Identifying Contact Hours in Higher Education
Credit Hours are a unit of time required by academic institutions to ensure that course goals and learning outcomes are met. In this episode our host interviews two faculty members to discuss ideas for professors to meet their required contact hours.
Show Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANNOUNCER: Hello, everyone.
The topic for this episode of The T in Teaching
is contact hours.
The host for today's episode from the Fox School
of Business Department of Online and Digital Learning
is Instructional Designer Shawn Ponder.
Our host interviewed two faculty members
from Temple University, Dr. Kelly Grace and Mary Conran
to get their take on today's topic.
Here's what you need to know about contact hours.
A credit hour is the basic unit of academic credit.
1 semester credit is equivalent to roughly one hour
of faculty instruction time per week
for 15 weeks, which includes one week for exams.
This also includes a minimum of two hours
of out-of-class student work each week per credit hour.
An equivalent amount of work is required
for other academic activities such as laboratory work,
internships, practica, student work, and other academic work
leading to the award of credit hours
Dr. Kelly Grace joined Temple University
as an adjunct professor in 2017 after teaching
at Georgia Institute of technology and Texas Christian
University.
Currently, she serves as the director
of Temple's Online Master of Science
in Human Resource Management Program.
KELLY GRACE: The students sit through presentations
where they're very likely to-- as soon as they're done,
they've checked out.
PROFESSOR: Mary Conran serves as Associate Dean for Academic
Programs and Curriculum where she
is tasked with oversight and direction of academic programs
across the BBA, MBA, and MS programs.
She also serves as the professor in the Marketing Department
of the Fox School of Business where
she is responsible for the development
and presentation of undergraduate
and graduate marketing courses.
MARY CONRAN: I would trust the instructional designers
as well.
We're very fortunate here that we've got
great instructional designers.
PROFESSOR: Thank you for listening,
and please enjoy the episode.
SHAWN PONDER: Welcome to this episode of T in Teaching.
Today I am joined by Kelly Grace and Mary Conran.
Thank you both for joining us
KELLY GRACE: Thank you.
We're glad to be here.
SHAWN PONDER: Yeah.
MARY CONRAN: Excited to be here.
Thank you.
SHAWN PONDER: We're going to jump
right in with what are contact hours
and why are they important?
MARY CONRAN: Well, they've come to the forefront
recently because they're related to the delivery modality.
Usually the university required a 15-week semester,
we knew how many hours the students were meeting,
and it was just a calculation.
These are standards actually set by the Pennsylvania
Department of education that Temple complies with.
But the change in delivery modalities
put this at the forefront of discussions.
Whether you're doing a compressed format
or an online format or a flipped course format,
that has brought this into the to the discussions
more often than we expected.
So it's a little bit of a challenge
because people have misconceptions
on what is a contact hour.
And so it's important as directors of programs,
as faculty, that we understand what these contact hours are.
And we also need to explain that to students
because it's something different than just merely homework.
It's particularly taking a look at contemporary education.
It's the idea of a flipped classroom.
Doing work deliberately to build and enhance
knowledge as opposed to refining knowledge, which
is more of a homework base.
KELLY GRACE: Right, yeah.
It's-- I think about it as what we used to do in class in 15
weeks is a contact hour.
So anything that I would have done in a traditional format
counts.
And the requirement is that for a 3-credit class,
it's 37 and 1/2 contact hours.
So what would I have done in a real class.
Sorry.
A traditionally formatted class.
So I would have lecture, of course.
And that's why you get into the profession.
We're all brilliant lecturers.
I would have had group discussions.
I would have shown some videos.
I might have had guest lecturers in class.
I might have had a test.
In the old days before technology,
we would have done all of our testing in class.
MARY CONRAN: Right.
KELLY GRACE: I might have had group presentations,
individual presentations.
So as we think about contact hours,
as you're moving to these other modalities,
one of the groundings is, what would you have
done in that 15-week format?
SHAWN PONDER: Right.
In a traditional format.
So the general rule of thumb-- and people
don't like to use that word, a rule of thumb,
but there is actually a scheme set up by the university
for, based on the number of credit hours,
how many contact hours need to exist.
MARY CONRAN: Right.
KELLY GRACE: So most of our business courses
are 3 credit hours, 15 weeks, that's 45, but then you say,
well, there's holidays and other things,
so the 37.5 should not be an issue for traditional format--
delivery format.
MARY CONRAN: Right.
SHAWN PONDER: So a lot of times, we get questions
about like the distinction between homework and contact
hours.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
I know you gave a few examples, but do you
mind diving in just a little bit deeper between the two?
MARY CONRAN: Yeah.
