Principle 5: Good Practice Emphasizes Time on Task

Chickering and Gamson are the authors of an article describing the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1986) http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm

The fifth principle is increasing 'time on task.' Chickering and Gamson say,"Time plus energy equals learning."

Distance educators can plan their courses by estimating learner time on task for course activities. Sharing this information in the course syllabus assists learners in organizing their available time for participation. One method is to use visual explanations that stand out onscreen and show development over time with a minimal amount of text and no onscreen “scrolling.”









Directions for assignments can include a suggested time for completion in hours, weeks or days. Multimedia means fixed time limits, time for multiple viewings could be included.

Announcements provide critical updates and reminders as learners enter the course, intercepting them before they can do anything else. Announcements can be used to synchronize students to the course timeline weekly.

Course calendar identifies important course dates and events. The Blackboard calendar allows students to plug in their own important dates and activities.

Two important time on task points:

• If course material helps students learn better, it can save time.
• Engaging assignments can attract students to spend more time in the course.

Portions of this information adapted from an article by Chris Fahey, Technology Coordinator at the Center for Career Development, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania; posted on The Ohio Learning Network.

Learning as art or science?

The rhythm of loss of integration with environment and recovery of union not only persists in man, but becomes conscious with him; its conditions are material out of which he forms purposes. Emotion is the conscious sign of a break, actual or impending. The discord is the occasion that induces reflection. Desire for restoration of the union converts mere emotion into interest in objects as conditions of realization of harmony. With the realization, material of reflection is incorporated into objects as their meaning. Since the artist cares in a peculiar way for the phase of experience in which union is achieved, he does not shun moments of resistance and tension. He rather cultivates them, not for their own sake but because of their potentialities, bringing to living consciousness an experience that is unified and total. In contrast with the person whose purpose is esthetic, the scientific man is interested in problems, in situations wherein tension between the matter of observation and of thought is marked. Of course he cares for their resolution. But he does not rest in it; he passes on to another problem using an attained solution only as a stepping stone on which to set on foot further inquires.
(Dewey 1934 p. 15-16)