Guidelines for Scheduling Lecture and Discussion
Classes
Fall and Spring Semester
Classes
To facilitate timely
matriculation of students it is important that class scheduling be
coordinated. Having a scheduled gap
between classes allows students time to move from one class to another.
Lecture/discussion classes
with more than 90 contact minutes per meeting should be lengthened in their
scheduling to include one or more breaks of ten or fifteen
minutes.
Three semester-hour credit
lecture/discussion classes meeting on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday sequence
should start on the hour and be scheduled for fifty minutes. Three semester-hour credit classes
meeting on a Tuesday and Thursday sequence should start at 8:00, 9:30, 11:00,
12:30 or 14:00 and be scheduled for seventy-five minutes. Three semester-hour credit classes
meeting on Monday and Wednesday afternoons may start on the hour or half hour
and should be scheduled for seventy-five minutes. Lecture/discussion classes that are not
three semester-hour credit and meet for fifty minutes on Tuesday or Thursday
should start at 8:00, 10:00, 11:00, 13:00 or 14:00 so as not to overlap more
than one of the three semester-hour time-slots.
In order to allow greater
flexibility in scheduling late afternoon and evening classes and since the
availability of classrooms is less of a problem at those times, classes that
have starting times of 2:30 p.m. or later are not subject to the guideline
restrictions for scheduling class meeting times.
Suggested times for three
semester-hour courses:
MWF 8:00 – 8:50
TTh 8:00 – 9:15
MWF 9:00 – 9:50
TTh 9:30 – 10:45
MWF 10:00 – 10:50
TTh 11:00 – 12:15
MWF 11:00 – 11:50
TTh 12:30 – 13:45
MWF
12:00 – 12:50 TTh 14:00 –
15:15
MWF 13:00 – 13:50
MWF 14:00 – 14:50 MW
14:00 – 15:15
Summer
Session Classes
On October 15, 1979, the
Graduate Council passed the policy that “no graduate or senior-graduate courses
be offered granting more than one semester hour of credit per week of classes
without the specific approval of the Credit Committee of the Graduate Council
before this course is scheduled."
On December 5, 1995, The Faculty Senate passed a resolution (95-44) that
stated "At least one calendar week of reflection and analysis should be provided
to students for each semester hour of undergraduate credit
awarded."
In order to have the contact
minutes during the summer sessions be consistent with 750 contact minutes per
credit hour during a regular semester, the following table indicates how long
class meetings should last according to their contact hours (50 minute periods)
during the regular semester and the number of class meetings each week during
the summer:
Fall/Spring
Summer session days per week and total classes
contact hrs Semester 5-days
4-days
3-days
2-days
per week
minutes
25 classes
20 classes
15 classes 10
classes
2
1500
60
75
100
150
3
2250
90
112.5
150
225
4
3000
120
150
200
300
5
3750
150
187.5
250
375
Class meetings of more than
90 minutes should include one or more breaks included in their scheduled times
(as night classes during the regular semester that meet 6:30 to 9:30 have 30
minutes of breaks included in their scheduled time). The three times in the 4-day summer
schedule that are not exact should be rounded to 35, 110, and 185 minutes. Classes that meet once a week during the
regular semester (e.g., labs) could match their 15 regular semester meetings
(including final exams) by meeting three times a week during the summer session
for the same class length as during a regular semester.
Since most courses carry
three semester hours credit, they should meet for either 90 minutes five days
per week (morning) or 110 minutes (plus break) four days per week (afternoon or
evening). Consideration
should be given to offering several night classes meeting four days each week
for students who are employed. The
following guidelines indicate starting and ending times for three credit hour
classes; other classes should either start at a three credit hour class starting
time or end at a three credit hour ending time.
MTWThF 8:00
AM - 9:30 AM
MTWThF 9:45
AM - 11:15 AM
MTWThF 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM