How Students Spend Their Time

An analysis was performed of how students spend their time while pursuing a bachelor of science in civil engineering at Villanova University. The purpose of this study was to determine how many hours per week students spent both in and out of class and how the students spent their time when not in class or studying. Another purpose of this study was to provide a methodology for tracking how much time students spend on their course work that could be applied at other universities to monitor academic stress and rigor. Several data sources were used to gather data on how the students were spending their time: Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) surveys, end-of-semester course surveys, the recommended curriculum for each semester, and time logs. Overall, the data indicate that the amount of time students devote to their course work has fluctuated throughout the years. In six out of the eight semesters that students are in the program, they were found to study more often in 2011 than they did in 2004. The students were found to spend approximately 3–4 hours a week on their course work outside of class, or approximately 1–1.25 hours outside of class for every hour spent in-class. The only semester that showed consistent decline was the spring of senior year. This decrease is reflected in all three of the instruments used in the study: the nationwide HERI survey, which is administered senior year; the end-of-semester surveys; and the time logs. The time-log and HERI survey data indicate that students are spending a significant amount of time on leisure activities, as opposed to extracurricular activities or paid work. Curricular changes, which were made over the time period considered in this study, were reflected in the data—indicating that these methods can be used to monitor and assess academic rigor and make data-driven curricular decisions.