All Brown syllabi must identify all work required or recommended of students in class (e.g., lecture, lab, discussion, studio work) and out-of-class (e.g., reading, problem sets, research project, papers, field trip, artistic or creative work), with a reasonable estimation of time needed to complete them. Time estimated to complete activities and assessments should total at least 180 hours over the term for a full-credit course.

Possible approaches to estimating this time include:

• making a reasonable estimate yourself. Rice University's Center for Teaching Excellence has compiled a research-based estimator for reading- and writing-related assignments, which can serve as a useful starting point for some classes.
• completing the task (e.g., reading a journal article) yourself and assuming that students will require 3-4 times as long to complete it (Carnegie Mellon's Eberly Center for Teaching and Learning).
• gathering feedback from students on how long it takes them to complete various components of the course.