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[Phys-L] Re: Quarters vs Semesters



Joel said...

My point is that hardly ever do the class days get changed so they are
the same. I'm sure there are counter-examples, but the impression I
have gotten over the years is that the 5 credit physics courses in the
quarter system becomes a 3 credit physics class in the semester system
(or 4 credits depending upon how lab sessions are counted).

A typical goal is to keep a course the same when converting from one
calendar to another. This is very easy to do if the course is a
year-long course. If a course is 5-hours per quarter for 3 quarters,
and it is changed to a 5-hour course for two semesters, then the course
does not change one bit, assuming 10 class weeks in the quarter and 15
class weeks in the semester.

The problem is how do you convert a single quarter course to semesters
(or vice-versa). The conversion from quarter hours to semester hours is
to multiply by 2/3. A single 5-hr course on the quarter system would be
a 3.33-hour semester course. That's not typically done. Thus, the
transformed course will either become 3 hours (a reduction) or 4 hours
(an expansion).

A 4-hr quarter course should become a 2.67-hr semester course. If it
becomes 2-hr we have a reduction; 3 hr is an expansion. A 3-hr quarter
course should become a 2.0-hr semester course, so this can be kept
exact.

Thus... full-year courses (of any size) and any 3-qtr = 2-sem class can
convert exactly. Anything else cannot convert exactly unless you allow
fractional-credit courses.

When we convert we had a pretty good collection full-year courses in the
physical and mathematical sciences... First-year chemistry,
calculus-based physics, calculus, organic chemistry, physical chemistry.
These all went from 5-5-5 (qtrs) to 5-5 (sems), and that represents no
change.\

5-hr single-quarter lab courses became 4-hrs (an expansion) and 5-hr
single-quarter non-lab courses became 3 hrs (a reduction).

That's what happened when we changed from quarters to semesters, with
the additional twist that the academic year shortened from 10-10-10
weeks to 14-14 weeks.

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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