Academic Policies

Non-credit certificates authenticate a learning experience that does not involve university credits that could be part of a degree. Non-credit certificates do not appear on a transcript. Non-credit certificates are of two overlapping kinds: those that testify merely to participation and those that are professional in nature.

Non-credit certificates must be reviewed unless excluded by the OSU Board of Trustees and the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

Non-credit certificates are not transcript-visible, but will be reviewed if they require any credit courses (XX 001-899) or have other official OSU visibility.

Additional Information: OUS Outline for New Certificates; Curriculum Council minutes 2/19/04

One credit represents 30 hours of the average student’s time that includes work in and out of class to meet the intended course learning outcomes and which are verified by evidence of student achievement in a course.

When a course is offered over a ten-week term, one term credit is assigned in the following ratio of component hours per week devoted to the course of study:

• lecture or seminar courses — one contact hour for each credit (two hours of outside work implied).
• recitation courses — either one contact hour (two hours of outside work implied) or two contact hours (one hour of outside work implied) for each credit. Courses with multiple sections must have uniform recitation contact hours. Any changes to the recitation contact hours must be approved through a course change proposal.
• laboratory or studio courses — two contact hours for each credit (one hour of outside work implied).
• field-based courses (e.g., practicum, clinical, internship, externship) and other schedule types that do not have structured in-class meeting time (e.g., research, independent study, activity, project, experiential, reading and conference, thesis, discussion, and workshop) — three hours of work per week for each credit.

Hybrid courses combine asynchronous online and traditional in-person classroom instruction. With a hybrid course, the in-person contact hours are reduced from the baseline listed above for its schedule type while the asynchronous online engagement is increased as appropriate to the instructional context.

Online courses are delivered asynchronously and expect approximately 30 hours of student engagement with instruction, activity, and assignment per term for each credit.

Courses that are predominantly field trip based expect approximately 30 hours of student academic engagement per credit. The engagement hours should count only the hours when students are actively engaged in learning and should not include the travel time to and from the field trip site. For field trip courses where the primary engagement happens over a few consecutive days, such as a week or weekend, the academic engagement must cover the entire length of the term for student financial aid purposes. This can be accomplished via, but not limited to, pre- and post- field trip activities at the start and end of the term.

This policy applies to all credit-bearing courses regardless of their campus location and/or modality. Non-traditional courses require the same amount of student work per credit hour as traditional ten-week term courses. Any exception to the above requires a course change proposal and is subject to approval by the Faculty Senate Curriculum Council which may consider factors such as professional accreditation body requirements, regulatory factors, and unique pedagogical needs. The request for the exception will be validated by administrative units prior to review by Faculty Senate Curriculum Council. Academic units that receive an exception are expected to inform students of their non-standard credit hours before students enroll in the course or program so students can make an informed decision.

The minimum number of credits required for each degree type are (quarter credits):

See the academic catalog for general requirements for graduate degree programs.

Standards for Non-Credit Academic Experiences

• A clear description of the course must be available via web and schedule of classes.
• Instruction shall be sufficient in breadth and length to meet the course objectives, proficiencies and competencies described.
• Course syllabus and objectives/outcomes shall be included in the curriculum system for record keeping.
• Curriculum Council approves non-credit offerings after they have the approval of the Office of the Registrar, if the intent is for them to be listed on the non-credit transcript.
• Coordination and support for these standards is provided by the Office of the Registrar.  
• Equitable reflection on the transcript among courses must demonstrate parity of the offering to ensure that the outcomes are met.
• Only academic units may originate courses and/or request course designators.

The Office of the Registrar has information about creating non-credit courses.

In some cases, students may earn credit for repeating a course with the same course number. The academic unit monitors the repeatability characteristic of the course to avoid abuse of this feature.

If the course may be repeated for credit, the total number of credits that will be counted toward the academic program must be stated in the curriculum proposal. This number will be displayed next to the course description as “This course is repeatable for XXX credits.” The most common maximum credits for blanket courses is 16. For 503 (Thesis) and 603 (Dissertation) courses, the default maximum credits has been established as 999.  This is to prevent graduate students being affected by Academic Regulation 20, Repeated Courses. 

Additional Information: Course Numbering Guidelines