CREDIT HOURS
A credit hour at Design Institute of San Diego is the amount of work that reasonably approximates three to four hours of work per week for 15 weeks, including (a) direct faculty instruction or classroom time (b) homework (reading, research, studying, writing) (c) preparing for final projects and presentations (d) instructor supervised studio time (e) Externship field hours. For the purpose of these calculations 50‐ minutes of classroom instruction counts as one hour and the 15 weeks includes the exam period. All Design Institute courses are 3 credit units. The time spent in the classroom depends on allocation of credit as lecture or lecture/studio. Consult the course description for allocation of credit. The credit unit/clock hour ratios for these courses are as follows:
LECTURE1 unit of lecture credit = 1 hour of classroom lecture + 2 hours of outside preparation (reading, research, homework) per week x 15 weeks = 45 clock hours
Example: Three unit lecture courses require 3 hours in class and 6 additional hours of homework each week = 9 hours
LECTURE/STUDIO COMBINATION1 unit of lecture credit = 1 hour of classroom lecture, recitation or critique + 2 hours of outside preparation (reading, research, homework) per week x 15 weeks = 45 clock hours
1 unit of studio credit = 2 hours of supervised classroom studio + 1 hour of outside preparation (completion of studio assignments) per week x 15 weeks = 45 clock hours
Example: Three unit lecture/studio courses (2 units lecture, 1 unit studio) require 4 hours in class and 5 additional hours of homework each week = 9 hours
EXTERNSHIP1 unit of externship credit = 2.4 hours of work in the field per week x 15 weeks = 36 clock hours + 1 hour of classroom lecture + 2 hours of outside preparation (reading, research, homework) per week x 3 weeks = 27 clock hours
Example: Three unit Externship Course requires 108 hours externship in the field, 9 hours in class and 18 additional hours of homework for a combined total of 135 clock hours.
