Does Anybody Else Notice Students Complaining More About Workload in Course Evaluations?
I want to preface this by saying I'm not trying to make a "kids these days" post. I'm genuinely curious whether others are noticing a similar trend.
Over the last year or so, one theme that keeps appearing in my course evaluations is some variation of: "This class was too much work. I wish there had been less work." What's puzzling to me is that when I look at students' estimates of how much time they spent on the course, most report around 6–10 hours per week total for a 3-credit, 300-level course. That seems pretty reasonable to me given the course level and expectations. This is something I've seen to some extent, but not to this degree.
I've also intentionally designed the course with scaffolded assignments, regular reminders, and other supports. In many ways, I've tried to make it easier for students to stay on track. Yet I still receive a lot of comments about there being "too many assignments" or too much required work.
To be clear, this is not a course where nobody earns an A. Plenty of students do very well. Nor am I trying to make the course difficult for its own sake. What surprises me is how many comments seem less about the difficulty of the material and more about not wanting to do things like read the textbook, keep up with course content, or complete the assigned work.
Part of me wonders whether I should be providing more hand-holding and reduce expectations. Another part wonders whether this is connected to broader changes in student expectations, study habits, or perhaps even the rise of AI.
Is anyone else seeing this in their evaluations, or is this just something specific to my courses? Any food for thought?