What is Credit Hour

A measure of how much credit a student receives toward graduation for completion of a particular course—typically conceived as the hourly workload for the course. Three credit hours is a typical designation for a single course while one-hundred twenty credit hours of coursework is required to be awarded the Bachelor’s degree.

The federal definition of a credit hour is as follows: 1) A credit hour is an amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement that is an institutionally established equivalency that reasonably approximates not less than: a) One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit, or ten to twelve weeks for one quarter hour of credit, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or b) At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours (Federal Regulation 34B Part 600 Subpart A §600.2).

Federally defined as “an amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement that is an institutionally established equivalency that reasonably approximates not less than—(1) One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit, or ten to twelve weeks for one quarter hour of credit, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or (2) At least an equivalent amount of work as required in (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work.” The implications of the credit hour in CBE relate to federal language allowing institutions to receive financial aid for their students. Problems may arise in the conflict between this specifically time-based definition and flexibly-paced CBE processes ( United States Department of Education, 2010 ).