Abstract:

Background:
It is widely recognized among faculty that the higher education paradigm following the Bologna Process represents a drastic shift from previous trends. Despite the persistence of traditional content-based teaching among some instructors, the new model has been widely adopted across Spanish universities since 2010. For instance, in Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Jaén, the final exam often accounts for only 30% of the grade, with 70% allocated to continuous assessment. Consequently, students typically enrolled in five concurrent subjects face a heavy workload of laboratory practices and assignments. This often overwhelms students, resulting in suboptimal performance and increased attrition rates, particularly when compounded by a lack of coordination among faculty.

Objectives:
This study aims to evaluate the impact of transparently communicating time allocations to students and to establish mechanisms for monitoring the actual time spent on autonomous and practical tasks to prevent academic overburden.
Methodology: We conducted a multi-year pilot study in which students were informed of the time expected for each task, both in laboratory sessions and in autonomous work. Students also provided feedback via brief surveys, reporting the actual time spent on these assignments and the main difficulties encountered when completing the tasks. This data enabled instructors to balance workloads and track progress within laboratory cohorts.

Results:
The findings indicate that students generally report their time honestly, enabling precise syllabus adjustments. While 50% of students struggled with the consistency of optional surveys, the data collected allowed teaching teams to identify tasks that were overly complex or exceeded the allocated timeframes.

Conclusions:
This contribution demonstrates that effectively communicating time allocations reduces student anxiety and enhances participation. The results confirm that aligning student expectations with realistic timeframes leads to improved academic performance, particularly in practical laboratory work.

Keywords:

Higher education, European credit transfer system, practical teaching, multimedia teaching resources, autonomous work guiding.