Student Credit Hours Policy

The policy described here for assigning student credit hours to courses and educational experiences follows guidelines set forth by the New York State Department of Education, the United States Department of Education, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Below is a condensed version of the full credit hour policy.

Definitions

Instructional Time

Instructional time is time spent in the classroom, inclusive of regularly scheduled instruction, as well as a scheduled examination period. Instructional time during the examination period may include, but is not limited to: seated exams, and/or final projects, presentations, or papers. Instructional time must be supplemented by, but generally cannot be replaced by, time students are expected to spend on academic work and preparation. Instructional time for classroom-based courses does not include vacation periods, homework, travel, or orientation.

Credit Hour

The unit of credit used at Ithaca College is the semester hour which combines instructional time with supplemental work outside of class time. Consistent with the traditional "Carnegie Unit” formulation, one credit is earned for the completion of one 50-minute class period per week over a 15-week semester, with 2 hours for supplemental work outside of class time required of the student. For certain experiential, hands-on activities and individualized credit-bearing experiences, such as music lessons, independent study, or faculty-supervised internships, the College uses 60 minutes as the standard for calculation of credits.

One semester hour of credit represents ~3 hours of student academic work per week or 45 hours of academic work per semester.

Because at Ithaca College, classes meet for 14 weeks, it is required that faculty engage in the appropriate amount of instructional time with students during the 15th week of the semester, which is final exam week. In this time period, faculty may require seated exams, presentations, or other classroom-based activity to fulfill expectations for instructional time for that week.

In credit-bearing courses that meet for fewer than 15 weeks (for example, short-term courses, winter session and summer session courses, and block courses), the hours per week for both instructional time and supplemental work are proportionately increased to achieve the required 45 hours/credit.

A framework for how the credit hour translates to particular types of instruction, including those in which the educational experience takes place outside the classroom, is provided in the full policy.

Distance/Online Teaching and Learning

Online courses at Ithaca College comply with policies related to distance education. Regardless of instruction mode or delivery method, the same minimum amount of combined instructional time and supplemental work is required to assign the appropriate number of credits to the course. In asynchronous courses, faculty must provide regular and substantive interactions with students to satisfy expectations for instructional time; instructional time may take different forms, including participating in faculty-moderated online discussions.

(Definitions of regular and substantive interaction are provided in the full policy.)

Courses during the academic year are normally expected to be taught in person. Faculty who wish to deliver an undergraduate course via a fully distance learning, remote modality (whether synchronous or asynchronous) in the fall or spring semesters must have the course offering approved by the office of the dean.

Additional policy and procedures regarding remote/online instruction can be found in the Ithaca College Distance Learning Policies and Procedures.

Zero Credit Courses

In some cases, Ithaca College offers courses that carry zero credits. Courses with zero credits are opportunities to engage in learning primarily through attendance, and do not carry any expectation of supplemental work or preparation. All 0 credit courses are graded P/F.