Expected Time per Course Credit

Hello and thank you for your efforts. I'm writing to seek clarification on the "full academic term" definition. It has been my understanding that the full term is 14 weeks + finals if the faculty chose to require them during finals week.

14 weeks * (3 credits * 3 hours/week) = 126 hours of planned student effort.
14 weeks * (3 credits * 1 hour/credit) = 42 hours of instructor led time

Do we need to adjust our instructional time if the instructor chooses not to have a final? I worry that this would throw off the OCM's schedule.

Thank you for your efforts and for any clarity you can offer -- Also, my apologies if I have had a long-standing misunderstanding of this policy! Thank you!
Brandi

Perhaps, put the definition of an "hour" = 50 minutes of class time/credit into the policy like it is in the FAQ to avoid inconsistency and misunderstanding.

I wish there was more guidance on the student work per graduate credit. Simply saying that grad effort will "exceed three hours per credit per week" leaves it entirely too open to interpretation. Grads on directed study or thesis credits are given no upper bound for the amount of work expected of them. The variability of expectations from advisors can be extreme.

To remove internships from the exemption without the new internship policy in place will lead to many courses at the U being out of compliance and severely disadvantages all students that are in need of internships to fulfill their career aspirations. It also reinforces inequities because students privileged with social capital that allows them to pursue internships outside the academic framework and not affected by this policy change, whereas those that rely on the academic framework are. Also, there is no need for this policy change until the new policy on internships is in place!

I cannot make the math work. In one session it says weeks in the semester (15) x course credits. For a 3 credit course that is 3 x 15 or 45. That doesn't match the later session which says 1 credit is 45 hours. Obviously I am missing something; clarification may be helpful

The Expected Time for Course Credit policy as proposed (and the FAQs) still doesn't provide much guidance for online modalities. It says the same standard is used, but then defines instruction time as "instruction the student receives in a class setting regardless of the modality." So by definition, an online asynchronous course has NO instructional time--unless "class setting" is being defined as something unusual? That would mean, according to other statements in the policy, that it is up to "college and campus curriculum committees and other approving bodies" to determine if the proposer of the course has provided "significant evidence that reduced instructional contact hours are appropriate." But no guidance is provided on how to make such a determination. Also, in the case of an asynchronous online course, how do faculty justify essentially zero hours of "instructional time" as defined by this policy?

Basically, the "muddiest" parts of this policy when it comes to online learning are still very muddy.

With the rapid growth of online courses, stakeholders would benefit from policy expectations that explicitly address this modality. In the 2021-2022 academic year, CLA UGE had 514 completely or partially online coures with 40,459 enrollments. As of today, for 2022-2023, there are 229 online course in CLA UGE and 18,042. This rate of enrollment is only slightly down in this "post pandemic" academic year https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WM0oo98PwsQMIeMNy5lVQVOzRGtZZlk…

The term "modality" appears twice in the proposed policy, with the implied purpose of referring to online courses. The first mention seems sufficient for the description required hours of instructional time. The second instance refers to the definition of instructional time, "instruction the student recieves in a class setting regardless of the modality."

I suspect this definition is intentionaly brief and stakeholders are meant to understand that "in a class setting" does not refer to a physical class setting. However, I wonder if there is an opportunity to add a statment that more explicitly addresses the online instructional time?

As someone in the CLA UGE curriculum office, I know that understanding instructional time has been a significant challenge for courses in the online modality.

Removing "internships" from the exemptions list should not occur until after a new policy has been approved and is in place. It seems premature to remove internships from this list before a new one is in place.

The removal of "internships" from this exemption list is premature given that a new policy is referenced, but there has been no public information about this separate policy proposal. The new separate policy proposal needs to be provided with a public review prior to any changes to the current policy. The current policy under review should cease and yield to the proposal process for the internship policy mentioned.

It is my understanding that 50 minutes of scheduled lecture time is equivalent to one instructional hour (this is in the FAQ) but that a longer period of scheduled lab time is expected/equivalent to one instructional hour. What is the lab period equivalent and should it be included in the FAQ?

Team,

I echo Brandi's request for clarification and simplification. Specifically:

1. Current policy says "14 or 15 weeks in a semester" and says "1 credit...in a semester equals 42 to 45 hours of academic work". New policy has a hard 15 week metric (thus, presumably 45 hours of work per semester). Given the old policy had a window of "14 or 15 weeks", is it accurate to just state that "1 credit equals 45 hours of academic work in a semester"? This would ensure summer sessions or otherwise had the exact same standard, regardless of number of weeks. Using a "week" as a metric, combined with the existing policy flexibility, provides unclear direction on how many hours of academic work are really required per semester.

