How We Compute Course Credits At Blue Marble University
And Why Each 15-Week Term Is Equivalent
To A Standard USA College 15 Week Semester
Although Blue Marble University is based in the Commonwealth of Dominica, we offer a US style education to the international market. While many of our students are from different countries with different academic standards and procedures, we feel that conforming to the U.S. system of credits may be best for most of our students.
Therefore, although we are not required to do so, we use as our starting point the definition of “credits” as defined by the United States Code of Federal Regulations excerpted here:
Federal definitions and regulations regarding the assignment of credit hours appear as follows under Section 600.2 and 600.24(f) of the Higher Education Opportunity Act:
“Clock hour: A period of time consisting of –
(1) A 50- to 60-minute class, lecture or recitation in a 60-minute period;
(2) A 50- to 60-minute faculty-supervised laboratory, shop training, or internship in a 60-minute period; or
(3) Sixty minutes of preparation in a correspondence course
Credit hour: Except as provided in 34 CFR 668.8(k) and (l), a credit hour is an amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement that is an institutionally established equivalency that reasonably approximates not less than—
1. One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit…
2. At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours.”
Although many times used interchangeably, credits and credit hours are slightly different in that it is the course “credits” that appear on a transcript, while “credit hours” refers to the amount of time students are expected to study the course over a 15 week period. So, for our a 1- credit course, a student would be expected to spend 45 hours total time studying the course.
In using the “clock hour” approach, 15 clock hours of lectures plus 30 hours of academic study equals 1 semester credit (for a typical 15 week semester).
Because there is no break in our academic calendar and courses proceed continuously all year long with no holidays, it should be stressed that each one of our three terms per year encompasses 15 weeks of study. Consequently, our “Three 15-week Terms per year” actually comprise the equivalent of 3 traditional 15-week semester periods, and as noted in the above regulation, one of our 3 credit courses is the equivalent of a 3 credit course in a typical “semester” based program.
All of the Blue Marble University doctoral programs comprise in excess of the 60 credit minimum requirement for a typical semester based program, because in actuality, our 70-credit programs are 70 Semester credits, when tested against the regulatory requirement stated above, which requires 15 weeks of study per course credit. Our course Terms are 15 weeks in length. Our bachelor degree programs comprise 120 credits of which 60 credits are allocated to General Education.
The bottom line is this: Based on the US Federal Regulations for how to calculate credits noted above, 1 Blue Marble Credit = 1 USA Semester Credit. And therefore each of our doctoral and bachelor degree programs comprises at least the minimum course work for a doctoral or bachelor degree awarded by a regionally accredited U.S. college or university.