🍃 Spring Focus → Power of the Pause
🍂 Fall Focus → Estimating Time
Below are two videos from Harvard Graduate School of Education on Wait Time. If you'd like to learn more, click the title below the video to navigate to their website where you will also see classroom considerations, relevant research and related resources on each topic.
View in a new tab - Waiting for Student Responses
View in a new tab - Providing wait-time for students to process and gain confidence
Fundamental Skill Sheet Wait-Time What Is It? (n.d.). Vanderbilt IRIS Center
Giving students enough space and time to reflect. (2016). Harvard.edu.
Häusler, J., Gartmeier, M., Grünewald, M. G., Hapfelmeier, A., Pfurtscheller, T., Seidel, T., & Pascal Oliver Berberat. (2024). Too much time or not enough? An observational study of teacher wait time after questions in case-based seminars. BMC Medical Education, 24(1).
Providing wait-time for students to process and gain confidence. (2016). Harvard.edu.
Sullivan, J. (2019, October 28). Increase Student Learning in Only 3 Seconds. Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning.
Waiting for student responses. (2015). Harvard.edu.
Wait Time: Making Space for Authentic Learning | Kent State University. (2019). Kent.edu.
Research varies, but generally, the average adult reads 200-250 words in one minute. You can use this information to calculate the estimated time to read.
Here’s how:
Find your total word count. Let’s say it’s 938 words.
Divide your total word count by 200. You’ll get a decimal number, in this case, 4.69.
The first part of your decimal number is your minute. In this case, it’s 4.
Take the second part — the decimal points — round up that number to make things simpler for your reader. That would make your 938-word article a 5-minute read.
Time yourself reading the item
Multiply that time by 1.5 or 2.
That is your estimated reading time for a student
Use a website that helps you estimate reading time.
Read-O-Meter → copy/paste in reading and it will estimate time. Also gives a word count if you want to pair that with option #1.
Convert words to time → Give the number of words, estimate the reading speed, convert to time.
ReadTime → If you want to test your own reading speed, this site will help you by copy/paste in text, use the built in stopwatch, adjust your speed if needed. Use this information to help calculate estimated reading time for students as seen in option #2.
You can simply add the estimated time as a number or range of numbers to the end of the reading title, as seen here.
If you prefer to add your readings to a Canvas page, assignment, discussion, or quiz you can type the estimated reading time after it's mentioned. Another option is to add a 'pill'. This gives more of a design element using the embed option.
copy the HTML code and change the time
How to embed<ul class="pill">
<li>Estimated Reading Time</li>
<li>6 minutes</li>
</ul>
If you prefer to add your readings to the modules via a link to an outside source or as a file, you can type the estimated reading time after the title of the item.
It’s an estimate.
It’s ok to adjust.
Be transparent with students and ask them if it’s an accurate estimate.
You don’t have to estimate everything.
It depends on the difficulty of the reading.
It depends on what you want your students to get out of the reading.
First, we'd like to know if and how you implemented it.
If you did use time estimates, you can assess--and share with us--how students received them.
How you assess your students is totally up to you. We have suggested some simple questions you could ask via notecards, paper, Canvas, Google Forms, etc.
We would be so grateful if you shared student responses with us! Any and all information will help us plan for future +1s.
Have you noticed time estimates in this course?
Have you found them helpful?
Do the estimates feel too high, too low, just right?
Other comments on time estimates in this course?