Credit Hour Assignment

PURPOSE / SCOPE:
Provide guidelines to ensure the appropriateness of credit assignments. The Office of Academic Affairs is charged with ensuring appropriateness of credit assignments within the ICOM curriculum. Corresponding credits will be assigned to all courses in the curriculum, including clinical rotations, based on contact hours as described below. Credit assignments will be continually evaluated and assigned based on the Carnegie unit credit hour as provided by the U.S. Department of Education consistent with the glossary of the AOA Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) Accreditation of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine: COM Standards and Procedures.

DEFINITIONS:

AOA - American Osteopathic Association
COCA - Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation
COM - College of Osteopathic Medicine
OMM - Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine

POLICY:

ICOM‘s integrated approach utilizes biomedical science and clinical faculty who explain concepts and prepare students in a logical sequence to become more clinically adept as they progress towards clinical rotations. The third and fourth-year clerkships provide opportunities for in-depth clinical exposure in a variety of core and elective rotations.

The amount of academic work or instructional time reported in contact hours and is used to calculate credit hours as follows:

• One contact hour of lecture or seminar (small group activity, problem-based learning, team-based learning, or alternative learning activity) encompasses 1 hour of scheduled class/seminar time plus 2 corresponding hours of student preparation time outside of scheduled class/seminar time.
• One laboratory contact hour (anatomy, OMM, clinical skills, procedural skills, etc.) encompasses 2 hours of scheduled supervised or independent laboratory work plus 2 hours of student preparation time.
• One practice contact hour (supervised clinical rotation clerkship etc.) encompasses 3-4 hours per week of supervised and/or independent practice.
• One self-directed learning contact hour is calculated similarly to one practice credit hour.

Note: Examinations do not count toward contact hours.

ICOM assigns grades to all credit-bearing courses and the credits for each course are determined based on contact hours with 0.5 increments. The minimum number of contact hours per credit is outlined in the standard contact hour table below.

The minimum number of contact hours per credit is delineated, and a course with contact hours not reaching the requirement for the next higher credit value is reported at the next lower credit value. For example, a course of 10 contact hours would be assigned a value of 0.5 credits. This credit hour calculation process is consistent with US Department of Education standards.

ICOM Implementation:

• Year 1-2 didactic curricula: approximately 16 classroom hours and two out-of-classroom hours per classroom hour (minimum 48 hours) = one credit.
• Years 1-2 laboratory curricula: approximately 32 laboratory hours and one/half out-of-laboratory hour per classroom hour (minimum 48 hours) = one credit.
• Years 3-4 core clinical and elective experiences: one week = one credit.

ICOM Calculation Table:

Please note, all credit calculations should be rounded down to and never rounded up.

Example Calculations:

Additional Authority

• Idaho State Board of Education Policy, Section III.E.2.
• U.S. Department of Education, Title 34 CFR 600.2 and 600.24 Institutional Eligibility under the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended.
• U.S. Department of Education, Title 34 CFR 668.8(k) general rules that apply to an institution that participates in any student financial assistance program authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (Title IV, HEA program).

POLICY OWNER:
Assistant/Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

CROSS REFERENCE AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:

Academic Bulletin

APPROVAL:

Effective: 8/20/19

Last Reviewed: 1/25/24

Review Requirement: 3 Years