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Student Workload Estimator

Estimate the real hours a unit asks of students — from its reading, writing, classes and other activities — and compare that to the nominal study hours. Useful for designing fair, achievable units and for assurance conversations. Every assumption below is visible and adjustable.

The unit

Teaching weeks

Nominal study hours target for the whole unit (AU: a standard unit ≈ 130–150 hrs; set to your credit points)

Reading

Total pages across the unit

Page density

Reading purpose

Writing

Total pages to write ≈ 250–300 words per page

Writing type

Contact & other

Class / contact hours per week

Videos, labs, other prep total hours for the unit

Method adapted from B. Barre & J. Esarey, Course Workload Estimator 2.0 (Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence, 2019); reading-rate ranges informed by Brysbaert (2019). These are population averages — individual students vary widely, and first-encounter or second-language reading is slower. Treat the result as a design prompt, not a precise measurement. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is stored or sent. · ← Back to NTLSN