Credit Hour and Course Delivery

These monies shall be expended or invested as the President or Board of Trustees may direct and shall be used to further the research and educational activities of the University.

D. Procedures - A disclosure of any invention or discovery made by an employee or student of the University or resulting from research carried on under the direction of an employee or student in which the University may have an interest shall be submitted promptly by such inventor or discoverer to the division chair or Dean or the Provost. Such officer shall append thereto a statement setting forth his or her opinion concerning the scientific, technical, and economic merit of such invention or discovery, the likelihood and desirability of obtaining a patent, and an estimate of the commercial possibilities of such a patent and transmit such statement to the individual responsible for inventions and discoveries.

THE CARNEGIE UNIT is a unit of measurement used by secondary and post-secondary schools to assure uniformity and consistency in assigning credit for courses awarded by an institution. Thus, Wingate University uses this unit in defining a semester hour of credit as equivalent to a minimum of three hours of class per week for a 15-week semester. Courses are reported and recorded in semester hours with one semester hour covering between 650700 minutes. A three-hour course usually contains the equivalent of 2,100 minutes of instruction. The traditional three-hour course includes between 42-45 fifty-minute sessions or 27-29 seventy-five-minute sessions. One credit hour courses contain 14-15 fifty-minute sessions; two credit courses contain 28-30 fifty-minute sessions. The application of this definition requires that all engaged in the process continually adjust for the evolving differences in the methods of delivery, the nature and scope of material, the pedagogy, and the varying ways students commit to the process of education including the pace at which they learn. It is further assumed and expected that students in traditional courses will spend at a minimum an additional two hours of preparation for every hour of instruction.

Courses with clinical, ensemble, or lab components have a different credit hour to contact hour ratio, then the 1:1 ratio described above. Typically, the ratio of credit hours to contact hours for these types of courses is 1:3; where 1 credit hour is equivalent to 3 hours of contact in the lab, studio, or clinical setting per week; however, this definition may vary by department/school. Each course with clinical, ensemble, or lab components will specify on the course syllabus the number of credit hours assigned to class (usual 1:1 credit to contact hour ratio) and the number of credit hours assigned to the experiential component, with the contact hours also specified. All proposals for new clinical/lab/ensemble courses coming forward for faculty approval will also have the credit hour to contact hour ratio (or number of contact hours) clearly specified.

In non-traditional courses such as Directed Independent Studies and Online Courses, the University intends that student learning per credit is the equivalent of between 42 and 45 hours of coursework for the semester or term through activities that demonstrate student competency in the learning outcomes while observing appropriate standards and design practices.

If a hybrid or online class is also taught as a traditional class, then the non-traditional version of the class will be deemed to have the same number of semester hours as the traditional version of the class provided both versions require roughly the same work from the student and achieve the same objectives and outcomes regardless of the amount of faceto-face meeting time scheduled for the non-traditional version of the course.