The principle guiding the assignment of one semester hour of credit is that each semester hour reasonably approximates not less than 45 hours of effort by the student over the duration of a semester. Not all of this effort is necessarily expended while in face-to-face contact with an instructor; the expectation is that each hour of directed faculty instruction will be associated with a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work. Different types of courses require different amounts of contact time.
The following standards are intended to specify minimum contact time for the award of one semester hour of credit. Some courses may exceed these minimum standards. For purposes of these standards, one hour of contact time is defined as 50 minutes of actual contact. Actual contact time is listed after each standard in parentheses.
*Practice semester hours include studio, supervised clinical and student teaching coursework.
PennWest Edinboro follows the common calendar of the PASSHE for regular semesters (fall and spring), which includes 16 total weeks. One week is assigned for final examinations each semester; with Spring Break and other non-teaching days, there are 14 instructional weeks.
Some courses may combine two or more of these categories. For example, a science course may combine two semester hours of lecture with one semester hour of laboratory for a total of three semester hours. In this case, the lecture component would include a minimum of 1,500 (2 x 750) minutes of contact and the laboratory component would include a minimum of 1,500 minutes of contact.
Online and individualized instruction courses are assigned the same number of semester
hours of credit as an identical course delivered in a face-to-face format, based on
a determination that the student learning objectives and outcomes attained by the
online or individualized instruction course are consistent with those of the face-to-face
course. Similar standards apply to the assignment of credit based upon life experience
or examination. Online courses for which there are no face-to-face equivalents and
independent study courses will be designed and offered to achieve course learning
objectives that will reasonably approximate not less than 45 hours of effort by the
student for each semester hour of credit assigned.
Academic Level is used for State System reporting, faculty workload computations, fee calculations, course registration, transcripts and degree audits.
Academic levels are assigned to courses instead of relying on a course number. Codes are independent of course numbers and operate "behind the scenes."
| Academic Level | Code | Description |
| UG Level 0 | 050 | Developmental/Remedial courses |
| UG Level 1 | 110 | Introductory/Foundation UG courses |
| UG Level 2 | 120 | Intermediate/Foundation UG courses |
| UG Level 3 | 130 | Intermediate/Advanced UG courses |
| UG Level 4 | 140 | Advanced UG courses |
| GR Bi-level | 150 | Introductory GR Courses |
| Masters Level 1 | 220 | Intermediate GR, courses open to undergraduates on a limited basis |
| Masters Level 2 | 230 | Advanced GR, open to graduate students only |
| Doctoral Level | 250 | Doctoral courses only |
| Clock Hour | 400 | Non-credit courses and activities |
| CEU Courses | 500 | Continuing education unit activities |
| Not applicable | 999 |
Interactive TV Home site: This is a Synchronous learning situation, occurring on campus, where the instructor
teaches students sitting in the classroom at the same time students are at a remote
site and receiving that instruction in real time. Students at both sites interact
with each other and the instructor during the class via the technology.
Interactive TV Remote site: This is a Synchronous learning situation where the instructor teaches students via
Interactive TV in real time from the home site. Students at a remote site are receiving
that same instruction as the students at the home site. Students at both sites interact
with each other and the instructor during the class via the technology in place.
