University Modes of Instruction

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Last revised on 08/07/2024 by DTM.

Overview

The Registrar hosts the official definitions and guidance on Course Modalities. CETL provides additional explanations, teaching considerations, and visual guides on their Teaching and Course Modalities page. Faculty should be aware of the official course modalities and the implications for online teaching and learning.

Credit Hour Policy

When discussing modes of delivery, it is helpful to understand UConn’s Credit Hour Policy. For each credit earned, students are required to complete 42 hours of work over the course of the term.

For in-person (P/PR) and online synchronous (OS) classes during a 14-week semester, each credit equates to 3 hours of work per week apportioned as:

  • 1 hour of classroom/synchronous instruction and
  • 2 hours of out-of-class/asynchronous work.

Faculty teaching mixed mode (HB/HL) and online courses (OA/OB) that do not meet in-person/synchronously for the minimum time should plan to replace the time with out-of-class/asynchronous activities that include student-to-student, student-to-instructor, and student-to-content interaction. Refer to the following chart for the total hours of work required per credit and how this work is distributed (per week) across various session lengths.

Credits Earned Total Hours of Work 14-week Semester 6-week Summer Session 5-week Summer Session 3-week May Term or Winter Intersession
1 credit 42 hours per term 3 hours per week 7 hours per week 8.5 hours per week 14 hours per week
2 credits 84 hours per term 6 hours per week 14 hours per week 17 hours per week 28 hours per week
3 credits 126 hours per term 9 hours per week 21 hours per week 25 hours per week 42 hours per week
4 credits 168 hours per term 12 hours per week 28 hours per week 34 hours per week 56 hours per week
5 credits 210 hours per term 15 hours per week 35 hours per week 42 hours per week inadvisable
6 credits 252 hours per term 18 hours per week 42 hours per week 50 hours per week inadvisable

Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI)

Faculty teaching in online courses should also be aware of requirements for Regular and Substantive Interaction.

Additional Resources

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