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»Ê¹Ú²©²ÊÍøÖ· Credit Contact Hour Policy Guidelines

While credit bearing courses at State University of New York at »Ê¹Ú²©²ÊÍøÖ· broadly follow the , the following is a compilation of local »Ê¹Ú²©²ÊÍøÖ· policies, procedures, and guidelines pertaining to Credits and the corresponding Contact Hours.

Unit of Credit
Course credit is the unit of contact hour of instruction. One credit requires 50 minutes of class work and two hours of outside preparation, or the equivalent in independent study, each week during a semester. The distribution of that time between class activities (such as lecture, recitation, laboratory, field trip) and outside preparation varies from course to course. Generally, a three-credit course requires 150 minutes of classroom activity and six hours of out-of-class preparation per week. Thus, a normal 15-credit load requires approximately 45 hours per week of the typical student’s time. 

Credit Designation
All courses have a credit designation listed in the student information system and course descriptions in the Undergraduate Bulletin.  The notation used at »Ê¹Ú²©²ÊÍøÖ· for the credit designation is:

C(A-B), where "C" is the number of credits, "A" denotes the lecture-type contact hours, and "B" denotes Lab-type contact hours.

Lecture-type: Lecture, seminar, or discussion led by the instructor
One credit is earned for fifteen 50-minute sessions of classroom instruction with an expectation of two hours of outside work for each session.  Typically, a three-credit course meets three 50-minute sessions per week for fifteen weeks for a total of 45 sessions.

Lab-type: Supervised group activities like recitation, laboratory, field work, practicum, workshop, or studio
A recitation is structured supervised activity in a classroom setting for fifteen 50-minute sessions with an expectation of two hours of outside work for each session.
For laboratory, field work, practicum, workshop, studio work, a credit is awarded for the equivalent of fifteen periods of such activity, where each activity period is 150 minutes or more in duration with little or no outside preparation expected.  Forty-five 50-minute sessions of such activity would also normally earn one credit.  Where such activity involves substantial outside preparation by the student, the equivalent of fifteen period of 100 minutes duration each will earn one credit. 

The table below lists contact hour information for most commonly credit designations at »Ê¹Ú²©²ÊÍøÖ·.  The TOTAL TIME (in class + outside preparation) that the student is expected to devote the class for the term is on the rightmost column.