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Definition of a Semester Credit Hour

The Ohio Department of Higher Education guidelines state, “One semester credit hour will be awarded for a minimum of 750 minutes [i.e., 12.5 hours] of formalized instruction that typically requires students to work at out-of-class assignments an average of two hours for every hour of formalized instruction [i.e., 1500 minutes or 25 hours]. The instructor bears the primary responsibility for formalized instruction, which may be delivered in a variety of modes.”  Further, the Department of Higher Education notes that “credit hours may be awarded on a different basis for other types of instructional activities,” but in all cases the foundational assumption is that one semester credit is the equivalent of approximately 2,250 minutes [i.e., 37.5 hours] of coursework, combining formalized instruction with out-of-class work.  For laboratory or studio course work, for example, that requires little or no out-of-class study, the Department of Higher Education states that “One hour of credit shall be awarded for a total of 2,250 minutes [37.5 hours] of instructional time”; for laboratory or studio courses in which “instruction is supplemented by out-of-class assignments which would normally average one hour of out-of-class study preparing for or following-up the [laboratory or studio] experience, then one hour of credit shall be awarded for a total of 1,500 minutes [or 25 hours]” of instructional time. See Appendix 7 of the ASC Operations Manual for credit allocation guidelines for education abroad programs.