Loyola Law School Credit Hour Standards

Loyola Law School determines minimum student work requirements for the receipt of academic credit hours in compliance with Standard 310 of the ABA Standards for the Program of Legal Education, which requires that “a law school shall adopt, publish, and adhere to written policies and procedures for determining the credit hours that it awards for coursework.”

Part (b) of Standard 310 specifies that a “credit hour” is an amount of work that reasonably approximates:

(1)     not less than one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and two hours of out-of-class student work per week for fifteen weeks, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or

(2)     at least an equivalent amount of work as required in subparagraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution, including simulation, field placement, clinical, co-curricular, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours.

The ABA’s Interpretation 310-1 explicating Standard 310(b) indicates that a “classroom hour” requires 50 minutes of instruction whereas an hour of “out-of-class student work” requires 60 minutes of effort. The standard assumes a 15-week semester. A law school class must therefore meet or otherwise provide “direct faculty instruction” for 12.5 hours (50 minutes per week x 15 weeks) and require 30 hours of additional student work (120 minutes per week x 15 weeks) for a total minimum of 42.5 hours of student time for each credit awarded. Other academic activities for which a school awards credit, such as clinics, field placements, law review service, moot court participation, etc., must also require at least that same minimum time commitment for each credit hour granted.

Interpretation 310-1 allows for counting the time spent taking a required final exam as in-class time and counting exam study time as out-of-class hours if an exam “of appropriate length” is actually required for a specific class. Interpretation 310-2 permits the award of “credit hours for coursework that extends over any period of time as long as the coursework entails no less than the minimum total amounts of classroom or direct faculty instruction and of out-of-class student work (42.5 hours combined) specified in Standard 310(b).”

For exam, experiential, seminar, and writing courses featuring “live” class meetings in which the instructor and students are interacting in real time – whether in person, remotely via Zoom, or a combination of the two – Loyola satisfies the ABA direct instruction time requirement of 12.5 hours per credit by scheduling a 60-minute hour of class meeting time per credit hour awarded each week for 13 weeks (13 hours) during the spring and fall semesters. Two 60-minute hours of class meeting time are scheduled for each credit hour for seven weeks over the summer term, and a limited number of one-credit classes are also offered in a one-week January intersession term in which they meet for at least 12.5 hours.

In the interest of uniformity in class scheduling, Loyola does not account for final exam duration in scheduling class meeting times. Instructors may consider the time students will reasonably be required to spend preparing for their final exam in calculating out-of-class work requirements. It is the instructor’s responsibility to ensure that students are provided the required number of direct instruction hours for the number of credits awarded for each course that they teach.

Faculty are also responsible for insuring that each course they teach requires an amount of out-of-class student work that reasonably approximates 30 hours of work for each credit awarded. This out-of-class work should facilitate developing or reinforcing knowledge and/or skills related to the course learning objectives. It can consist of, but is not limited to: reading assignments; listening to or viewing recorded materials; briefing cases; completing problem sets, practice questions, or exams; simulations or role playing exercises without direct instructor oversight; mandatory student group meetings without instructor participation; research or writing assignments; required online forum or blog postings; preparing a presentation; outlining or studying for examinations; optional meetings with instructors such as attendance at office hours or review sessions; etc.

Out-of-class student work completed during the reading and exam periods which follow each term of instruction counts toward the 30 hour per credit requirement.

Asynchronous instruction refers to the delivery of educational content that students may access remotely at a time and place of their choosing. Asynchronous content may be used to provide direct faculty instruction; for example, as a substitute for regularly scheduled class content which an instructor is unable to deliver at the normally scheduled time, or as part of a “hybrid” offering combining live class meetings with asynchronous content to meet the required overall required direct faculty instruction hours.  Alternatively, a “distance education” course may be entirely asynchronous by design to facilitate accessibility to a wider range of students than could participate in a class requiring regular participation at a fixed meeting time.

All law school classes – whether live, hybrid, or completely asynchronous – must meet ABA Standard 310’s requirements of 12.5 hours of direct faculty instruction per credit granted as well as the 30-hour out-of-class mandate. It is therefore necessary that any asynchronous content be categorizable as either direct faculty instruction or out-of-class work to ascertain course compliance.

A defining characteristic of “direct faculty instruction” is the involvement of LMU Loyola Law School instructors in adding value to the asynchronous content in support of achieving class learning objectives. Examples of asynchronous content qualifying as direct faculty instruction would include, but not be limited to: a recorded lecture or other video produced by Loyola faculty members; formative assessments such as exams or quizzes; student presentations that are submitted to the class instructor for review and provision of critical feedback; participation in discussion groups or fora that the instructor reviews and provides feedback on; completing blogs, journals, etc. that receive instructor comments; mandatory student meetings (individual or group) with the instructor.

Watching or listening to video or audio recordings made by persons other than Loyola faculty does not qualify as direct faculty instruction unless that experience is supplemented with some form of contact involving an exchange of ideas about the recorded content in which the faculty member enhances overall student learning.

The criteria for “out-of-class” student work set forth in Section III above are equally applicable to live and asynchronous offerings.

Loyola has also adopted 42.5 hours of student time investment as the minimum standard for each unit of credit awarded for other academic work such as directed and law review research, as well as co-curricular activities receiving credit such as service as a law review staff member or editor, and moot court participation.

The faculty has elected to establish a higher minimum time standard of 52 hours for each credit awarded for work in clinics and field placements participation.

The required hours for “other activities” may completed at any time during the academic term including the reading and exam periods.

A student completing an Upper Division Writing Requirement compliant paper (or papers) in a directed research or law review writing project is presumptively considered to have met the requisite 85 hours of effort required for the award of two credits. It is the responsibility of each student enrolled in any other credit-granting activity which does not require regular class work to keep a log of the actual time spent on matters associated with their participation and submit it to the supervising faculty member no later than the last day of final exams for that term. The faculty member must confirm that the student has completed the requisite number of hours for the type of activity and number of credits the student has registered for to award a passing grade.

1.  All instructors seeking to offer a course for the first time shall submit new course proposals to the Associate Dean for Faculty. In so doing, the course instructor certifies that the classroom/direct instruction and out-of-class student work assigned reasonably approximates the requirements of Standard 310(b).
2.  All instructors shall make available their syllabi for all courses taught each term to the Associate Dean for Faculty or a designee. In so doing, the course instructor certifies that the classroom/direct instruction and out-of-class student work assigned reasonably approximates the requirements of Standard 310(b).
3.  The Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs or a designee shall keep all course syllabi on file in the event of an audit or other review related to compliance with Standard 310(b). 

Appendix: Loyola Law School Credit Hour Requirements by Activity Type

* Out-of-class hours may be completed at any time during the academic term including the reading and exam periods. Direct faculty instruction hours should be met by the last scheduled class meeting.