The purpose of this policy is to define credit hours, as used at Parami University. 

Scope

This is an academic policy, affecting students and academic staff of the University. 

Referenced Laws, Regulations, and/or Policies 

The Higher Education Licensure Commission, Office of the State Superintendent Of Education of the District of Columbia, requires that a postsecondary degree-granting educational institution shall maintain that all credits awarded for courses in degree programs shall be measured in credit hours. 

(D.C. Mun. Regs. Tit. 5, § A8004.9) 

Compliance/Policy Statement 

The definition of credit hour as used at Parami University is defined as follows. All classes at Parami University bear 4 credits and classes are delivered on a 15-week semester basis. For each course, there will be two synchronous sessions (instructional contact hours) per week, and thus there are 30 synchronous sessions per semester. Each session lasts for 1 hour and 40 minutes ( = 1.67 instructional contact hours). Thus, the total number of instructional contact hours is 50 hours (1.67 hours per session Х 30 sessions) across a semester for a 4-credit hour course.

At Parami University, we expect that students need to spend two hours of independent study (homework, reading, etc.) to catch up with one hour of instructional contact in class. Thus, for each 4-credit hour course, the student will engage in 50 instructional contact hours per semester, which requires 100 independent study hours per semester. This gives rise to 150 academically engaged hours per semester for every 4-credit hour course.

Academically engaged hours = instructional contact hours + independent study hours