Paralegal

[Jonathan Whatley]

The person I just spoke with just told me that the paralegal certificate course is 90 clock hours, and the advanced paralegal certificate course is an additional 270 clock hours, for a total of 360 clock hours.

This is equivalent, she said, to 24 semester hours.

This relies on a very generous conversion rate where 15 clock hours is equivalent to 1 semester hour.

• California community college practice cited above sets a minimum of 48 clock hours of lecture and homework cumulatively for 1 semester hour.

• The U.S. Department of Education has a standard describing a minimum of 37.5 hours of student work for 1 semester hour. (Program Integrity Questions and Answers - Credit Hour.)

• For another example, for its schools, yhe Distance Education and Training Council writes that "1 credit/semester hour requires 15 hours of academic engagement plus 30 hours of preparation" for a total 45 clock hours. (Policy on Credit Hours [pdf].)

But. There are some definitions of semester hour out there that use a 15 clock hour to 1 semester hour conversion rate.

It seems to me that these more generous definitions are based on scheduled classroom time for traditional lecture courses: Meeting 3 hours per week over a 15 week semester = a 3 semester hour course.

But taking from this that 1 semester hour of credit requires, as a general standard, 15 clock hours of work doesn't include any time whatsoever for reading, writing, practice, or other preparation outside scheduled meeting time. The conversion rates above do build in expectations for this sort of work. (Thus the division in the DETC's conversion rate between "academic engagement" – which is roughly classroom-like time, and 15 hours per semester hour – and "preparation," which is more homework-like time.)

I'm concerned that the claim that graduates of a 360 clock hour program are eligible for a license that requires 24 semester hours or equivalent might rely on the most generous conversion rate from clock hours to semester hours but fail if another conversion rate, including rates drawn from California and USDOE authorities, was applied.

Alternatively, maybe the program CLS describes as being 360 clock hours also expects a whole lot of homework-like time on the side not included in that number.