Instructor workload of a campus-based versus a web-based pharmacy course

Instructor workload and workload sources were compared between an elective campus-based and web-based pharmacy course. Instructor workload was measured for each pathway by documenting the total time required throughout the semester to teach, maintain and evaluate the course. Specific workload items that were measured included: in-class activities, e-mail communications, discussion boards, office visits and grading term-papers and examinations. The web-based students (n = 1.6) required a 5.4% increase in total workload for the semester and nearly 28 minutes of additional workload per student compared to campus-based students (n = 25). The majority of workload involved with the web-based course came from receiving and sending e-mail while workload from the campus-based course primarily came from in-class activities. Faculty workload was higher in the web-based course versus the campus-based course. Similar studies should be conducted on other courses to determine if these results are generalizable.