1. DEFINITION OF A COURSE
A course is defined as a unit of study that occupies one-fourth of a student’s time each semester, or approximately twelve hours per week. Each Wooster semester course is equivalent to 4.0 semester hours (5.0, in the case of science courses with labs).
2. TEACHING LOAD
Full-time faculty members are expected to carry a teaching load of from 5.5 to 6 courses per year (typically tenured and tenure-track faculty teach 5.5 courses per year and visiting faculty teaching 6 courses per year). Given staffing and curricular needs, loads may need to fluctuate from year to year. Faculty are therefore permitted to bank excess teaching loads and, if possible, reduce the teaching load in a subsequent year. Use of banked credits is dependent on the curricular needs of the department or program, and faculty may cash in no more than one credit per year. Please note that departments or programs will not normally be granted an adjunct faculty position to replace the courses lost. Banked credits do not expire.
3. COURSE CREDITING
Credited duties (such as FYS and Writing Intensive courses) and uncredited duties (such as academic advising loads) will be spread as equitably as possible among department and program members, and across the Faculty as whole. Below is a list of faculty crediting conventions for the most common teaching duties (note: in some cases, this differs from student crediting):
| Teaching Responsibility | Student Credit | Faculty Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 course1 (including writing-intensive courses & FYS) | 1 | 1 |
| Half-semester course (7-week course) | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Half-semester activity course (meets once per week) | 0.25 | 0.25 |
| 1 lab2 | 0.25 | 0.5 |
| Independent Study advisor (451 & 452)3 | 1 | 0.1 (for each semester) |
| 1 tutorial | 1 | 0.1 |
| 1 Internships or Social Entrepreneurship supervision4 | 1 | 0.1 (or stipend, not both) |
| = 0.5 credits for student | 0.5 | 0.05 (or stipend, not both) |
| = 0.25 credits for student | 0.25 | 0.025 (or stipend, not both) |
| Teaching Apprenticeship(s)5 | 1 | 0 |
1 If a course enrolls fewer than 5 students, it becomes counted as a tutorial: 0.1 per student. Fractionally, for a 0.5-credit course under 5 students are counted as 0.05 per student, and for a 0.25-credit course, 0.025 per student.
2 Labs in the sciences (Physics, Computer Science, Geology, Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, BCMB): students get 0.25 credit and Faculty get 0.5 credit with a minimum enrollment of 5 students.
3 Double & special majors: both advisers get full credit for leading Senior Independent Study (451 & 452).
4 Internships are routed through APEX (and sometimes through Departments) with the following expectations (chart below from Sarah Sobeck, Director of Experiential Learning, 2/22/2021):
| Academic Expectation | 0.25 Credit | 0.5 Credit | 1.0 Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internship Learning Plan (includes determining goals, plans, readings, and assignments) | required | required | required |
| Demonstration of Investigation of Field – (e.g., bibliography of readings, book & article reviews, informational interviews, conference attendance, etc.) | 5 hours minimum | 10 hours minimum | 20 hours minimum |
| Guided Reflection & Reporting – includes feedback cycle between faculty mentor and student (e.g., journals, reflections, activity logs, etc.) | occasional | regular | frequent |
| Final Paper (or equivalent) | 3-5 pages | 4-6 pages | 8-10 pages |
5 No teaching credit for supervision of IDPT 398: Teaching Apprenticeship. TAs are designed to support faculty while also offering a learning experience.