Credit Hours

To ensure continued Title IV student-financial-aid eligibility, the University of Michigan must follow all applicable federal rules and guidance from U-M’s institutional accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), concerning credit-hour definitions regardless of course modality (e.g., in-person, online, hybrid, or hyflex). The current federal definition for a credit hour establishes a requirement that the institution “reasonably approximates” a minimum of one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and two hours of out-of-class student work each week for fifteen weeks or “the equivalent amount of work over a different period of time.”

In Practice

The U.S. Department of Education has made clear that it does not intend to prescribe how much time is spent on instruction versus other academic activities. Rather, estimates for credit hours in online/hybrid courses should simply measure the predicted academic time-investment for the average student as long as these estimates provide a reasonable approximation of this traditional method of calculating credit hours. Estimates can include unsupervised student work, such as homework and research as well as more observable forms of engagement.

While one hour of direct instruction and two hours of out-of-class student work each week for fifteen weeks would amount to 45 hours of student work per credit per term in total, 50 minute periods can also be considered one hour, at least with regard to direct instruction. This is because the credit hour derives from the Carnegie Unit, used first in high schools, where classes are generally scheduled for 50 minutes rather than a full 60 minutes. This commonly accepted practice has led to many institutions to instead formally adopt a standard of 42.5 hours per credit hour, instead of 45, as this would accurately reflect the traditional 1:2 ratio of one 50-60 minute class combined with 120 minutes of work outside of class per week per credit. 

In terms of weekly effort expectations, a breakdown for half- and full-term schedules that would be consistent with this 42.5 hours per credit benchmark is provided below (most estimates have been rounded up). Note that significant week-to-week workload variation is permissible, and these estimates simply reflect the average weekly workload by term length.

The 1:2 ratio of direct-instruction to student-led work is not a strict requirement, however, and some variation is possible as long as the assignment of credit still reasonably approximates the “equivalent amount of work.” A range of 37.5 hours to 45 hours per credit could potentially be considered reasonable based on the mix of direct instruction, but 42.5 hours should be viewed as an appropriate benchmark for most online and hybrid courses. 
U-M academic units should not deviate from standard terms aligned with U-M’s academic calendar without first consulting the Registrar’s Office.

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