Hours Per Week of Students' Expected Labor

To prepare students for success in their Asynchronous courses, a piece of information to include in your Welcome Letter to students (template here), is the number of hours-of-work-per-week they can expect to complete in order to meet the course objectives of your class. Students can be really surprised by how much work is involved in an Online short session class.

Here is information from the Program and Course Approval Handbook (PCAH 8th edition) about calculating the hours; the short version of how many hours of work a student should anticipate is based on what used to be called the Carnegie Hour or Unit.

The Carnegie Unit wasn't conceived with Asynchronous education in mind, so its ratio of 2:1 for "hours of independent work to hours of classroom instruction" doesn't translate perfectly to Asynchronous instruction. Nevertheless, the number of hours of work per week expected for a 3-Unit lecture-based course offered during a full semester is 9, based on this 2:1 ratio, and about 25-30 in a 5-week Short Session course.

Primary Semester - 16-Weeks

For an in-person, 3-Unit lecture-based course in Fall or Spring, this would be approximately: 3 hours in class, 6 hours of independent work outside of class, each week for a full semester* of instruction, equaling approximately 148-154 hours of work to earn 3-Units.

Winter/Summer Short Session

If the same course content is covered in a 5-week short session in an Asynchronous class, students should expect to complete about 24-31 hours of work each week to earn 3 Units. So, I'll let my students know ahead of time (and at the start of each Module) that they shouldn't be surprised if the amount of time required to complete all their critical reading, thinking, analytical and creative writing, and other projects this Winter amounts to about 25 hours per week. This is the expected time investment in a 3-Unit class.

You may be teaching a 5-Unit course over 6 weeks. It may be a lab, an activity course, or studio course, etc. See the Program and Course Approval Handbook, along with some useful excerpts below to calculate your students' expected labor, and, as always, I'm happy to answer any questions I can).

* Full semesters, in Carnegie jargon are 17.5 weeks. "Colleges must exercise caution in determining the hours-per-unit divisor for credit hour calculations. California finance laws assume that primary terms average 17.5-weeks" (PCAH 8^th p. 58).

Relevant Sections of the PCAH

Program and Course Approval Handbook 8th edition

From page 45:

Credit hour calculations, as established in Title 5, § 55002.5(a), are based on total student learning hours, defined as the sum of inside and outside-of-class hours or all contact and homework hours. While this section does not define ratios for in-class to outside-of-class work, as a matter of standard practice in higher education, lecture credits assume that students will spend two hours outside-of-class for every hour in class; laboratory credits, particularly in natural sciences laboratory and health occupations, clinicals are typically calculated only on hours spent in the classroom, with minimal or no outside-of-class hours expected; and activity courses, studio courses, laboratory with homework, and other similar credit categories typically assume one hour of homework for every two hours of work in class. Variations on standard practices for in-class to outside-of-class ratios, clock hour programs, cooperative work experience courses, and open entry/open exit standards are discussed in greater detail in the Credit Course Standards section of this Handbook. The governing board of each college district must have an established policy for credit calculations, ensure that practices are compliant with state and federal laws and are aligned with standard practices in higher education. Failure to follow standard patterns can jeopardize course articulation and transferability, as well as apportionment and financial aid.

From page 56 & 57:

Units Title 5, § 55002(b)(2)(B) specifies that the local process for approval of curriculum assures that the COR grants units of credit for courses based on a relationship between the number of units and the number of hours or other performance criteria. Title 5, § 55002.5 provides specific direction on the standards for this calculation; however, this section sets forth the following principles:

Units of credit are based on a relationship with hours that is specified by the district governing board.
Each unit of credit represents a minimum of three hours, including class time, per week.
Hours per week are prorated for short term or extended term, laboratory, and activity courses as appropriate.

Standards for Credit Hour Calculations

Credit hour calculations are governed by the standards in Title 5, §§ 55002(a)(2)(B), 55002(b)(2)(B) and 55002.5, which collectively provide the definitions and parameters for credit hour calculations for most courses. Title 5, §§ 55002(a)(2)(B)-(b)(2)(B) grant district governing boards the authority to specify the relationship between units of credit and hours of classroom instruction, state the minimum weekly hours for one unit of credit, and provide for prorating hours of in-class to outside-of-class work appropriate to term length and instructional format. The calculation of units of credit for cooperative work experience programs is established in Title 5, § 55256.5.

Standard Formula

The standard formula for credit hour calculations applies to the majority of courses and course types and is derived from Title 5, § 55002.5. Colleges are required to define one unit of credit as a minimum of 48 total hours of student work, inclusive of all contact hours plus outside-of-class, or homework, hours pursuant to Title 5, § 55002.5(a). This is based on the assumption of 3 hours of student work per week over a 16-week term, for 1 unit of credit. The Chancellor’s Office recommends the use of 54 total hours of student work (18 weeks x 3 hours) for this calculation, rather than the minimum 48. As a result, all examples in this section use 54 hours as the basis for this calculation. In practice, local districts may use a number or a range between 48 and 54, depending on local practices, but must apply this number consistently in credit hour calculations. This number is referred to as the “hours-perunit divisor” in the sections below. The total of all contact hours and outside-of-class hours, as described below, is referred to as “total student learning hours” and is the dividend in the credit calculation formula.

The Equation

Courses not classified as cooperative work experience, clock hour, or open entry/open exit use the following method for calculating units of credit:

Divide total student learning hours by the hours-per-unit divisor, round down to the nearest increment of credit awarded by the college. Expressed as an equation:

The result of this calculation is then rounded down to the nearest .5 increment or to the nearest fractional unit award used by the district, if smaller than .5. This formula applies to both semester and quarter credit calculations. While this formula can yield a value below the lowest increment of credit awarded by the college, zero-unit courses are not permissible.

From page 58:

Hours-per-unit Divisor: This is the value or value range used by the college to define the number of hours required to award each unit of credit. The value must be minimum of 48 and maximum of 54 hours for colleges on the semester system and a minimum of 33 and maximum of 36 for colleges on the quarter system. This number represents the total student learning hours for which the college awards one unit of credit. Colleges may use any divisor within this range, but should maintain consistency between the divisor and the dividend. For example, if a college uses the 51 = 1 unit calculation to determine the hours of lecture and outside-of-class work in the dividend, they should use 51 as the divisor. Colleges that indicate the minimum and maximum range of 48–54 should show that same range for the dividend in the equation and resulting unit calculation.