As students register for classes, many seem to feel there is an inadequate relationship between the number of credits they take and the amount of work they are required to do. Though the average Hopkins course is worth three credits, the credit value awarded to some courses seems disproportionate to the work associated with the course.
“We are flexible in doing this [giving credit values to classes], but there is a standard,” Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education Steven David said. “Typical classes are three credits, and that is determined by the fact that they meet three hours per week and that there is a substantial workload outside of class.”
The method used for determining course credit values, however, seems deceptively simple, and there are several nuances to the system. When figuring out credit values, there is some leeway, but not much, David said.
Some courses, however, such as Introductory Chemistry Lab, which are only worth one credit, seem to beg for a higher credit value due to the amount of time and work associated with them.
When determining values, there are deviations from the standard of three credits, particularly with language courses and science and mathematics courses.
“A case can be made for deviations from this standard, such as more meetings or a significantly greater workload,” David said. “A Curriculum Committee considers these requests. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it is no.
“Language classes typically have more contact hours and more formal hours in the classroom. They, therefore, are typically worth more than three credits.”
The deviations, sometimes, are questionable in terms of demonstrated workload. As such, David said it suggests the need for further scrutiny.
“It’s probably useful for us to look at courses more closely that deviate from the three credit standard,” David said. “It is something that I plan on doing, looking at these deviations.”
The process by which a course is granted a greater credit value by demonstration of a greater than average workload is a difficult situation, as it can have the potential to open up an unnecessary can of worms, according to David.
“It’s a case-by-case basis,” he said. “We don’t want to fall into the weeds of whether a course had more work than another. If one class has so much extra work, maybe we can justify making it worth more than three credits. My instinct is that the burden has to be on those who wish to deviate from that three credit standard.”
Whiting School of Engineering Vice Dean for Education Ed Scheinerman said that in Whiting, though the process is fairly straightforward, there are exceptions to the rule. The way in which Whiting determines credit values is the same method used in the Krieger School.
“For the most part, it’s the number of hours per week the course meets, where of course, an hour is 50 minutes,” he said. “That covers pretty much all courses. There are some courses for which that doesn’t make sense. For example, the BME Design Team doesn’t meet in classrooms, so some other metric has to be created.”
Scheinerman also noted that in terms of perceived workload, it is very hard to have an effective gauge, as it varies from student to student.
“The credit hour is supposed to be a measure of roughly how much effort or time goes into a course,” Scheinerman said. “This is highly variable depending on students. If I were taking a Writing Seminars course, it would be an enormous amount of work for me. For some, a three credit math course might be a whole lot more work than a three credit Writing Seminars course. Saying how much work a course is—there is no such thing, it depends so much on the student. But, it’s supposed to be an approximation. The best approximation we have is the number of credits we attach to classes.”
Yet despite such efforts, there have been some complaints among students regarding the credit system.
“I think the credit system has serious flaws,” sophomore John Doldo said. “While I recognise that the number of credits for a given class generally correlates to the number of hours per week for that class, one could not say the same about classes’ workloads. To illustrate, I have been enrolled in two independent studies. [They] have entailed at least equal work to that of the related three-credit classes, and yet they are worth a mere two [credits]. Furthermore, a number of challenging classes with much reading and writing are equivalent in credit value to light-workload classes.”
Perhaps the course at the center of the credit debate is Introductory Chem Lab. Voices have been raised that say Chem Lab does not appropriately reflect the amount of outside work that accompanies the course.
David said that the assignment of one credit for Chem Lab is an interesting situation to consider, and it is something the administration is examining.
“Clearly, someone spends a lot of time in lab,” David said. “A three-hour lab, while useful, is not equivalent to a three credit course. But it is a question we are wrestling with. We’re looking at them closely.”
One must also consider the fact that at some universities, where all courses are given the same credit value, there is no credit given for labs. A system like that, however, is not an attractive option for Hopkins, according to David.
“Every school has different modes of course. At Duke and Princeton, a class is a class; everything is ‘one credit.’ But, this makes it difficult [to do something] like Intersession classes [like we have at Hopkins].”
Like David, Introductory Chemistry Lab course coordinator Louise Pasternack recognized that the one-credit value of the lab is not necessarily reflective of the work put forth by students.
