Credit Hours and Contact Minutes

Credit Hours and Contact Minutes

A credit hour is an amount of student work aligned with course learning outcomes and evaluated through appropriate academic assessment that is not less than the equivalent of one hour (50 minutes) of instruction facilitated by a course instructor and a minimum of two hours (100 minutes) of out-of-class student work per week over the duration of the academic term, using total instructional time and expected student work as the basis for equivalency.

Scheduling officers are responsible for ensuring that classes are scheduled to meet with a sufficient amount of instructional minutes. The tools on this page are designed to assist with this task. 

Credit Hour Standards

The information presented on this page is derived from Indiana University's Credit Hour Standards Policy (ACA-86). 

Read the Policy

Calculating Contact Minutes

Each credit hour must have at least 750 contact minutes with the instructor (also known as in-class minutes, or instructional minutes) plus an additional 1,500 minutes of outside commitment (also known as out-of-class minutes) such as readings, homework, field study, etc. for the average student. 

Academic units are ultimately responsible for ensuring classes they offer meet the minimum contact minutes required. This can be confusing for classes not offered in traditional ways. In such circumstances, the spirit of the policy must be followed.

The chart below outlines what the expectations would be as it relates to some of the common instructional modes. 

If scheduling an experiential education class with an Internship (IN) or Independent Study (IS) instructional mode, refer to the College's Experiential Education Courses policy for more information. 

Calculating contact minutes for hybrid and online instructional modes
ModeMode Code(s)Instructor Minutes (min.)Outside Minutes (min.)Formula (cr. = # of credit hours)
In-PersonP750 per credit hour1,500 (750 x 2) per credit hour

Instructor: 750 x cr.

Outside: (750 x 2) x cr.

Online-SynchronousDO750 per credit hour1,500 (750 x 2) per credit hour

Instructor: 750 x cr.

Outside: (750 x 2) x cr.

Online-AsynchronousOA2,250 per credit hour (instructor and outside minutes are combined and not differentiated)2,250 per credit hour (instructor and outside minutes are combined and not differentiated)2,250 x cr.
Online-HybridOI, HD, HY2,250 per credit hour (instructor and outside minutes are combined and not differentiated, though some minutes will appear on the schedule of classes since part of the course is synchronous and/or in-person)2,250 per credit hour (instructor and outside minutes are combined and not differentiated, though some minutes will appear on the schedule of classes since part of the course is synchronous and/or in-person)2,250 x cr.

If, for example, we are talking about a 3 credit hour online-asynchronous class, the department and instructor needs to ensure that the average student will be engaging in approximately 6750 minutes of activity with the course. For a 6-week summer class, that’s about 19 hours a week; for a 4-week class, that is 28!

Taking the same example for an in-person or 100% synchronous class, that would 6.25 hours a week of scheduled instruction for all students and 12.5 hours of homework each week for the average student for a 6-week class; 9.38 and 18.75 for a 4-week class.

Meeting Time Calculator

Use this calculator to determine the minimum number of minutes each class must be based on the number of credit hours, the number of weeks in the session the class will meet in, and the number of class meetings per week. 

While making these calculations, please remember to exclude weeks when classes are not meeting (e.g. Spring Break, finals week). This exclusion means calculations for classes that meet in the regular Spring or Fall session are 15 weeks, and second 8-week classes in the Spring and Fall are 7 weeks.

When scheduling, please refer to The Office of the Registrar's Room Assignment policy. This policy provides a table of standard meeting times for 50 and 75-minute classes, and guidance on scheduling classes longer than 75-minutes.