What is a credit?
Saturn uses a formula to calculate how many average hours of student effort that a lesson or course requires. Of course this differs with different students but the calculation is a good average.
The easiest way to understand the convoluted world of educational credit is to explore some definitions.
- One effort hour: 60 minutes or student effort.
- One contact hour: 60 minutes of contact with an instructor.
- One college credit: 15 contact hours in a classroom with an instructor and 30 hours of homework or individual study, totalling 45 effort hours.
- Continuing education unit (CEU): Either 1 effort hour (more common) or 10 effort hours (less common).
- Professional and continuing education (PCE): specific professional education. One PCE sometimes means one CEU.
- Accreditation agency: an organization that evaluates education for its effectiveness including the student time spent on lessons.
We at Saturn can justify our curricula’s calculated effort hours to any accreditation agency.