Direct vs. Indirect Instruction

According to the DoE and HLC, you need to evidence a total of 45 hours of direct instruction for a 3-semester-credit course or 30 hours for a 3-quarter-credit course (also referred to as "substantive interaction" by HLC, with direct instruction being a subset of substantive interaction in their definition). It doesn't specifically need to be 3 hours per week exactly, either, just a total of 45 or 30 direct instruction hours over the semester/quarter. At Antioch, in-person courses generally meet this requirement with 3 hours in-person, and have only independent work outside those meeting hours. Many "switch to Zoom" remote variations of courses also still do this, though we in AT believe that 3 hours on Zoom in one big lump session is not often not ideal for a number of reasons. We generally suggest that for remote courses, the meeting times be shorter, and that additional engagement activities be used in place of scheduled meeting times. This allows students more control over when they engage in the course content, with you, and with each other.

If your course has OPTIONAL synchronous meetings (in-person or online), you will have to build the 45 or 30 hours of direct instruction into the asynchronous aspects of the course in the LMS. In this case, you will not need to factor the optional live sessions into your direct instruction time at all, if they are complementary rather than foundational. They would be above and beyond the minimum engagement requirements already met by your asynch course content.

In case it's useful, HLC defines substantive interactions as:

• Providing direct instruction (through live or recorded instruction);

• Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework;

• Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency (at the class, group, or individual level);

• Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or

• Other instructional activities approved by HLC or the program’s accrediting agency.

We can help with a course load estimation to verify that the necessary 45/30 engagement hours are already in your course if that would be helpful here.