This note discusses the effort that a student should be expected to put into a course. This is one view of difficulty. Another view of difficulty is the grading standard and this is dealt with in another note.
They are somewhat related because in theory, courses should be designed such that an average student can get an average mark with the average amount of effort and skill. The average mark is a bit tricky, but based on our experience, it is relatively common for instructors to talk what an average mark is; given their subject, level of course, and so forth.
In any event, in this note, we will focus on student effort in a course.
There are courses which are considered by students to be ‘heavy’, ones that take more time and effort than other courses. If the term is balanced using rational thought, these courses should have more credits or academic weighting compared to the others and to balance out the term, there should be one or more courses which have less weighting.
We have no problem with heavy courses; as long as equity and fairness principles are applied. If the total effort is the equivalent to two courses, the reward and contribution of the courses should be comparable. Perhaps the 'heavy' course should take the place of two and be considered a studio course. This would be logical. If it actually requires lots of more time, make it so officially.