Student Pace in a Course and Course Type Information
(Academy)
When ordering a course for a student, you must select the appropriate start and end dates. These target dues dates for assignments in a course will automatically be setup based on these start and end dates giving the students a pace at which they should be completing work to finish the class on time. To determine the best pacing for a student, you will need to consider the following three course pace schedules:
Traditional Course Pace
A Traditional course pace is defined by the type of course:
- Regular/Core Course: 18 weeks for each semester with up to two weeks off. Students can complete this type of course at this pace in usually 5-6 hours of work each week. Students will usually need 80 – 96 hours per semester.
- Honors/Core Course: 18 weeks for each semester with up to two weeks off. Students can complete this type of course at this pace in usually 6-7 hours of work each week. Students will usually need 96 – 112 hours per semester.
- Elective Course: 18 weeks for each semester with up to two weeks off. Students can complete this type of course at this pace in usually 4-6 hours of work each week. Students will usually need 64 – 80 hours per semester.
- Advanced Placement or AP Courses: 18 weeks for each semester with up to two weeks off. A wider range of variance can occur for AP courses and is dependent on course subject and student ability. A good rule of thumb is to plan for 8-10 hours of work each week. Students will usually need 128 – 160 hours per semester.
- Dual Credit Courses: No standard exist for dual credit courses as each university or college maintains their own requirements.
- Credit Recovery Courses: 10 weeks long. Students will be tested to determine which portions of the course they must complete and as a result, requirements for Credit Recovery courses vary based on each individual students. A good rule of thumb is to plan for 6-8 hours of work each week. Students will usually need 60 – 80 hours per semester.
- Placement Test: 2 weeks long. Students will complete a test or a series of test to determine their best placement for math and foreign language courses. Students can complete this type of course in 1 - 3 hours of work. Students have the option to review the course material prior to taking the exam by accessing the course demo login.
Accelerated Course Pace
Accelerated course pace is defined as any pace that is less than the traditional pace for a course and should be factored based on the information found in the traditional pace. For example, if you want a student to complete a Regular/Course in 10 weeks, without any breaks, instead of 18, you will simply divide 80 – 96 hours by 10. Students in this example will need 8 to 9.6 hours of work each week. The minimum time that a student can complete a semester is 6 weeks, as long as at least 1 assignment is submitted in each of those 6 weeks.
Extended Course Pace
Extended course pace is defined as any that is greater than the traditional pace for a course and should be factored based on the information found in the traditional pace. For example, if you want a student to complete a Regular/Course in 22 weeks, with two weeks of break, instead of 18, you will simply divide 80 – 96 hours by 20. Students in this example will need 4 to 4.8 hours of work each week. The maximum time period for each semester is 6 months.
Some things to consider when determining the best student pace:
– How well does the student already know the subject matter?
– How would you define the student’s academic performance?
– What other activities and obligations is the student already committed to?
– Students may not be enrolled in a semester-length course for more than 6 months.
– Students may not be enrolled in a semester-length course for less than 6 weeks.
– Students must turn in at least one assignment in at least six different weeks of a semester-length course.
Most courses will have a module checklist in the first lesson of each module that provides guidelines for the amount of time that should be spent on each assignment. Here is an example of what that looks like in a course:
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