The hype of the new school year has finally started to diminish and the growing anxiety towards a series of midterms, over the past two weeks, has taken its place. During the midterms, an overload of homework has taken over students’ free time, or should I say time in general.
Like many of you striving for a decent grade in a class, I have taken time away from relaxing, sleeping and working out to fulfill the demands of my pending assignments. In addition, I have begun to skip class simply because I need to finish the homework I did not have enough time to do the previous evening.
But is not doing homework worse than missing sleep or stuffing your mouth with junk food and caffeine to stay up those extra hours?
Studies have shown stress from work overload can induce depression, sleep deprivation and, last but not least, weight gain. Would you sacrifice these facets of your health? I’m not saying that you should not do your homework; I just believe there should be alternatives to homework.
The idea is admittedly a bit radical, but the University should consider changing class lengths to accommodate the work we end up doing in D.H . Hill Library during the early hours of the morning. The extra time could be effectively utilized by incorporating homework into classwork.
Most of you can agree you are more efficient when being forced to do work under pressure, rather than taking the time to set a work schedule. It is due to the negative side effects of homework-related stress that I propose lengthening 50-75 minute classes to 90 minutes each as a solution. Although it sounds unappealing at first glance, adding 15-40 minutes to each class beats spending three hours per subject on homework. This actually subsidizes lot of time spent on homework and the good part of it is you are learning more!
The whole purpose of giving homework is to know exactly what has been done in the class and understand the concepts much better. One another alternative would be to give reading assignments wherein emphasize is given more towards concept and knowledge of the subject. In order to test this, first 10 minutes of the class can be a small quiz session or randomly selected students explaining what was taught in the last class. This would ensure a perfect balancing.
Another seemingly extreme proposition is to increase the frequency of discussion sections. There seems to be a consensus that students can concentrate better and get more work done in smaller classes, which is why discussion sections exist in the first place. Raising the frequency of discussion sections per course to at least two times a week would further that goal. Moreover, it could reduce stress-related depression, binge eating, etc. After all, shouldn’t the main goal be effectively learning class material?
So even if these ideas seem a bit out-of-the-box, they shouldn’t be discarded, because pedagogy should always be evolving. Burnt-out students with overwhelming amounts of homework don’t learn as much and make professors’ jobs much harder. Implementing changes that improve learning would also reflect positively on our university as a whole.
Homework overload is a common virus that too frequently plagues college campuses like this one. To reduce its negative effects on students, changes such as lengthening class periods or adding discussion sections are necessary to increase efficiency in learning and improve the college atmosphere in a way that isn’t detrimental to students’ health and well-being.
