Computer Science 171 is a big deal. In fact, it’s seven hours of class time a week. Which is impressive given that only two and a half are lectures.
In addition to the lecture there are an additional two and half hours of lab and a two-hour workshop, weekly ? compare this to most social science or humanities classes which meet only during their allotted two and a half hour lecture. This should be reflected somewhere on my transcript.
If we use my biology class as an example, I have two and a half hours of lecture per week, and an additional three and a half hour lab course, which is an extra credit hour. My German course is two and half hours of lecture a week, and is the standard four credits.
There is no reason that I should spend nearly twice as much time in a class out of lecture than in lecture, and get the same credit as a course where I only have two and a half hours of lecture a week.
In order to compare the work of these classes best we need to put homework aside. Any one person can say that they have more homework than someone from another class.
But the time it takes to do the same homework from any class can vary from person to person. While it may take me three hours to write a seven page well researched paper, it could take someone else a mere hour.
I do not disagree that an English major may have to write more than a computer science major, but a computer science major would have to create computer programs, which can be very time consuming.
So, therefore, class time is a more accurate judge of how worthy a class is of extra credit hours.
As I said before, CSC 171, once lab time and the weekly workshop is included is seven hours of class.
The same is true for CSC 172. It seems unfair that many science classes have more than three times as much class time as a humanities class, and get the same credit.
Many other colleges base credit hours of a class on the number of hours a class meets a week, hence the name.
But this seems to not be a bearing for deciding credit hours for the classes at UR. Perhaps it would be a good idea to implement this. It is understandable to also take into consideration the rigor of the course, though.
Quest courses, which are very popular here are sometimes given an extra credit, despite not always being significantly more of a class time commitment, they are usually a harder class, hence the extra credit.
All current courses should be re-evaluated for the amount of credit hours they yield. Both total class time and difficulty of the course. This should be considered for a fairer credit system for all those in the College.