“The course is probably more work than one credit, but not as much as students think,” she said. “I don’t think they take into account that we only have seven experiments and seven assignments. There are weeks where there’s nothing to do.
“Also, our labs tend to be two hours. They aren’t super long. So that I don’t think it’s as heavy a course load as the students complain about, but I do think it’s heavy for a one credit course, especially the fact that I give a lecture with the lab might argue for it being two credits, but I think that also saves the students time because it makes it easier for them.”
Freshman Jackie Heath felt that chem lab is very time consuming and that the work is not necessarily proportionate to the credit value.
“I think it’s one of my more time consuming classes and at the same time because the amount of time you put in is not necessarily proportionate to your grade, it’s just that extra time committed because you’re just trying to make sure you have all the information covered,” Heath said. “It’s a harder class. It’s worth more than one credit definitely. I have three credit courses that I put much less effort into.”
And even compared to other lab courses, Chem lab seems to be disproportionately rewarded with credits.
“I feel like we have less work in Orgo Lab, and the only reason I think Orgo lab is more credits is because you stay two to three hours longer than Chem lab,” sophomore John Doldo said. “Chem lab requires a lot of work, even though it’s only one credit. The workload for Orgo Lab is a lot more reasonable.”
Pasternack has rallied for Chem lab being worth more than one credit. Her efforts, however, have not been met with success thus far.
“I have said lots of things about it,” Pasternack said. “Over and over again. I have discussed it with my department chairman who would be all in favor of it. I have discussed it with Dean Bader, who would also be in favor of it to some extent. The last time we had a department evaluation, I discussed it there as well.
“I went through a phase of pushing for it really hard. At that point was told one of the main concerns what that freshmen are only allowed to take so many credits, and this would push them over. And so, they did not want to consider it at that time.”
In order to alleviate some of the stress off students regarding the one credit lab, Pasternack said she has restructured the course, while still trying to adequately prepare them for upper level laboratory courses.
“When I took over the [Chem Lab] 10 years ago, there were full lab reports on every experiment,” she said. “Now we have worksheets on most of them. We just have one full lab report in the fall and two in the spring. I’ve gone from just giving instructions on how to do things in sort of a given format to worksheets where they have to fill out parts of it. That’s a huge reduction in work for the students.
“I’ve started doing the lectures last year and this year as an attempt to help the students learn how to focus in on what I’m looking for. I don’t know what other restructuring I can do that would still prepare the students for more advanced lab courses.”
Heath said that because she is a freshman and has no prior experience with the course, she cannot comment on whether it is more or less difficult than in past years. What she could comment on was the difficulty of the course at present.
“What’s difficult is that there’s not necessarily a source to find answers in,” Heath said. “There’s not a clear source because she [Pasternack] looks for a complete understanding. Since we‘re learning the material in chem lab some time before we learn it in the chemistry lecture class; if you don’t have the understanding necessary, it’s hard to get full points.”
In relation to the way in which credits are determined, there has also been talk of the government codifying the way in which courses are given credit values. Though not much is known on the subject, Scheinerman said he sees two possible sides to the regulation of credits.
“I’m aware that this effort is in place, and I’ve been following some of it in the press, but I don’t know how far along this process has come,” Scheinerman said. “I have two opinions on this. One is, we really have a good sense of what our students are doing, so please just let us do what we need to do.
“The other is that we have students transferring credits between institutions and it would be nice to have some sort of reasonable exchange mechanism. Even there, I think this is a tough issue. Some schools don’t assign credits to courses. Every course is one — a course. But then you have disparities such as a basic course, that meets three hours a week, versus a chemistry course that meets three days a week, plus a section, plus three hours of lab. Those are considered to be the same at some other schools. They are not the same here.”
Dean of Enrollment and Academic Services Bill Conley said that not much is known about what the legislation will entail, as no one has yet had a chance to review the information. The regulations are a part of an upcoming National Association of College and University Attorneys webinar.
“We are aware of the proposed DOE (Department of Education) regulations (which go into effect next year, I believe) and fully intend to review them with regard to our institutional policies/practices,” Conley wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Again, we are not in a position to offer information more than what our current practice is regarding credit assignment and that is the purview of the academic leadership not the Registrar, General Counsel or Enrollment and Academic Services.”
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