John
D. Bower School of Population Health
DOCUMENT TYPE: Policy
REVIEW PERIOD: 3 years
TITLE: Credit Hour
PURPOSE: To define the credit hour in the John D. Bower
School of Population Health.
POLICY: The University of Mississippi Medical Center
measures academic credit for course work by credit hours.
A credit hour is an amount of work that reasonably
approximates not less than:
- One (1) hour of classroom
or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class
work each week for approximately 15 weeks for one semester or equivalent
amount of work over a different amount of time; (2,250 minutes per
three (3) semester hour course, based upon 50 minutes for each hour); or
- at least an equivalent
amount of work for other academic activities as established by the
institution including laboratory work, internships, clinical, practica,
and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours. Each school
will identify the calculations used to determine the credit hours accrued
for other academic activities.
The Bower School of Population Health credit
hour policy utilizes the following formula for all courses to determine credit
hour assignments:
((minutes/hour) x (hours/day) x (days/week) x (weeks/semester)) รท
((ratio x 750 minutes)) = credit hours
Courses comprised
of lecture-based learning environments and whose students meet in person with a
faculty member are awarded one (1) credit hour for a minimum of 50 contact
minutes per week. The contact hour to credit hour ratio for lecture-based
courses is 1:1 (1 credit hour equals 12.5 contact hours per semester).
Courses involving
practical learning under the direct supervision of a faculty member with
students conducting laboratory experiments, teaching or
clinical practicums, research experiences, dissertation work, or other
academic work and lead to the award of academic credit require a minimum of 100
to 300 contact minutes per week per credit hour based on program ratios.
The ratio for laboratory research, practicums, dissertation work, or other
academic work leading to the award of credit hours ranges from 2:1 to 5:1
(1 semester credit hour equals 25 to 75 contact hours per week).
Credit hours
awarded for laboratory rotations, practicum, or thesis/dissertation work are
awarded within a range. The awarding of variable credit hours within a course
from semester to semester is appropriate and is an accurate measurement based
on the amount of academically engaged time and amount of work expected. For example, doctoral students may be awarded one (1) credit hour for laboratory
rotation courses during one semester but may be awarded three (3) credit hours
in another. In this case, the student may only work in one laboratory during
the first semester but work in three laboratories during the second semester.
Similarly, in dissertation research courses, students may be awarded six (6) credit
hours during a semester in which they are booked for traditional lecture-based
courses, while they are awarded nine (9) credit hours during another semester
when they are solely focused on writing their dissertation or performing laboratory
experiments directly related to their dissertation work.
For courses taught in an online and/or asynchronous format,
the amount of instruction and student work must be comparable to that which
would otherwise be required for a traditional course.
SCOPE: All SOPH students
REFERENCES: University of Mississippi Medical Center [Intranet]. Credit Hour. [Effective 3 November 2014].