The content is actually the learning,
the sharing of the information, the building of the knowledge,
the approaching the application and synthesis part of it,
whereas homework really is more refinement, more rehearsal,
more practicing for expertise.
So it's something that students do on their own.
It's not actually learning the content,
it's practicing the content.
So there's where the big difference is.
And so when you take a look at something like a case analysis,
you would have some difference here.
If the students are actually doing a case analysis,
that's an application in synthesis exercise.
That would be a--
it could be used as an assessment,
but it's also a contact hours, particularly
if they're doing it collaboratively
and the instructor keys in on point.
So asking questions either through discussion board
or video chats or whatever, that would
be a way that you could do cases as contact hours,
not as homework.
KELLY GRACE: Mm-hmm.
Contact-- I'm sorry.
Homework also includes preparation.
So reading, reading.
And my area, we do a lot of reading
in leadership and in human resources, what
are the current practices.
Then you come to class and do the applications
or you go to a group discussion and do
a case or a conversation.
So that preparation time counts as that homework component
in many classes.
It may be that there is a video--
a TED talk that I want students to review as particularly
interesting or intriguing or new content,
if I were doing a traditional format class,
I would still have them do it outside of class,
it's just not worth my time to have them prepare that.
So do that in class, so I would have them do that as homework,
as preparation.
And that's the big difference for me
is, as I keep my frame in that, what would I do face-to-face?
I make it--
MARY CONRAN: Contextualizing the learning.
KELLY GRACE: It actually is, yes.
SHAWN PONDER: I love it.
MARY CONRAN: I think there might also
be differences in what constitutes
homework versus contact hours based on discipline.
SHAWN PONDER: Mm-hmm.
MARY CONRAN: Reading a stats textbook.
Yes, that's preparation, but also it's
the acclimation of knowledge, the building of knowledge,
and then what the instructor will do with the students
once they get to class with that prep might be a little bit
different.
Same thing with finance or any of the quant methods.
But I agree, for many of the qualitative courses,
those ratings are critical for preparing the students,
priming them for the critical activities that do
happen when we're face-to-face.
So even in an online class, we're
meeting with students in person.
So whether it's an hour or two hours, whatever it may be,
we can then use that time most effectively
because they prepared the work.
In some of the lower-level courses and the BBA core,
a lot of that is related to the Pearson or the Connect product.
Students do the readings and they do some quizzes,
and their knowledge-based just like their ante
to get into the class rather than really an assessment.
It's not an assessment of their knowledge, it's just,
are they ready to have a conversation about it?
And that allows us to be more impactful in the classroom,
whatever the delivery modality is,
if students have been prepared.
So that homework is very critical.
SHAWN PONDER: I agree.
I completely agree.
And that ties into a little bit about what
you do in your classes.
Like I know, Mary, you do VoiceThread.
And I know, Kelly, you've done seven- and 14-week classes
and developed that.
Can you talk a little bit specifically
like what do you do in your class
or even just talking about the VoiceThread as well?
MARY CONRAN: Yeah, I use VoiceThread
as a way of continuing the discussion because my classes
are online, although I have used it in my in-person classes
at all, and we're always running out of time-- running out
of runway, I say.
But I want to have application discussions with my students,
so I use VoiceThread for this.
So I'll create a VoiceThread.
It's just a tool that is compatible with Canvas as our
as our learning platform.
I create a series of powerpoints and I have an intro video,
and then I'll provoke a question.
I'll ask something and have students not only respond
to me, but also respond to another learner,
and then I'll say, OK, well, you probably said this,
I can anticipate, I've taught the class enough.
And then ask them a follow-on question.
So you just mentioned Apple.
Many of you just mentioned Apple.
How does Apple actually do this and are there flaws?
So I can continue a discussion, and then I
can go in and jump in during the week
and say, oh, that was a great-- really great comment, Shawn,
but what about this?
And what I really find great is particularly
in the graduate-level courses, students
will bring in content externally.
So they'll bring in specific experiences
from their workplace or they will
find content examples of real companies
doing what we're talking about in class.
And that makes for a much richer experience.
That's mimicking what I would have done in the classroom,
so that would count as contact hours as opposed
to answer this one question and move on.
That would be a little bit more like homework.
KELLY GRACE: And sometimes I call it-- when I'm--
sometimes I think of discussion boards that are poorly
done as posted homework.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
KELLY GRACE: And that's not the intent
behind a group discussion.
We use a lot of discussion boards
to emulate that kind of conversation
we would have in play, in real class.
Sorry, did it again.
And in a live traditional course.
So thinking about ways to emulate that.
