Understanding Instructor Workload

The Instructor Workload feature uses the following formula to calculate the default workload hours of a course component on the Meetings page:

[(academic progress units × assigned percent) + (component workload hours × assigned percentage)]

x (subject/component multiplier) × (instructor term multiplier) × (load factor)

At the academic institution level (Academic Institution 4 page), workload hours for courses are a combination of academic progress units and component workload hours (for example, 0 percent academic progress units and 100 percent component workload hours). Workload hours for noncourses are entered directly on the Term Workload page.

The Academic Subject Table has a subject/component multiplier specific to both the subject and component (for example, math laboratory component multiplier 80 percent, math lecture component 110 percent, math independent study component 50 percent, and so on).

The Term Workload page has an instructor term multiplier that is supplied by default from the Instructor Assignment Class table.

To divide one course component into more than one assignment, you can use a load factor. Inserting multiple rows per course component and assigning each one a load factor (percentage) enables you to divide a component into different assignment types, divide a component among instructors, or both. For example, you might assign instructor A to teach 30 percent of the lecture component, and instructor B to teach 70 percent of the lecture component. The user is responsible to set the load factor. The total load factor for one course component should equal 100 percent.

In the following example, instructor A is sharing the teaching load for Math 200 with another instructor. This is why you set the load factor to 50 percent. This causes the default workload hours to change from 5 to 2.5 and the assignment full-time equivalency percent to change from 33.33 percent to 16.67 percent. Notice that instructor B, who is sharing the load with instructor A to teach Math 200, somehow earns an assigned full-time equivalent (FTE) of 33.33 percent. In addition, the default workload hours read 5, rather than 2.5, as they do for instructor A. This is because you assigned a multiplier of 200 percent to instructor B for this term. All class components to which you assign instructor B count double for this term. Also, notice that instructor A is supervising an independent study course, Physics 499. This subject and component are set to be multiplied by only 50 percent. This is so that whoever teaches physics with a component of independent study earns half credit for the task. Because of this, even though the component workload hours of 3 are 10 percent of the 100 percent weekly workload hours for this assignment type, the subject component multiplier halves this value so that the instructor earns an assigned FTE of 5 percent. This process also causes the default workload hours to differ from those set on the Class Associations - Class Components page (halved from 3 to 1.5).

The Instructor Workload feature uses three formulas to calculate an individual's assignment full-time equivalency percentage. The system uses one of two formulas to calculate assignment FTE for regular classes and for open entry and open exit (OEE) classes. It uses another formula to calculate assignment FTE for assignments made directly to the Term Workload page.