Instructional Equivalencies

1 instructional hour = 50 minutes

Instructional hours are the foundation for defining academic credit.

Regardless of the format in which it is delivered, all courses taught require equivalent student-instructor and student-student interaction. Federal and state regulations mandate colleges and universities to comply with specific definitions of instructional hours in all classes. The online modality achieves equivalent interaction and learning through asynchronous and/or synchronous activities. The expectation exists for online courses to include the same content, rigor and learning outcomes as traditional taught physical classroom based courses.

Compliance

The two primary reasons for compliance are as follows:

• 1. Meeting the criteria is a necessary component of retaining regional accreditation

  2. We must meet the guidelines in order to remain eligible to offer Title IV financial aid for our students.

How To Comply

Since faculty know best what works for their courses, there are several options for identifying and documenting additional instructional hours, including:

• • Accounting for required activities already part of your classes (i.e. faculty-led activities outside of the classroom)

  • Enhancing current activities using Alternative Instructional Equivalencies (AIE)

Best Equivalent Activities:

• • Activities that are directly related to the objectives of the course/program,

  • Activities that can be measurable for grading purposes,

  • Activities that have the direct oversight or supervision of the faculty member teaching the course,

  • In some form be the equivalent of an activity conducted in the classroom.

Non-Equivalent Activities:

• • Homework assignments

  • ‘Time spent’, that is, a calculation based on the amount of time the student spends accomplishing a task

Note: The academic content of a course taught online, and the academic content of the same course taught in a classroom must be the same. Furthermore, the instructional activities that are ordinarily conducted in the classroom must also be conducted in the virtual classroom environment.

What is and isn’t a classroom activity to equal an instructional hour?

Classroom Activities

• • Lectures

  • Media presentations

  • Discussions/Forums/Chats

  • Group projects

  • Student presentations

  • Quizzes

Non-Classroom Activities

• • Final exams

  • Homework assignments*

  • Reading assignments

  • “Time spent” by students on accomplishing tasks

*Note: For each hour attributed to a course in a week, there is a corresponding two hours of homework expected. A course that meets three hours per week should require six hour of homework time.

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