Perhaps you-- one of the things I do
is provide students the opportunity
to post a video instead of writing comments.
And some students prefer that modality
and it looks like live, but you want
to make sure you get in there as the instructor
and provide some comments and some moderation
and pull that conversation into the classroom.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
KELLY GRACE: And/or pull that conversation
into the classroom.
I have one instructor who begins his class with, AHA's.
AHA's key learnings or new content, new related content.
And we've talked about, well, let's move that
to a discussion board.
They can look at it, they can see what the others have had.
And then you can pull those AHA's, which you would normally
do in the traditional classroom, you
can go ahead and do that outside and just
bring in a couple of the key points.
So those are incredibly effective.
Those can be very effective, very helpful for the students.
Having smaller discussion board groupings
can be very effective.
In a class of 35, it may be hard for the student
to find out-- to think through OK
what can I truly add to this conversation,
so keep those groupings small, and Canvas has
great functionality for that.
Another idea is for group projects.
It's one of my favorites for group projects.
And even if I was teaching in a traditional format,
I would do this, is, OK, guys, you're
going to all present your group presentations online.
SHAWN PONDER: Love it.
KELLY GRACE: Post it.
Everybody before class, you're looking at those presentations,
you're reviewing them, you're going to make some comments,
provide some feedback.
What question didn't they answer?
What question do you want-- how does
your content relate to theirs?
So that when we come into class, the presenting group
already has an idea of how to keep conversation going.
They don't have to repeat themselves.
And I don't have to have the students sit
through presentations where they're
very likely-- as soon as they're done, they've checked out.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
KELLY GRACE: Bless their hearts.
[LAUGHTER]
MARY CONRAN: It improves the overall outcome
of the product being produced.
But you bring up this interesting issue
of permeability and fluidity of it.
It's not really one component discreetly.
It's a complement.
They should all be complementing what
we're trying to do with the overall objectives
of the course.
And something Shawn asked earlier
was this idea of having the same course in 15-week
versus a seven-week format or whatever,
and how we can dovetail that.
And I've done that several times with one of my courses.
And it's a challenge because I feel sometimes
as if I'm not giving enough attention to the smaller
class, the shorter-term class, and so
I've come up with some of these tools and I thought,
you know what?
That works really well in my full semester course, too.
And the students like it because it really compartmentalizes
what we're trying to achieve.
And again, they don't look at it as homework,
but they are willing to invest their time in it,
and I get better outcomes on assessments I do.
They feel much more connected to the content.
KELLY GRACE: Yeah.
SHAWN PONDER: I love that.
KELLY GRACE: I think this whole idea of the learning
objectives-- the course objectives--
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
KELLY GRACE: We've loss track of that
in our focus on this very narrow area of contact hours,
but ultimately that's what's driving the course.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
KELLY GRACE: And the modalities and the content
is-- we're trying to achieve those course objectives
no matter our format.
It's so important that we keep those in mind no matter
what we're doing.
We're doing--
SHAWN PONDER: And tie the work back to that.
KELLY GRACE: Right.
It has to be tied back to that.
SHAWN PONDER: Right.
MARY CONRAN: Well, it's like with Google Maps.
You say you want to get somewhere,
there's seven different ways you could get there.
Do you want to pay tolls or whatever.
So trying to imagine that.
And also, that helps us with universal design
for learning as well when trying to consider
what students might prefer as a way of demonstrating
proficiency.
And so it helps--
these conversations are all interconnected,
but it helps us reimagine what could be done for content.
And it keeps it fresh.
It keeps it fresh.
SHAWN PONDER: Mm-hmm.
All right.
So, let's just say you have a faculty member,
they are falling a little short on some of their contact hours.
We're running into that a little bit right now
and trying to give some more ideas.
I know you talked a little bit about that,
but do you have any advice for them
for those faculty members that are just
running just a little bit short of that-- of that contact
hour-- or those contact hours?
KELLY GRACE: Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
First of all, take a deep breath.
[LAUGHTER]
It's going to be OK.
I like to--
I like to include a short video each week that I
don't post until the week.
And it's just a 15, 20-minute, look,
this is what we did last week, this
is what's coming up this week.
And how-- this is how--
what I want you to get out of these components,
this is why I assigned this.
And this is where I hope we will be--
I expect us to be at the end of this coming week.
So set the stage for them to help them
with the roadmap of how are these things connected.
I think it's very easy to, week 1, week 2, week-- and not--
and lose sight of that big picture
without that-- without those connective tissues.
And like Mary, I often might find myself at the end of class
with insufficient runway to make those nice transitions.
And so that's one of the things that just very softly,
very gently can add a little bit of value.
