook, journal articles, etc)
(c) at different levels (lower vs. upper-division)
(d) for different length courses (14 week semester, 10 week quarter, 5 week inter-session).

(a) Rosalind Streichler, Ph.D., Director, Center for Teaching Development, University of California, San Diego:

"The average reading speed for college students (freshman through senior) is 250 words per minute for general expository reading. Scientific and technical material might take longer--we call that study reading and it might be as slow as 100 words per minute. We assume that students should spend about 2 hours in study for each hour of class, so for a 3 hour class, they should spend about 6 hours of study per week (and of course, the amount of total study time would include work on projects, papers, problem sets, writing lab reports, preparing for exams, etc., in addition to the assigned reading).

One could look at the texts required and estimate the number of words on a page (count the number of rows and multiply by the number of words in any full line to get a rough estimate) and then make a judgment about how much reading to assign.

Because speed of reading and comprehension is associated with prior knowledge, it is likely that students in advanced courses (upper division) might comprehend faster than those approaching a subject for the first time (lower division).

Different types of courses have different reading demands--however, it is entirely possible that a textbook with advance organizers, bold-face headings, study questions, and summaries might be easier to read and comprehend (because of the study aids) than a long, possibly disjointed essay by a 'stream-of-consciousness' writer.

'This is just a conjecture, but I don't think there should be a difference for different length courses [ 5 weeks vs 10 weeks]. Here I think the 2 hours prep per class hour would be the criterion of choice.'"

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(b) Karron G. Lewis, Ph.D., Associate Director, Center for Teaching Effectiveness:

Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, The University of Texas at Austin "Our Learning Center has reported that students (generally) can read text material at about 250 wpm. An average text page has ~800 words = 3.2 min/page pr 12-18 pages/hour.

Of course, this is very general, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb. I find that many faculty members (especially new ones) require much more reading than the students can complete with any comprehension of what they read."

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(c) Mano Singham, Associate Director, University Center for Innovations in Teaching and Education (UCITE), Case Western Reserve University:

"I don't know that there can be a general answer to such a question. It is so context dependent: the nature of the course, the goals of the course, the maturity of the students, the time available for reading, etc.

When this comes up at our faculty teaching discussions, I usually tell them to first ask themselves: What exactly do you want the students to learn? In what depth do you want them to learn it? What are the key ideas that the readings provide? What questions can you give the students to keep in mind while reading so that the students will glean the key ideas? The readings are then selected to meet those needs.

My feeling is that we usually give students too many pages to read and not enough guidance on how to read and what to look for."

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(d) Jim Borgford-Parnell, Instructional Consultant, Center for Instructional Development and Research, University of Washington:

"I'm afraid I do not have any references to suggest, but I do have some practical advice. The majority of courses I teach, and for that matter, the majority of courses I've taken in my Masters and Ph.D. programs, have centered around instructor chosen literature; books, book chapters and journal articles. I've experienced a wide spectrum of weekly reading assignments, and the many ways in which readings are, or are not, integrated with other learning activities. As an instructional consultant I have also gathered a great deal of positive and negative student feedback regarding course readings, and I've advised many instructors on this issue. With that said, here is my advice:

The number of pages of weekly reading should be no more than 100. My rule of thumb is 75-100 pages per week. It is certainly possible for students to read more than this, but the possibility that they might remember anything they have read or be able to accomplish any critical thinking on the content diminishes as the number of pages increases.

Obviously, the quality of the readings, their explicit relationship to the course learning objectives (the ones the students are made aware of), and the ability of the students to understand the disciplinary language and jargon that is used, are important considerations. However, under the best of circumstances I stick to my 100 page limit.

Only literature that will be discussed in class, elaborated on in instructor or student presentations, and/or is necessary information for student written or performance projects should be assigned. A common student complaint is that they had to read something, but then nothing was done with the content of the reading to make the effort worthwhile.

Students should be provided with a few questions to consider as they are reading the literature, or a rubric for helping them to distill the important ideas/concepts/theories from the readings. These questions or rubrics help to provide a common base of information, and a variety of perspectives, upon which good discussions may be derived. I often ask my students to write a 1 to 1 & 1/2-page reaction paper on the weekly readings. These papers serve to generate great discussions in class, they help to get everyone involved, and they provide the basis for larger, more comprehensive written assignments.

One final piece of advice, the instructor's selection of course readings, her/his decision concerning the quantity of readings, and how readings will be integrated with other aspects of the course, are perceived by students to be inseparable from the instructor's knowledge base, the instructor's teaching ability, the instructor's understanding and empathy for student multi-course workload, and the instructor's concern for student learning."

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