Outside Class Time

I was just reading an article on course planning in which the authors indicated that one should plan their course to include the three hours of outside class time work your students will do for each hour of in-class work.  This three-to-one ratio is pretty commonly cited as the amount of out of class time students should spend for each in class hour.  Since studies in the University of California show that today's students report putting in about one hour of outside class work for each hour of in class work, what should one do in planning their course?

I alway thought there was some fantasy in the three hour number since our degree programs often require fifteen units per semester.  This would mean that a student taking a full lecture load would be studying 45 hours per week in addition to the fifteen hours of class time.  With the average student working about 20 hours per week, and allowing for travel time, eating, sleeping, etc one quickly runs out of time in the week.  Its no wonder students don't hold to the three-to-one ratio, particularly if they are going to work in a research lab.

Education folks advise that we should "teach the students we have, not the ones we wish we had".  If the ones we have only study one hour for each hour of class, should we back off on the idea that students should be putting in about nine hours per week of study time for each three unit organic lecture class?

I ask this because I increasingly hear from organic colleagues who have given up and are backing off on their course requirements "because the students just won't do the work".  These faculty fear their student evaluations and defend their behavior by saying they are teaching the students they have.

I don't have an answer to this issue, but I would be interested in hearing the opinions of readers.

T.S. Hall