Policy on Awarding Course Credit

Stillman College awards academic credit for all courses and programs, undergraduate and graduate, based on the amount of time-on-task, inside and outside the classroom or its equivalent, reasonably required for a student to achieve the student learning outcomes stated in the official course syllabus. This principle is applied consistently to lecture, laboratory/applied, internship/practicum, Stillman Online, and any alternative instructional format, delivery mode, or length of term.

Credit is awarded in semester hours consistent with the federal credit hour definition at 34 CFR § 600.2 and SACSCOC Standard 10.7, Policies for Awarding Credit. The amount and level of credit assigned to a course is determined by academically qualified faculty and confirmed through the institutional oversight structure described in this Policy.

This Policy establishes the standards and procedures by which Stillman College determines and awards academic credit, in accordance with U.S. Department of Education regulations governing the credit hour (34 CFR § 600.2 and § 602.24), SACSCOC Standard 10.7, and the SACSCOC Credit Hour Policy adopted by the Board of Trustees.

This Policy is adopted to: (1) ensure that academic credit awarded across all instructional formats and delivery modes reflects a consistent, defensible standard of student learning and time-on-task; (2) establish clear institutional oversight for the review and approval of credit hour assignments by academically qualified faculty and administrators; (3) comply with applicable federal regulation and SACSCOC accreditation standards.

This Policy applies to all academic units, faculty, and administrators responsible for proposing, approving, or recording academic credit, including:

• Faculty proposing or teaching credit-bearing courses (undergraduate and graduate)

• Department Chairs

• School Deans (Arts and Sciences; Business, Entrepreneurship, and Computational and Information Sciences; and Education)

• Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

• Office of the Registrar

Credit Hour: The institutional standard by which Stillman College awards semester credit, generally represented by the number of hours a course meets each week; this standard reasonably approximates, at minimum, the federal definition at 34 CFR § 600.2 of not less than one hour (50- to 60-minutes) of direct faculty instruction for approximately fifteen weeks or an equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time.

Time-on-Task: The total amount of student engagement, direct instruction plus out-of-class work, reasonably required for a student to achieve the learning outcomes stated in a course's official syllabus. This is the governing principle by which the amount and level of credit for any course is determined, regardless of format or delivery mode.

Semester Hour: The unit of academic credit used throughout the Stillman College Academic Catalog and this Policy, as distinguished from a clock hour.

Clock Hour: A unit of instructional time used in some non-credit-hour-based programs. Stillman College does not currently offer any clock-hour-based programs; should it do so, the Academic Affairs Committee will establish and publish a documented clock-hour-to-credit-hour conversion formula consistent with U.S. Department of Education requirements.

A. DETERMINING THE CREDIT HOUR

Consistent with the Academic Catalog (“The Semester System”), credit for courses completed is awarded in semester hours, and the number of semester credit hours awarded for a course generally represents the number of hours the course meets each week — for example, a 3-credit-hour course meets three hours each week for one semester. Total weekly student engagement must be sufficient to achieve the learning outcomes documented in the course syllabus:

• Lecture Courses — one semester hour of credit generally represents one hour (50 minutes) of direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time.

• Laboratory and Applied Instruction — one semester hour of credit requires two to four hours of direct/onsite instruction per week, together with additional out-of-class independent work as needed to achieve the intended student learning outcomes.

• Internships and Practice — credit is calculated using the same time-on-task principles, with placement or contact hours established by the academic department and documented in a formal agreement with the external site or provider.

• Stillman Online and Other Alternative Delivery Formats — credit hour equivalencies are determined using the same time-on-task standard as on-ground instruction, regardless of the technology used to deliver the course.

Exceptions to the general weekly-contact rule are limited to those recognized in the Academic Catalog (e.g., military science and laboratory courses) and must otherwise satisfy the time-on-task principle above. This definition establishes a minimum standard that applies equally to undergraduate and graduate coursework; graduate-level courses are expected to require a scope and depth of student work consistent with graduate-level learning outcomes, at no less than this minimum.

B. INSTITUTIONAL FLEXIBILITY AND MINIMUM STANDARD

Consistent with the flexibility recognized in the SACSCOC Credit Hour Policy, the credit hour standard in Section A is a minimum standard and does not restrict the College from requiring more student work per credit hour where a department determines that greater rigor is warranted.

In determining the amount of work a course's learning outcomes entail, academic departments may take into consideration alternative delivery methods, measures of student work, academic calendars, disciplines, and degree levels. The College, not SACSCOC, is responsible for determining the amount of credit awarded for student work, subject to the institutional oversight described in Section C.

