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Post by AussieMeg on Mar 1, 2016 4:09:34 GMT
How many hours do they actually attend classes each week?
My DD is starting uni this week and I am surprised at how few hours she will actually spend on campus. Most weeks she only has to go in 2 days a week (sometimes 3) for 3 or 4 hours each day – a total of 6 or 8 hours a week! There are also approx 15 hours of on-line work (lectures etc) to do that she can do from home. They stream a lot of the lectures so the kids figure why bother driving to uni (approx 40 minute drive for my DD) when you can watch the lecture from the comfort of your own home. Apparently her second year will be a lot busier with more hours of attendance required.
I’m just wondering what the norm is for your kids? Neither I nor most of my friends went to uni so this is all new to me!
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Deleted
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Oct 5, 2024 3:15:45 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2016 4:14:52 GMT
The government normally sets the appropriate amount of time for accredited universities. I don't know what is standard in your country.
In the US a 3 credit hour class will meet for 3 hours of lecture per week. It might meet once per week for 3 straight hours, twice per week for 1.5 hours or 3 times a week for 1 hour each time. A student taking a load of 12 credit hours (minimum to be full time) should expect to be in lecture for 12 hours per week.
Then each hour of lecture should generate roughly 3 hours of home work. Which isn't always evenly distributed throughout the semester. It tends to be the semester starts with less home work and the load builds as the weeks go on.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2016 4:15:42 GMT
When I was in college, four full credit classes per semester (plus 1 during interim in January) was a full load. Generally, that would translate to a total of 12 hours of classroom time each week - classes were either 1 hr MWF or 90 min TTh.
Of course, there was a lot of work to be done outside of attending class, but if you wanted to schedule all your classes either MWF or TTh, you could have days "off" during the week.
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Deleted
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Oct 5, 2024 3:15:45 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2016 4:18:27 GMT
When I was in college, four full credit classes per semester (plus 1 during interim in January) was a full load. Generally, that would translate to a total of 12 hours of classroom time each week - classes were either 1 hr MWF or 90 min TTh. Of course, there was a lot of work to be done outside of attending class, but if you wanted to schedule all your classes either MWF or TTh, you could have days "off" during the week. Still possible to do and a lot of students, particularly commuter students, try to set their schedules up this way to reduce the amount of gas/driving. |
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Post by Basket1lady on Mar 1, 2016 4:22:47 GMT
The government normally sets the appropriate amount of time for accredited universities. I don't know what is standard in your country. In the US a 3 credit hour class will meet for 3 hours of lecture per week. It might meet once per week for 3 straight hours, twice per week for 1.5 hours or 3 times a week for 1 hour each time. A student taking a load of 12 credit hours (minimum to be full time) should expect to be in lecture for 12 hours per week. Then each hour of lecture should generate roughly 3 hours of home work. Which isn't always evenly distributed throughout the semester. It tends to be the semester starts with less home work and the load builds as the weeks go on. This sounds about right. DS is taking 16 credits this semester. He has classes M-T-W & F. No Thursday class. He has a mix of 1 hour, 3 hour, and lab classes. And there's a lot of group projects that the students meet to work on, as well as 2 lab classes. His university doesn't count labs in the credit hour formula Volt posted. A lot more work is done outside of class for DS, vs high school. His HS had 1 hour, 50 minute classes. Time for lecture, group work, projects, and homework to be done in class. It's been a transition for him to learn to budget his time without the strict time setting for a specific class. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2016 4:23:14 GMT
When I was in college, four full credit classes per semester (plus 1 during interim in January) was a full load. Generally, that would translate to a total of 12 hours of classroom time each week - classes were either 1 hr MWF or 90 min TTh. Of course, there was a lot of work to be done outside of attending class, but if you wanted to schedule all your classes either MWF or TTh, you could have days "off" during the week. Still possible to do and a lot of students, particularly commuter students, try to set their schedules up this way to reduce the amount of gas/driving. I went to a residential liberal arts college, so there was no real compelling reason to schedule that way unless that's how the classes you wanted happened to fall, but still... quite a few people didn't want to have class on Tuesdays after Margarita Mondays  |
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Post by cmpeter on Mar 1, 2016 5:17:56 GMT
My son's school is on the quarter system. Three classes a quarter is full-time for him. He goes every day from 8:30 to 12:30.
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Post by AussieMeg on Mar 1, 2016 5:48:40 GMT
Thanks for the replies. The government normally sets the appropriate amount of time for accredited universities. I don't know what is standard in your country. I'm not sure either, I'd be interested to find out if there is a minimum number of hours. I would imagine there is. |
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AllieC
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by AllieC on Mar 1, 2016 6:15:47 GMT
I'm not sure about minimum hours, I do know that my daughters course will be 16 contact hours which seems tiny but with an average of 20 hours home study it gives a full time load.
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Post by gar on Mar 1, 2016 8:42:05 GMT
DD#2 had (she finished last summer) what seemed a very part-time, 4 day week schedule... 3 days with two lectures/classes and 1 day with only one class if I remember correctly. It really comes down to the amount of independent work those classes generate though. There's a lot more research/study etc needed than a cursory bit of homework from school.
