Determining the number of credits for your course involves many factors. Consider your objectives, realistic time needed to present material, student learning curves, assignments depths, etc. One credit normally connotes 10 hours of lecture-recitation or 20 or more hours of laboratory, studio, or activity work. The majority of courses at PSU involve three or four hours per week of lecture-recitation. These hours do not represent student completion of course criteria, study time, etc.
Approximation is difficult, especially when creating new formats for courses.
Project or activity-based courses or those online would be very difficult to approximate. Use these hours as guidelines, rather than a rigid formula. Course Objectives and Link to Dept. Please refer again to Learning Goals and Objectives. A brief description of how the class will be conducted and an outline of the major topics to be covered in the course.