Credit Hour

Following federal government guidelines, Southern Wesleyan University defines a credit hour as the amount of student time investment that reasonably approximates one hour of classroom (or direct faculty instruction) and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester or the equivalent amount of that work as established by Southern Wesleyan, including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours. Lab seat times vary by academic discipline depending on the needs of those disciplines.

In accordance with commonly accepted practices in higher education, SWU operates on a 50-minute hour for this definition. Therefore, 50 clock minutes per week per credit hour for approximately 15 weeks provides approximately 750 minutes of direct faculty instruction time per credit hour based on the Carnegie unit.

Direct faculty instruction, or academic engagement, includes traditional, on-campus face-to-face classroom instruction with regular meetings for approximately 750 minutes for each credit hour granted (equivalent to one hour per week in a 15-week semester).

In the case of online and hybrid courses, academic engagement must be equivalent to traditional classroom instruction in terms of time (750 minutes per credit hour). Out-of-class student work, or preparation, is typically reading and study time in preparation for academic engagement within the course. Preparation is calculated as 1500 minutes for each credit hour granted (equivalent to two hours per week in a 15-week semester).

One (1) credit hour of private music instruction is equivalent to one 30-minute weekly session. Two (2) credit hours of private music instruction is equivalent to a one full hour weekly session.