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Post by corinne11 on Mar 1, 2016 10:05:10 GMT
My grandson just started this week, I just asked him how many hours he is going in. About 26 hours on campus but he is attending lectures even though he can also access them on line. My nephew is doing a lot less hours on campus but he is also in training for the Rio Paralympics  -fingers crossed!! so he is doing a lesser load for the first semester. I guess it depends on your course also. My nephew is doing an Arts degree while my grandson is doing a Science degree.
Corinne |
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AmeliaBloomer
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Post by AmeliaBloomer on Mar 1, 2016 10:24:34 GMT
My son goes to a university with fall and spring semesters (as opposed to schools with "quarters" or "trimesters"). He is taking 18 credit hours, so that's six classes with 18 total lecture hours per week.
Schools in the US with two semesters consider 12 credit hours per semester the minimum for full time student status, but you wouldn't graduate in four years (eight semesters) if you didn't take 15-17 credit hours per semester.
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Post by Karmady on Mar 1, 2016 12:05:01 GMT
I don't know exactly how many hours my dd has a week but she does have a heavy workload. I know she has a big day on Thursday with 9 hours of class. It's just the way it worked out this semester. She does skip out a lot but she can't miss her labs. She has told me on occasion that she's missed the entire week of lectures because she was too busy doing school work to actually go to school. Her lectures are recorded and accessible via podcast. Some of her weekly lab reports are 40 + pages and they have a deadline. She can listen to the podcasts on the weekend.
DD is a very hard worker and receives excellent grades.
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Post by Scrapbrat on Mar 1, 2016 12:21:47 GMT
At most schools in the U.S., one credit hour = one classroom hour. So, a 4 credit class meets for 4 hours a week. Sometimes that is four 1-hour classes, or it might be two 2-hour sessions. So if DS is taking 14 credits, he's in class 14 hours. I'm not sure about stuff like streaming lectures, as I can see that something like that would count as classroom hours, even if all of the students aren't physically there.
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Mar 1, 2016 12:33:40 GMT
I think it can vary by course and degree. To my knowledge at the University level it is up to the degree granting institution, not the government to determine how credits are assessed.
Typically credits are based on the number of hours spent in class per week, based on 16 weeks. SO schools with a longer marking period or a shorter one, the actually number of hours spent in class may vary.
Generally students spend about the same amount of time out of class working as the do in class.
So an average 15 credit hours would require at least 15 hours of work outside class.
There are some exceptions, courses where the majority of work is done during class, like dance, or some music, might meet for more hours per week then they are given credit for.
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iowgirl
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Post by iowgirl on Mar 1, 2016 13:22:59 GMT
My kids all live on campus. It is 2 hours from home. The minimum is 12 credit hours to be considered a full time student. They usually have around 14 hours, plus labs.
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Post by maryland on Mar 1, 2016 13:39:13 GMT
My daughter is 18 so she is a freshman. She has labs, so she has 3 hrs. a week for one, then she is in a research group where she spends 8-9 hrs. a week in lab for that class too. So because of her major, she spends quite a lot of time in class. She lives on campus.
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Post by debmast on Mar 1, 2016 15:43:02 GMT
My daughter is sophomore. This semester she is taking 15 credit hours (but 1 class is online). She attends class this semester only on Tuesday & Thursday but is there for 6 hours each day (12 hours a week), and then the online class is 3 credit hours as well.
Prior semesters she has taken 17 or 18 credit hours and has gone Mon-Thurs most semesters.
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Post by cakediva on Mar 1, 2016 15:46:50 GMT
First year for my oldest was rough - she had mostly 1:30-2:30 start to her day, with her latest classes starting at 7:00 at night. Some nights she had classes until 10pm. Second semester was better though, only one late night. But still, all in all, 10-15 hours of class time/lecture time per week.
This year she totally lucked out! Both semesters she managed schedule herself for Monday, Wednesday & Friday only. But again, maybe 10-15 hours of in class time per week. She had one online course last semester that was only offered online. The rest have all been in class time.
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Post by FLA SummerBaby on Mar 1, 2016 16:13:00 GMT
I work for a major state university and the typical amount is that 1 cr. hr = 50 minute class session; so typical 3 cr. class meets 2 1/2 hrs per week regardless of whether that is once a week for a 3 period block or 3 days a week for 1 period.
Average class schedule is 15-18 cr. per student each semester.
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likescarrots
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Post by likescarrots on Mar 1, 2016 17:00:30 GMT
At the 3 universities i went to, 15-18 hours a week was normal. They were all in the US if that makes any difference.
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Post by scrappersue on Mar 1, 2016 18:29:52 GMT
Both my kids are at schools with quarters. They are taking 15 credits(3 - 5 credit classes) and have 15 hours in the classroom. My daughters are every day so she goes 3 hours a day and my son has some that are only 2 or 3 days a week, but they are longer than an hour.
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-fingers crossed!! so he is doing a lesser load for the first semester.