MARY CONRAN: Right.
Yes, value, I agree with that.
SHAWN PONDER: Yeah.
MARY CONRAN: And it can also make
the class very contemporary because you can bring
in examples from the week.
KELLY GRACE: From the week.
MARY CONRAN: So my classes are usually Monday nights,
and then invariably Tuesday morning I'm
like, oh, that's what I was just talking about in class.
And so it's a great way to pull that in.
And I would trust the instructional designers
as well.
We're very fortunate here that we've
got great instructional designers, and so be open to--
there might be a different way to get something done.
One of my go to strategies is, since I teach marketing
and the interaction of marketing and supply chain,
is I'll go to how something is made.
And I'll say, OK, here's a five-minute video on how
jeans are made.
Let's talk about-- just make me an inventory list
of all the items that go into making a pair of jeans
and what that timeline might look like.
So it's not an operations management part of it,
but just trying to think about that.
And then I can say in class, OK, so somebody came up
with an item list of 14, somebody else had 74.
So where are we on this?
Just-- this is just as a conversation-starter,
but it would be an activity where they would have to stop
and really think about applying.
So I think in any discipline, there's
ways of doing that to have them think
more proactively about the content--
again, more of a higher-level learning, not rehearsal,
which is which is what homework's for.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
I agree with that.
KELLY GRACE: Sometimes I look for things
that I would do in a traditional class.
So when I would first form groups,
I would be walking around the room checking that you're
on track, on target.
Yeah, it looks like you've got the assignment.
It seems like everybody's present.
So I have added to a couple of my classes
a requirement for a video of your first group meeting.
Organizational meeting.
I don't need to know--
you don't need to do any research before this.
I want to know that you're getting started well.
So just take a picture--
just video your first meeting.
Think of me as a fly on the wall.
And submit it.
I'll review them.
It's a low-stakes assignment, but it
lets me engage with them where it
looks like you're on the right track,
did you think about this?
Hey, don't forget to give yourself
time and your project plan to video, to edit all that.
So I find that's helpful to students, and again,
something that I would have done to help
in a in a traditional class that oftentimes the online students
don't have as much access to.
MARY CONRAN: Right.
And so I recently saw a version of that model
where in addition to the video, the instructor
asked for project plan and action items,
what are the next action items before the next check-in
and who was responsible for it.
And so that made a template so the instructor could
more easily say, here's what I think you're missing or here's
some opportunities.
KELLY GRACE: Particularly for an undergraduate class.
MARY CONRAN: Yes, yes, that's very helpful.
KELLY GRACE: That would be incredibly important.
MARY CONRAN: You're right.
KELLY GRACE: Yeah.
SHAWN PONDER: And it helps students not
to wait till the last minute.
KELLY GRACE: Exactly.
MARY CONRAN: Yes.
SHAWN PONDER: And if there is like a group member that's
slacking a little bit, you'll know right away.
MARY CONRAN: Right.
SHAWN PONDER: OK.
So I'm glad you even mentioned that about the--
having the requirement of having students
to record their meeting--
their group meeting because a lot of times, professors
will think that group work is considered the contact hours,
but it's just the way that you handle that.
KELLY GRACE: Right.
SHAWN PONDER: It's-- for the most part,
it's considered homework, correct?
KELLY GRACE: Mm-hmm.
SHAWN PONDER: And that's what we try to convey to them, too.
Like, it's I'm glad you talked a little bit about that.
Make that a requirement and then provide that feedback.
KELLY GRACE: Right.
And again, I know very few instructors
who are going to devote full classes so that the group can
effectively perform.
So just think about--
I keep going back to that grounding of what would
you do in a--
how would you use your time well in a full-time--
MARY CONRAN: Yeah.
MARY CONRAN: You would--
MARY CONRAN: --traditional course.
KELLY GRACE: A few minutes of time for the group
to get together and to interact, but you wouldn't dedicate
the entire class to it.
SHAWN PONDER: Exactly.
KELLY GRACE: You find another way for that to happen.
SHAWN PONDER: Exactly.
And again, that's what we call like the little gray area
sometimes, but also, sometimes professors
want to count what they do in class as contact hours,
but that can't do that.
Like that's double-counting?
MARY CONRAN: Right.
Class time is counted as the base of contact time.
So if you're doing a seven-week course,
you're meeting two hours a week, that's
14 hours as the baseline for contact,
and we're trying to fill the bucket up to 37 and 1/2
or ideally a little bit higher because some people might
go through the contact a little bit-- the content a little bit
faster so try to buffer in there.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
And so that's separate from that 37 and 1/2.
Like the contact each week is separate.
