Policies & Procedures Manual

219

Policy No: 414

Policy Contact: Vice President for Instruction

Policy Title: DEFINITION OF CREDIT HOUR

The definition of a credit hour is the unit by which the College measures its course work towards degree or educational certificate. The number of credit hours assigned to a course is a function of the amount of time students spend in scheduled class meetings, the amount of work that is expected outside of class to meet all course objectives, the mode of instruction, and expected student learning outcomes. East Central Community College (ECCC) uses the Carnegie unit to measure credit awarded to students for course work. A Carnegie semester unit of credit for students is defined as a minimum student-teacher contact of 750 minutes for lecture and 1500 minutes for laboratory. Career & Technical Education courses follow the formula of 1 contact hour equaling 50 minutes and 1 credit hour being 750 minutes lecture, 1500 minutes lab, or 2250 minutes of clinical. The only exception to this practice may be a program with a separate accrediting agency that may define 1 contact hour of class to be 1 clock hour or 60 minutes. The Carnegie semester unit is compliant with Section 9.2 of the Mississippi Community College Board (MCCB) Policy Manual , Section 3.3.4 (“Semester Credit Hour Definition”) of the MCCB Division of Workforce, Career, and Technical Education Office of Curriculum and Instruction Policies and Procedures Manual , and also aligns with the Federal Definition of the Credit Hour per the SACSCOC Policy Statement on Credit Hours (approved June, 2011 and edited January, 2012).

Types of Credit Offered :

Regular Credit: Credit earned for courses of instruction offered by the institution to meet the requirement of degrees and/or educational certificates.

Transfer Credit: Credit awarded for coursework at other institutions. Refer to Policy 400.8.1.

Experiential Learning Challenge Examination: Refer to Policy 401.4

College Level Examination Program (CLEP) and DSST Subject Standardized Test (Formerly Known as DANTES): Refer to Policy 401.3 Advanced Placement: Credit awarded for advanced coursework at a secondary school. Refer to Policy 401.2. Articulated Credit for Career and Technical Programs: Credit granted according to the MCCB Statewide Articulation Agreement. Refer to Policy 401.1.

Military Credit: Refer to Policy 400.13.3

Regular Credit Guidelines for Modes of Instructional Delivery

Lecture: For lecture classes, one semester credit hour is a minimum of 750 minutes of student-teacher contact. Therefore, if a lecture class meets at least one hour (a 50-minute period) per week of seat time for at least 15 weeks, they would have attained at least 750 minutes of student-teacher contact. It follows that a three credit hours course must total at least 2,250 semester minutes.