2. Similarly, new policy states, "...the total expected effort per credit...is the number of course credits times the number of weeks in a standard term." "Standard Term" is not explicitly defined, though it appears implicitly to be 15 weeks. However, that is inconsistent with current policy which uses "14 or 15 weeks" and refers to spring and fall semesters as "a minimum of 70 days of instruction, a maximum of 75 days of instruction, and approximately one week of final examinations". Further, there are two summer sessions which are not 15 weeks long. Is the summer non-standard? Is there an official conversion rate? It would be helpful if this were very explicit and using consistent metrics.

3. Current FAQ says "An hour of instructional time refers to the 50-minute block of scheduled instructional time." It would be very helpful if this were explicitly stated in the "Expected Time per Course Credit" policy for clarity.

I agree with all of the comments. This policy requires much clarification and consistency.

Following on comments on others.
Yes. Please make a determination about the total amount of time for one credit for an average student to meet minimum expectations (grade of C). This would be identified in such a way that regardless of whether a course uses finals week or not, or is a module or not, has a clear minimum expectation of work effort understood as “time.”

Yes. I thought the variability of 14-15 weeks was due to the difference in instructional days from fall to spring semester. This difference of instruction days was corrected and both semesters now have 72 instruction days, so we should be able to make a more finite statement here.

Yes. Please make a determination about whether that total time is “hours” in its most basic sense (60 minutes) or class time hours (50 minutes), or whether contact time is something that is a 50 minute “hour” and homework is a 60 minute (standard) hour. If everything is based on the 50 minute module then, please let us stop using the word hour at all. Just set minimums in minute-units. As stated by others, Labs are extended periods of class time. How should faculty be calculating work outside of Lab time, in 50 minute hours or standard 60 minute hours?

Yes. Please try to quantify/qualify more the effort for graduate students. I have done the math here for a standard 15 credit schedule, allowing time for sleeping, eating, a TA commitment, a bit of time for groceries and laundry. If every class takes “more than” three hours it doesn’t take much before graduate students have literally no time for sleeping, eating, self care.

Yes. In terms of online learning, is a pre-recorded video by a faculty member still considered “contact” time or “instructional hours”? If so, how is this different than reading a chapter in a book by that same faculty member? There are big questions here about what instructor “contact” means.

Finally, I wish the policy (or at least the FAQ) had information about how a single credit or course adds up for a full-time student taking 15 credits. I have seen WAY TOO MANY students who don’t seem to acknowledge that 15 credits is a full-time endeavor. They make decision to take more credits than is reasonable or healthy to try to graduate sooner, and/or they make commitments outside of their academics that make meeting the minimum expectations especially challenging. It’s no wonder we have so many persistent concerns about wellness.
ps apologies for this late entry.

Following on comments on others.
Yes. Please make a determination about the total amount of time for one credit for an average student to meet minimum expectations (grade of C). This would be identified in such a way that regardless of whether a course uses finals week or not, or is a module or not, has a clear minimum expectation of work effort understood as “time.”

Yes. I thought the variability of 14-15 weeks was due to the difference in instructional days from fall to spring semester. This difference of instruction days was corrected and both semesters now have 72 instruction days, so we should be able to make a more finite statement here.

Yes. Please make a determination about whether that total time is “hours” in its most basic sense (60 minutes) or class time hours (50 minutes), or whether contact time is something that is a 50 minute “hour” and homework is a 60 minute (standard) hour. If everything is based on the 50 minute module then, please let us stop using the word hour at all. Just set minimums in minute-units. As stated by others, Labs are extended periods of class time. How should faculty be calculating work outside of Lab time, in 50 minute hours or standard 60 minute hours?

Yes. Please try to quantify/qualify more the effort for graduate students. I have done the math here for a standard 15 credit schedule, allowing time for sleeping, eating, a TA commitment, a bit of time for groceries and laundry. If every class takes “more than” three hours it doesn’t take much before graduate students have literally no time for sleeping, eating, self care.

Yes. In terms of online learning, is a pre-recorded video by a faculty member still considered “contact” time or “instructional hours”? If so, how is this different than reading a chapter in a book by that same faculty member? There are big questions here about what instructor “contact” means.

Finally, I wish the policy (or at least the FAQ) had information about how a single credit or course adds up for a full-time student taking 15 credits. I have seen WAY TOO MANY students who don’t seem to acknowledge that 15 credits is a full-time endeavor. They make decision to take more credits than is reasonable or healthy to try to graduate sooner, and/or they make commitments outside of their academics that make meeting the minimum expectations especially challenging. It’s no wonder we have so many persistent concerns about wellness.
ps apologies for this late entry.