This study compared the workload and value of work done outside of class reported by 3512 undergraduate students at Brigham Young University completing 16-week semester and 8-week term University Core (General Education and Religion) classes. Based on the results of this analysis, significant differences in workloads were found when comparing them by occasion (semester versus term). Significant differences were also found in workload and value of homework based on the autonomy of the instructors. On average, the workload difference by occasion equates to approximately 54 minutes more per week in a 3-credit semester course when compared to a term course. While term workloads are lighter than semester workloads in general, both could be called "University Core lite," in that none of the courses exceeded the expected workloads of two hours outside of class per hour in class. The value of homework reported by occasion was overall not significantly different between semester and term. When comparing the reported workload based on the autonomy of the instructor to make changes to a course, statistically significant differences were found. Regardless of occasion, workload tended to decrease when the instructor had greater autonomy in designing the course. The difference in the value of homework reported by autonomy was also found to be significant. The pattern for this factor was reversed in comparison to workload. Students reported greater value in the homework done outside of class in courses when the instructor had greater autonomy. Overall, based on calculated workloads coupled with changes instructors made to their term courses, the impact to the course in terms of workloads was greatest for reading- and writing-intensive courses. Each of which reported a substantial decline in workloads when taught in term format. Math and physics courses came closest to meeting the expected workloads and remained constant between semester and terms. These and other implications are discussed, and recommendations are made regarding the types of courses that are best suited to being taught in a time-compressed format.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:58:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Shirley Ferreira Signorelli.pdf: 4346228 bytes, checksum: a37d23996da101385ce1df722242946c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-10-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The purpose of this investigation was the elaboration and implementation of a virtual environment for a part time distance course for students of the Computer Science and Systems of Information. The students failed in a former discipline that approaches topics of elementary Mathematics. It happened in a particular university in the city of São Paulo. Our focus was on analyzing this environment, the tools and interactions that happened on distance mode, about the content of real function of one variable. The methodology used, design-based research, favored proposing and analyzing the activities about this topic, as well as their reorganization and, the re design of the environment. The Blackboard platform and the used tools were analyzed based on Chaves (2000) criteria, and it seemed efficient as a virtual environment for the learning in our course. However, we leaved some critical and suggestions for future works, mainly about the role of the tools for communication within part time distance courses. The analysis of the students and teacher speeches' was based on the Model of Argumentative Strategy (CASTRO et al, 2004) and allowed to raise some aspects on the understanding of Real Functions of one variable, as they were privileged in the different interactive spaces such as forum, chat, email and daily log. Aspects like the meaning production in Mathematics can be produced due to the authority of a teacher or of another student who is considered good by the classroom peers, or based on everyday language usage or on cultural characteristics. Moreover, we found that besides the students lack of prerequisite elementary mathematics, there is a lack of a culture for on-line courses / Nesta pesquisa objetivamos a elaboração e implementação de um ambiente virtual para um curso semipresencial, para estudantes dos cursos de Bacharelado em Ciência da Computação e Sistemas de Informação de uma instituição particular na cidade de São Paulo, dependentes na disciplina que aborda tópicos de pré-calculo. Nosso foco recaiu na análise do ambiente, da viabilidade das ferramentas e das interações que ocorreram a distância, no que tange o conteúdo de Funções de uma Variável Real. A metodologia utilizada, design research, permitiu propor e analisar as atividades sobre este tópico, incluindo a reestruturação e complementação deste ambiente. A plataforma Blackboard e as ferramentas foram analisadas segundo critérios definidos por Chaves (2000) e se mostraram eficazes como ambiente virtual de aprendizagem atendendo, para nosso curso, os critérios necessários. Entretanto, deixamos algumas críticas e sugestões para trabalhos futuros, principalmente quanto o papel do uso de ferramentas de comunicação em cursos semipresenciais. A análise dos discursos dos alunos e docente baseados no Modelo de Estratégia Argumentativa (CASTRO et al, 2004) permitiu levantar alguns aspectos sobre a compreensão de Funções de uma Variável Real que foram privilegiados nos diferentes espaços interativos como fórum, chat, e-mail e diário de rotina, tais como o fato de que a produção de significados em Matemática pode estar apoiada na autoridade do professor ou alunos bem vistos pela classe, na linguagem cotidiana e no aspecto cultural. Observamos ainda que além da falta de pré-requisitos de matemática básica, ainda há falta de cultura de trabalhos on-line