And so that's included--
KELLY GRACE: So it's included as part of it.
It's the base.
37 and 1/2 less the 14 that you would be meeting
leaves you 23 and 1/2 left if my math is correct.
SHAWN PONDER: Oh, I'm sorry, I should have been more clear.
That's OK.
Sorry.
I meant, like-- yeah, because I don't want anybody
to listen to this to be confused at all.
No.
I just was restating what I was saying, like how
sometimes like what you do in class,
that's just the class time.
KELLY GRACE: That's class time.
SHAWN PONDER: Right.
KELLY GRACE: Yeah.
That's class time.
SHAWN PONDER: Thank you.
KELLY GRACE: Got it, got it.
MARY CONRAN: Yeah.
SHAWN PONDER: Also, with in-class quizzes versus quizzes
outside of class, which counts for contact hours
and which does not?
Like can you speak a little bit about quizzes?
MARY CONRAN: We need King Solomon for this.
[LAUGHTER]
KELLY GRACE: I don't think it's all that hard.
MARY CONRAN: Yeah.
KELLY GRACE: Because I go back to my grounding--
MARY CONRAN: Yeah, it's debatable.
It's debatable.
KELLY GRACE: What would you have done in--
if you had your traditional 15-week term,
what would you have done in class?
You're going to give your major tests in class
because that's how we have traditionally done it.
So if you've got a test--
I think where we get the gray area is reading quizzes.
MARY CONRAN: Mm-hmm.
SHAWN PONDER: Right.
KELLY GRACE: And I've had some instructors
say, no, in a real-- in a in a regular term,
in a traditional term, I would have done it in class.
SHAWN PONDER: Right, right.
MARY CONRAN: They would not have given multiple attempts.
KELLY GRACE: They would not have given multiple attempts.
SHAWN PONDER: Right, right.
You're right.
MARY CONRAN: And so I think there
is some there is some individual discretion in how they would
have handled it, and that's allowed
Mine are all homework because they're based on the reading
and this is just a double-check that you read.
But if I'm giving a test, then the test time
would count as contact time.
KELLY GRACE: Yes, yeah.
Again, setting up the parameters and whatever delivery
mode it's being done, that would determine whether or not
it's contact hours.
SHAWN PONDER: Absolutely.
Now is there anything else that you've come across,
like maybe conversations with professors,
or just anything else you want to speak about
as it relates to contact hours?
MARY CONRAN: I feel like doing a quote
from Pirates of the Caribbean.
SHAWN PONDER: I love it.
Right.
MARY CONRAN: The university has the standard,
but these are the guidelines.
So there's a little-- there's a little ambiguity there.
If someone doesn't exactly hit 37 in practice, not by design--
by design, it should hit that standard
and actually, as I said, a little bit above that.
But in practice, if it's a little bit below,
they're merely guidelines.
They're are things that we should be aspiring to be like.
And that's why it's so important that as we're doing this review
of contact hours, we see that they're--
how much of the bucket still needs
to be filled because if it's a large gap,
then something structurally needs
to be done to that course design.
If it's marginal, there are things
very easy to put in there.
SHAWN PONDER: Love it.
MARY CONRAN: Yeah.
KELLY GRACE: I think the other--
the only other thing that I would say
is start early and work with your instructional design folks
if you have that resource.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
KELLY GRACE: Because there's all kinds of ways to do this.
In a way that is helpful for the students
and gives them what we have ethically what ethically
requires us to give them, a course that meets its course
objectives as well as provides that 37 and 1/2
hours of contact time.
SHAWN PONDER: Absolutely.
KELLY GRACE: It's kind of like an architectural structure
that's designed to provide that.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
MARY CONRAN: Mm-hmm.
SHAWN PONDER: Well, I think we have covered
a large part of contact hours.
I think that if there is a faculty member that
needs that advice, you'll provide it
great advice for them, so thank you so much.
And also, thank you so much for your time today
and explaining what contact hours are,
the difference between homework and contact hours.
Talked a little bit about group work,
and also, the importance of tying your work
back to your course objectives.
And keeping things fresh.
MARY CONRAN: Yes.
Absolutely.
SHAWN PONDER: So I love all the advice that--
It
MARY CONRAN: Should be learner-centered.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes, it should be learner-centered.
Yes.
And also, take a breath.
[LAUGHTER]
I love that.
Like, just breathe.
MARY CONRAN: --give advice.
SHAWN PONDER: Yes.
MARY CONRAN: Sometimes you just need a breath.
SHAWN PONDER: You just need a breath.
So thank you again for your time.
MARY CONRAN: Thank you.
KELLY GRACE: Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
