Time Budget Survey at the Institute for Computer Science
The development and implementation of high–quality teaching is a special concern for the institute of Computer Science. Considering the so–called student Workload is an important component when it comes to improving the teaching quality. In order to receive meaningful data about the actual amount of work during the Computer Science Studies the institute has carried out a time budget survey with students who are in their second semester of the Bachelor degree program of Computer Science.
The survey has been carried out with time budget method which has been developed with the help of Professor Schulmeister, University of Hamburg. At the University of Paderborn this method has been applied for the first time for the examination of workloads in a Computer Science program. You can download the final report, written by Professor Schulmeister, right here on the right side.
The students council has made a comparison for self–assessment within a seminar feedback with the results of the time budget survey. You can download it on the right side as well.
The survey investigates how much time students spend on single courses. Thereby besides the time spend on going to lectures and exercises also the time spend on self–study (consisting of preparation and the follow–up of courses, lecture and examination preparation). Additionally it has been checked whether credit points needed for a single module comply with the necessary time requirement, in other words, which are "fair".
Eventually it has also been investigated how much time students spend on the outward journey to the university and their journey back from the university and on activities outside of the studies. In the centre of interest of the survey was the period of study and not the elicitation of data from the students’ private life. Therefore the time periods which the participants spend with family activities, free time and working, aren’t measured in detail.
We thank all students which have participated in the time budget survey.