Policy on Credit Hour
NS measures student learning in alignment with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) Credit Hour Policy, which relies on federal regulations on the definition and assignment of credit hours.
Federal regulation mandate that accredited institution comply with the definition of the credit hour in 34 CFR section 600.2, which defines the credit hour as:
...an amount of student work... as approved by the institution's accrediting agency... that is consistent with commonly accepted practice in post secondary education and that:
- Reasonably approximates not less than:
- One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately 15 weeks for one semester...hour of credit...or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or
- At least an equivalent amount of work as required in [1 above] ...for other academic activities…including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours; and
- Permit an institution in determining the amount of work associated with a credit hour, to account for a variety of delivery methods, measurements of student work, academic calendars, disciplines, and degree levels.
Credit value for courses is governed by the Academic Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee and the NSHE Common Course Numbering system. Course approval requests should include a justification of the credit value. Periodic review of course credit values will be incorporated into each school’s curriculum review schedule to ensure they accurately reflect the amount of work required in the course. Course schedules for all classes are adjusted as needed to ensure contact time for instruction is equivalent to the federal guidelines noted above.
Instructional time per credit is defined to provide a consistent minimum expectation for students and faculty. For lecture, seminar, lab, or equivalent courses, students are expected to spend at least two hours outside of the classroom each week for each credit of classroom learning. For example, if weekly instructional time is 50 minutes, then students should engage in approximately two hours of work outside the classroom. For courses scheduled during shorter terms (such as summer or 8-week sessions), hours per week should be adjusted proportionately. For SON, 1 credit hour for a full-length term would equal 3 hours in lab or clinical settings.
Meeting Contact Time
The Office of the Registrar audits the course schedule to ensure that the meeting times for each course meet the minimum contact time for the credits earned. Faculty members retain primary responsibility and discretion for meeting the required instructional contact time for their course.
For additional information, visit https://nevadastate.edu/policy/current/ao-5-credit-hour-policy/ or click here.