Clock Hour and CEU Calculation for Online Courses
InterNACHI® provides to its members free, online education courses, and an accredited Home Inspector Certificate Program. View the InterNACHI® Student Catalog to view the courses and program details, and to enroll in the courses for home inspectors provided by InterNACHI® School (internachi.edu).
InterNACHI® documents its implementation and application of policies and procedures for determining clock hours awarded for its courses and program. The clock hour and CEU calculation are approved by ACCET, a national accrediting agency of the U.S. Department of Education.
A clock hour is one instructional hour. One instructional hour is defined as 50 minutes of instruction, academic engagement, and preparation in a 60-minute time period. This calculation is referred to as a Carnegie Unit and is used by the American Council on Education in its Credit Recommendation Evaluative Criteria. To compute the number of CEU (Continuing Education Units), InterNACHI® divides the number of clock hours of instruction, academic engagement, and preparation by 10. Therefore, if a course is calculated to be 10 clock hours, then the course is worth 1.0 CEU.
Academic engagement may include, but is not limited to:
- reading and being engaged with online course material;
- watching and listening to instructional video;
- taking quizzes;
- taking exams;
- submitting an inspection and writing assignment;
- submitting a research and writing assignment;
- contributing to an academic online discussion;
- conducting a directed and independent inspection study performed according to the Standards of Practice, including the development of an inspection report;
- performing a visual inspection;
- taking an inspection image;
- uploading an inspection image to the student forum;
- writing an essay, communicating an analysis; and
- initiating contact with an instructor or mentor to ask a question about an academic subject of a course.
Preparation may include, but is not limited to:
- studying and reviewing instructional material in preparation for taking quizzes and exams;
- reading the downloaded student course book including taking the quizzes with the book;
- reading, research, and studying related to completing the research and writing assignment; and
- studying and preparing for inspection processes according to a Standards of Practice, including capturing and storing digital images with a camera or device, making observations, evaluating conditions, deducing, formulating opinions, communicating observations in written form, attaining competency in performing inspections and using an inspection checklist or software and other inspection tools in producing a report.
Student work and clock hours are calculated by the following factors:
- A clock hour is equivalent to 50 minutes of instruction, academic engagement, or preparation within a 60-minute period of time.
- The average adult reading for learning is 100-200 words per minute for advanced, technical, non-fiction text. [Smith, Brenda D. "Breaking Through: College Reading" 7th Ed. Longman, 2004]. The 4th-grade reading level was measured 130 words per minute. [NAEP - Percentage of Students, Average Number of Words Per Minute, Grade 4. NCES.ed.gov. https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/ors/rateperminute.aspx]. InterNACHI uses 140 words per minute and 50 minutes per hour. InterNACHI writing assignments have a writing minimum of 4th-grade level criteria.
- Assuming 140 words per minute, clock hours for reading is equal to the number of words divided by 140 words divided by 50 minutes (assuming 50 minutes of instructional reading and a 10-minute break per clock hour). Therefore, reading time in hours = total number of words / 140 / 50. [Syracuse University Policies http://supolicies.syr.edu/studs/class_scheduling.htm]
- Watching and listening to instructional video is timed on a 1:1 ratio. For example, 60 minutes of watching and listening to the instructional video is equal to 60 minutes of student academic engagement. [AICPA and NASBA Continuing Professional Education Program Standard #14, Method 2, Prescribed Word Count Formula, 2011]
- The time for taking quizzes and exams is calculated by multiplying the number of questions by a factor 1.85 to calculate the total number of minutes. For example, the time for taking a 10-question quiz is 18.5 minutes (10 questions x 1.85) or 0.3 hours of academic engagement. [AICPA and NASBA Continuing Professional Education Program Standard #14, Method 2, Prescribed Word Count Formula, 2011]
- The time provided for a student to study for quizzes and exams is calculated to be as long as the time for taking the quizzes and exams. For example, if it takes 0.6 hours to complete the quizzes, 0.4 hours to complete the final exam, then the number of credit hours for studying to take the quizzes and final exam is 1.0 hour (0.6 + 0.4). [U.S. Department of Education: Guidance to Institutions and Accrediting Agencies Regarding a Credit Hour as Defined in the Final Regulations Published on October 19, 2010]
- The time provided for a student to complete an assignment of reading content on the online discussion forums, make responses, post images, write a short essay is calculated to be an average of 4.0 hours per assignment, where applicable for a particular course. [U.S. Department of Education: Guidance to Institutions and Accrediting Agencies Regarding a Credit Hour as Defined in the Final Regulations Published on October 19, 2010]
- The time for studying, preparing, and completing an inspection report writing assignment is 10.0 credit hours. Studying and preparing for inspection processes according to a Standards of Practice includes capturing and storing digital images with a camera or device, making observations, evaluating conditions, deducing, formulating opinions, communicating observations in written form, attaining competency in performing inspections and using an inspection checklist or software and other inspection tools with the intent of producing a written report. [National average time to complete a home inspection by a professional inspector is an entire 8-hour workday. A student is provided ten hours.]
Hours are rounded. If the tenth decimal number is 5 or greater, then the hour is rounded up to the next whole number. Otherwise, it is rounded down. For example, 12.5 calculated clock hours would be rounded to 13.0.
