What you need to know
Credit units for MIT subjects are defined by three numbers: hours per week of lecture or recitation, hours per week of lab or field work, and hours per week of outside preparation. Alignment between pedagogy and credit units informs students of the expectations associated with each class, improves the consistency of the catalog, and more effectively supports scheduling processes.
Some key points to remember:
- Faculty policy defines a single unit as approximately one hour of effort per week, or 14 hours per term, for a typical full-term subject.
- A full-term subject with a unit distribution of 3-2-7 has three hours per week of lecture/recitation and two hours per week of lab (for a total of five instructional units), along with seven hours per week of outside preparation.
What you need to do
- When scheduling your subjects, focus on instructional units. If a subject is offered for a full term, the instructional units equals the number of hours per week. Partial-term subjects should be scheduled on a comparable basis.
- Use this chart to help you determine the number of scheduled hours for full-term, partial-term, and IAP subjects.
- If you find that the distribution of units does not accurately reflect how a subject is being taught, please consult with the instructor and make the necessary corrections to the subject.