Scheduling Protocols for Summer Term

General Information

Our current calendar is a semester calendar with 15 weeks of instruction, in which 50 minutes of class attendance are considered one contact hour and one unit of credit. The working unit of credit definition is as follows:

• One unit of credit represents how much time a typical student is expected to devote to learning per week of study. Each course is evaluated by a system of credits related to time spent in class, lab, research, or field study. One semester credit is expected to require at least three hours of scholarly activity per week.
• For lecture-based course work, one 50-minute hour of class attendance is scheduled for each credit awarded, but any combination of class attendance, lab, research, or field study experience may be arranged. Additional time is expected out-of-class for preparation and homework.
• Studio and laboratory classes earn 1 semester credit for each three hours of attendance.
• Exceptions to this policy for undergraduate courses must be approved by the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. Exceptions for graduate courses must be approved by the Institute Graduate Curriculum Committee.

During our current 15-week fall or spring terms, most 3-hour classes have the following amounts of instruction time.

• Classes meet three times per week for 50-minute periods, for a total of 2250 minutes (3x50x15); or
• Classes meet two times per Week for 80-minute periods, for a total of 2400 minutes (2x80x15).

The following class scheduling protocols are intended to ensure sufficient meeting times to account for the credit assigned the course. For each credit hour in the 15-week semester, we currently average 775 minutes of class attendance. To determine the amount of class attendance needed for shorter terms, divide by the number of weeks per term. During short sessions, the following amounts of class attendance are needed.

• 775 minutes per semester hour per term =
• 50 minutes per week per credit hour for a 15-week term
• 70 minutes per week per credit hour for an 11-week term
• 155 minutes per week per credit hour for a 5-week term

STANDING

• Students in good standing will be limited to a maximum of 16 hours
• Students on warning will be limited to 14 hours
• Students on probation will be limited to 12 hours

ACCELERATED PACE

Academic units will teach only those courses which lend themselves to an accelerated pace.