ASSIGNMENT OF CREDIT HOURS
USU's credit hour policy agrees with those of the Department of Education (DOE) and the WASC Senior College and University Commission.
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At USU, one credit hour is defined as 15 hours of direct faculty instruction and a minimum of 30 hours of out-of-class student work for the 8-week session. (Click here for the complete policy.)
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Most courses at USU are 3-credit courses, which calculates to 45 hours of direct faculty instruction and a minimum of 90 hours of out-of-class student work for the 8-week session.
Credit Hour Allocation Calculation Spreadsheet
The Spreadsheet allows faculty to input common course information (number of pages, number of activities, etc.) to automatically calculate both direct faculty instruction and out-of-class student work. There are two categories of activity time assignment:
Average Time to Completion Activities (average times adjusted by degree-level)
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Reading time
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Research time
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Writing or Recording time
One-to-One Time to Completion Activities
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Videos
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Voice-Over or Timed Recorded Presentations
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Exams or Quizzes (duration-restricted only)
Faculty should be guided by the descriptions below of activities that qualify for direct faculty instruction vs. out-of-class student work as they complete their Course Guide. The same logic is being used to build the Credit Hour Allocation Calculation Spreadsheets.
Direct Faculty Instruction (15 hours per credit)
When thinking about direct faculty instruction, a simple rule of thumb is to consider whether there would be faculty presence (as indicated by oversight/formative feedback) in the equivalent activity in a traditional classroom. Currently, direct faculty instruction is broken into the following categories, each with its particular requirements to qualify.
Instructional Activities
Instructional activities refer to delivering content, instructions, or guidance as the students complete their work in the course. This can be done in two ways, asynchronously and synchronously. USU advertises most of its programs as 100% online, so the asynchronous mode is either required or highly recommended.
Asynchronous Instructional Activities
These activities can be experienced by the student at any hour of the day or day of the week as there is no "live" contact. These activities include the following:
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Written or Recorded Lectures, Presentations, or Demonstrations qualify in two ways:
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It has been created by USU as direct faculty instruction (teaching faculty, program faculty, SME) or Institutional instruction (created by Librarian, IT, etc.) but only if course-specific and required.
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Not created by USU (publicly available or publisher videos or lectures). To qualify as direct faculty instruction, these videos must be used as they would in a traditional classroom environment:
Contextualized by faculty (not just listed as required viewing)
With a direct association to student work or activity that would be performed in a community environment with instructor presence (such as: followed directly by discussion; followed directly by classroom activity)
Synchronous Meetings
Synchronous meetings may only be added as approved by College Leadership. These activities are direct contact with students; they are "live" meetings. Not all such meetings are equal, however, and to qualify for direct faculty instruction, they must meet the following conditions:
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Program must have a written policy ensuring that scheduled synchronous sessions are direct faculty instruction and engagement, with guidance on what that entails for the program/discipline, and not a form of office hour; course guides must include written agendas with CLOs, topics, and activities outlined to ensure equitable instruction across iterations of the course with different faculty;
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Synchronous sessions must be mandatory to count toward the course direct faculty instructional hours total;
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Make-up alternatives for students who cannot attend the synchronous session must be specific, academic, and not punitive; these make-up sessions should strive to engage the student in achieving the same outcomes or other learning goals and deliverables as the students who were able to attend the synchronous session.
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To count toward the classroom instruction total, synchronous sessions should be monitored and supported with training and guidance; all sessions must be recorded for QA purposes and verification.
Asynchronous Formative Feedback:
Asynchronous classroom activities with faculty engagement/presence and formative feedback before final deliverable:
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Discussion Forums - Faculty participation in discussions is mandatory; faculty participation should provide instruction as in a traditional classroom discussion
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Structured group activities - Wikis or other group projects performed with instructor monitoring and formative feedback
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Formative individual activities - Scaffolded assignments designed for formative feedback and student-faculty instruction before the final deliverable
High-Stakes Exams or Quizzes:
To qualify, they must meet the following:
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Must be duration- and attempt-limited (not an open-ended exam)
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Must be used for formative or summative assessment (see Out of Class Student Work below)
Grading Feedback:
Individual feedback (written or video) for graded deliverables - discussions, papers, presentations, projects, etc.
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All graded student work requires substantive and individual feedback with the goal of assisting that student toward improved performance
Class feedback (written or video) as delivered through classroom announcement (announcement tool, video in next module, etc.)
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To qualify for classroom instruction total, the program, sequence, or course must be designed to require class feedback and include it in the course guide (credit hour is not calculated based on individual iterations of the course)
Out-of-Class Student Work (30 hours per credit)
Out-of-Class Student Work is easier to identify for the most part. Review the following section, in particular, to look for distinctions between similar tasks (videos, exams).
Out-of-Class Content Delivery:
Content that is traditionally completed as "homework":
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Textbook Readings
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Assigned Articles
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Assigned Videos, not including written or recorded lectures and presentations (see Asynchronous Instructional Activities above)
Non-Classroom Assignments:
Supporting assignments/activities that the faculty do not directly oversee:
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Research or Additional Reading/Viewing
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Writing or Recording
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Papers (essays, journals or reflections, research papers, etc.)
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Presentations (slides, voice-over, oral)
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Projects (individual or group)
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Practice Exams or Open-Attempt Quizzes
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Any exam or quiz structured for students to retake multiple times for mastery purposes and/or self-instruction (rather than summative or formative assessment as in a classroom) are counted as out-of-classroom homework
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Any exam or quiz that is not duration-limited