When you start a Bible school, someone will ask a plain question. How much credit does this class carry? One hour? Two? Three?

Do not guess. A credit is a promise. It says how much work a student did, and another school should be able to trust it. Count the work. Then give the credit the work has earned. No more, and no less.

The Simple Math

Start with time in class.

A three-hour credit means the student will have been in class 48 hours. A two-hour credit is 32 hours. A one-hour class is 16 total hours.

Sixteen hours in class equals one hour of credit. Thirty-two hours equals two. Forty-eight hours equals three. A class that meets three hours a week for sixteen weeks reaches 48 hours. Two hours a week reaches 32. One hour a week reaches 16.

Use those numbers for every class, every term. When the measure is the same, no one wonders what a credit means.

Count All the Work

Class time is only part of the work. You judge what credit a class should carry based on how long the student will study and work on the class, in class and out of it.

He learns in class and at his desk. He reads, studies, writes, memorizes, and works through the homework. All of that is real work, and it counts toward the credit, if you planned it, assigned it, and checked it.

So count the whole load before you name the credit. Hours in class, plus hours of reading, homework, writing, and study. Add them honestly. A class with heavy reading and steady homework demands more than one with none. The credit should show that difference.

Count only work you assign, expect, and collect. If the homework is real and he must do it to pass, count it. If it is only suggested and no one checks it, don't count it. Credit follows work done, not work wished for.

One Example

Take a class that meets one hour each week for sixteen weeks.

The class time is sixteen hours. On class time alone, that is a one-hour class. But suppose you give him a good, solid hour of class each week, and steady work outside class: reading, homework, study for a test, a paper, or a lesson to prepare. Suppose that outside work takes about as long as the class itself, another sixteen hours across the term.

Now the total is about thirty-two hours. Sixteen in class, sixteen out. On that basis, you could give two hours' credit for the class if he completes the homework, and so on. The second hour comes from work outside the classroom, not from sitting longer in it.

Notice the condition. If he completes the homework. The credit is earned by doing the work. If he skips the homework, he hasn't done the work the second hour represents. Do not give credit for hours he did not spend. That is not unkind. It is honest, and honesty is what makes the credit mean something elsewhere.

Keep It Standard, So It Can Travel

Be careful to give only a number of hours for a class that another school would see and understand. One hour. Two hours. Three hours. Numbers a registrar knows at a glance. If another school cannot see what your credit means, it cannot accept it. And the student who wants to transfer will have to retake the class, pay again, and lose the time he already gave.

A credit that will not transfer traps a student in one school. A standard, honest credit, backed by records, can travel with him. Give him that kind.

Say it in writing. Put the credit hours in the course description, the handbook, and the catalog, along with the hours the class meets and the work expected outside class. When another school asks, show them the description, the hours, and the work. The paper will speak for you.

Keep the records too. Keep the courses, grades, and hours in the student file. A transcript with the course, the credit, and the grade, plus a catalog showing the hours behind it, is a record another school can read and trust.

Decide Before the Term Begins

Do this work before the first class meets.

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke 14:28

Count the hours first. Decide the credit first. Tell the student first. Then teach the class you promised, assign the work you counted, and keep the credit you named.

If you change the work mid-term, change the credit to match, or change the work back. Do not ask for far more work than the credit covers, or far less. Either way, the student pays for the mismatch in time, money, or a credit that will not stand up elsewhere.

Plan the class. Count the hours in class. Count the hours of reading, homework, and study you will truly require. Add them. Match the total to the standard. Name the credit. Write it down. Then hold yourself and your students to it, with patience and with grace.

A Credit Is a Trust

A credit hour is small to write down, and big to stand behind. It tells a student his work mattered. It tells another school his work was real.

Count the hours. Count the homework. Count the study. Give the work the credit it earns, in numbers another school can understand. Keep the record clean.

Then teach with all your heart, and trust God with the growth. A true record will follow a student long after he leaves your classroom, and serve him wherever God sends him.