For courses offered in compressed eight-week or five-week term formats, the total student work required to earn credit must be equivalent to that required in the standard-length Fall or Spring semester term for the same learning outcomes, with weekly instructional and out-of-class work hours adjusted proportionally to the shorter timeframe.

C. INSTITUTIONAL OVERSIGHT AND REVIEW

Stillman College employs sound and acceptable practices for determining the amount and level of credit awarded for its courses, consistent with commonly accepted practice in higher education. Credit hour assignments move through the following levels of academically qualified review; all levels ultimately report to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

D. COURSE NUMBERING AND RANGE OF CREDIT

Course numbering communicates class level consistent with the Academic Catalog's “System of Numbering”: 100-level for freshman, 200-level for sophomore, 300-level for junior/senior, and 400-level for senior undergraduate courses; 500-level and above designates graduate coursework. Undergraduate course credit ranges from one to four semester hours per course; graduate course credit ranges from one to four semester hours per course, except that graduate capstone, practicum, or applied-project courses may carry up to six semester hours where the scope of work warrants.

Decisions regarding the number of semester credit hours assigned to a course are made by the academic department at the time of course or program development and are not altered on a term-by-term basis. Any subsequent change to a course's credit hour designation must be submitted, with supporting rationale, to the Academic Affairs Committee for review and approval prior to implementation.

E. TRANSFER CREDIT, NONTRADITIONAL SOURCES, AND PRIOR LEARNING

Credit awarded from sources other than direct enrollment in a Stillman College course is evaluated by academically qualified faculty in the corresponding discipline, applying the same time-on-task and learning-outcome equivalency standards described in this Policy.

Transfer credit is accepted from accredited institutions of higher learning upon receipt of an official transcript; credit from third-party or online-course providers is accepted only where the student has previously attempted the course at Stillman without success and has received prior written permission via the Request for External Study process.

Credit from nontraditional sources — active federal military service and service schools, the Advanced Placement (AP) Program, the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program — is evaluated against the same learning-outcome equivalency standard; students in residence may earn no more than 45 semester hours of credit on this basis.

Credit for Prior Learning Experiences is awarded only after a faculty-reviewed portfolio process beginning with the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, proceeding through the Department Chair and School Dean, and concluding with the Registrar; no more than 12 semester hours may be earned through this process, such credit is not transferable, and it may not duplicate credit earned through any other mechanism.

F. EXCEPTIONS

Academic units are expected to apply recognized disciplinary and industry standards when determining credit hour assignments. Any exceptional case, including a credit hour assignment that falls outside the institution's typical range or standard formulas, must be submitted in writing, with supporting justification, to the Academic Affairs Committee for review and approval prior to the course being offered for credit.

Stillman College does not currently offer any clock-hour-based programs or coursework requiring conversion to semester credit hours. Should the College adopt a clock-hour-based program in the future, the Academic Affairs Committee will establish and publish a documented conversion formula consistent with U.S. Department of Education requirements prior to the program's implementation, and that formula will be incorporated into this Policy.

Proposed courses falling outside the standard undergraduate or graduate credit ranges described in Section D are treated as exceptional cases under this Section and require Academic Affairs Committee review and approval prior to implementation.

G. PROGRAMS NOT BASED ON THE CREDIT HOUR

Stillman College does not currently offer direct assessment or other non-credit-hour-based programs. Should the College develop such a program in the future, faculty subject-matter experts will map each competency to the body of knowledge and skill a student would be expected to master in an equivalent traditional credit-bearing course, using the credit hour standard in Section A as the benchmark.

A documented credit-hour equivalency crosswalk will be developed for each competency or module, specifying the estimated amount of student learning time necessary to demonstrate mastery, and reviewed and approved by the Academic Affairs Committee prior to implementation. Assessment instruments and mastery thresholds will be validated by qualified faculty and, where appropriate, external subject-matter experts.

Credit equivalency determinations will be reviewed by the Academic Affairs Committee at least once every three years, or whenever a substantive change is made to program competencies, with findings documented and retained by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

H. PERIODIC REVIEW OF THIS POLICY

This Policy is reviewed by the Academic Affairs Committee at least once every five years, or more frequently as needed in response to changes in federal regulation, SACSCOC standards, or the Academic Catalog, to ensure it remains sound and is being consistently and effectively implemented.

This Policy is published in the Stillman College Academic Catalog at catalog.stillman.edu and is made available to all faculty, staff, and students. Academic departments are responsible for ensuring that course syllabi and program documentation reflect credit hour assignments consistent with this Policy and the Catalog.