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The study creates quantifiable task complexity metrics by translating major requirement structures into a common representation and computing multiple complexity measures, then compares results across disciplines and universities. Findings show wide variation across majors and campuses, with differences not fully explained by stable departmental or institutional factors, suggesting opportunities for simplification. The work supports curriculum planners in evaluating how complex curricular “gauntlets” affect planning conversations and outcomes.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/defining-and-measuring-task-complexity-in-major-requirements-research-article/590295/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/defining-and-measuring-task-complexity-in-major-requirements-research-article/590295.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Pentious","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-05","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does the paper aim to measure in major requirements?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It measures and quantifies task complexity in major curricular requirements, including how many course categories matter and how often requirements reference them, as well as computations needed to determine graduation paths.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the paper compare complexity across disciplines and institutions?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It applies the proposed measures to major requirements across four large majors and multiple public colleges, comparing how complexity varies across majors and campuses.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What does the paper find about the sources of variation in complexity?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Complexity varies widely across majors and campuses, and much of that variation is not explained by stable differences across departments or campuses, indicating potential for simplification.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},590295,1792210806,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},1374404730887,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","AERA Open  \nJanuary-December 2025, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1–25 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584251317488  \nArticle reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2025. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero)  \nDefining and Measuring Task Complexity in Major Requirements  \nRachel Baker  \nUniversity of Pennsylvania  \nNick Huntington-Klein  \nSeattle University  \nGraduating from college requires understanding major curricular requirements and making several complex interdependent choices to fulfill them. But curricular requirements can be complex and students report that it is not always clear which classes they need to take. In this paper, we create measures to describe and quantify complexity in major requirements and compare complexity across disciplines and across universities. We find wide variation. Much of this variation is not explained by stable differences across departments and across campuses, which indicates that there may be room for simplification. Academic planners, the faculty, and administrators tasked with creating and modifying curricular plans, should consider what kind of academic gauntlets they are creating and curricular complexity should be apart of planning conversations.  \nKeywords: decision making, educational policy, higher education, information processing, curriculum, correlational analysis, descriptive analysis, measurements, complexity  \nThe path to a college degree is arduous, filled with complex institutional and bureaucratic obstacles (Dynarski et al., 2023; Scott-Clayton, 2015) . This complexity is reflected in outcomes. Over half of first-time, degree-seeking college students do not earn a degree within 6 years of starting college (Hussar et al., 2020) . Students who do successfully graduate take longer and complete considerably more classes, on average, than is strictly necessary (Shapiro et al., 2016) .  \nOne class of barriers is curricular planning: determining which classes are necessary to earn a given credential and fitting those classes into a workable academic plan. This rarely-researched-but-necessary task can be complex, as students are presented with multiple, and often overlapping, individual requirements that they need to satisfy. The complexity inherent in this curricular planning varies across majors and across institutions, with some majors presenting more byzantine requirements than others. Students report being confused and frustrated by major requirements (e.g., Hill et al., 2024; Moore & Shulock, 2014; Rosenbaum et al., 2006); a survey of community college leavers in Florida found that over 25% of those who left college stated that not knowing which class to take next was a factor for leaving (Ortagus et al., 2021) .  \nThe potential for confusion is not lost on administrators and policymakers. Guided Pathways is one well-known reform to improve student success and efficiency by simplifying and clarifying the path to a degree, including revisions  \nto curricular requirements within majors (Bailey et al., 2015) . More than 400 colleges across the country—both community colleges and 4-year institutions—are involved in formal guided pathways initiatives (Community College Research Center (CCRC), 2021; York et al., 2019). Arecent evaluation of 30 colleges found that adoption of guided pathways practices was correlated with significant increases in student early momentum metrics (Lahr et al., 2023) .  \nWe know that major requirements appear confusing, that students report that major requirements are complex, and that relatively blunt interventions that address this complexity are correlated with positive changes in student outcomes. However, very little research has identified and measured the specific types and prevalence of complexity in major requirements or the effects of reducing complexity in specific domains. This is one of the first papers to explicitly ex","cbCaicQiJFY4JEph","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicQiJFY4JEph","pdf",2105268,25,"English","# Defining and Measuring Task Complexity in Major Requirements\n## Measuring complexity in major requirements\n## Comparing complexity across majors and universities\n## Findings and policy implications","[{\"question\":\"What does the paper aim to measure in major requirements?\",\"answer\":\"It measures and quantifies task complexity in major curricular requirements, including how many course categories matter and how often requirements reference them, as well as computations needed to determine graduation paths.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper compare complexity across disciplines and institutions?\",\"answer\":\"It applies the proposed measures to major requirements across four large majors and multiple public colleges, comparing how complexity varies across majors and campuses.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the paper find about the sources of variation in complexity?\",\"answer\":\"Complexity varies widely across majors and campuses, and much of that variation is not explained by stable differences across departments or campuses, indicating potential for simplification.\"}]","Defining and Measuring Task Complexity in Major Requirements - Research Article | PDF",1792069269,63]