The document discusses the history and widespread use of the credit hour as a standard unit of measurement in higher education. It traces the development of standard time zones and clocks in the late 19th century, which facilitated the use of the credit hour. The credit hour is now used for many internal and external purposes, including degree requirements, faculty workload, financial aid, accreditation, and more. The document also describes Wisconsin's experiment with competency-based education as an alternative to the credit hour model.

1. The Self-Winding Clock: On the (Credit) Hour
Monique L. Snowden, PhD

3. Self-Winding Clock and Selling Exact Time

4. Western Union Standard Time
Master Clocks - 4 Time zones -
corrected at noon each day - from
Naval Observatory signal via
Western Union telegraph lines
Improved rail transportation and
telecommunications yielded a
shift from “local” mean solar
time to “standard” time
Time signals were first transmitted
in 1852 by telegraph from the
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Time Standards and Standard Time

5. Andrew Carnegie Morris Llewellyn CookeCharles William Eliot
“Whatever I engage
in, I must push
inordinately”
“All business proceeds on
beliefs, or judgments of
probabilities, and not on
certainties”
“The application of
scientific management
principles to industry
would benefit all of
society”

6. • Degree requirements
• Measures recorded on transcripts
• Calculations of grade-point averages
• Faculty workload and compensation
• Admissions requirements
• Determination of enrollment status
• Residency requirements
• Classroom assignments
• Staffing allocations
• Financial reporting
• Budget allocations
• Internal accountability reports
• Building and space utilization standard
• Financial audits and program reviews
• DOE Title IV Enrollments (credit hour
used to convert FTE and head count)
o Clock or credit-hour requirements
o Academic calendars
o Distance-learning status
o Review of academic progress
o Definitions of branch, off-campus,
or correspondence teaching
• IRS (eligibility for tax credits)
• Inter-institutional student transfer
• Licensure and certification requirements
• Rankings services (reporting)
• Accreditation standards for degrees,
certificates, and diplomas
“INTERNAL” INSTITUTIONAL USES “EXTERNAL” APPLICATIONS

7. Phase I: Standard High School Curricula and College Admissions
University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved an
alternative method by which an applicant may demonstrate that he
or she has satisfied the academic unit requirement. This is referred
to as Competency-Based Admission.

8. Phase II: Administrative, Budgetary, and Regulatory Enforcement
The UW System will convert competencies to credit equivalencies on
students’ transcripts. There is a “fuzzy margin” between what
Wisconsin is doing and more conventional competency-based
programs. And those unclear differences probably make it hard for
regulators.

9. Phase III: The “Deinstitutionalization” of Higher Education
Like other CBE programs, the UW System will provide Flex students with
traditional transcripts, translating competency mastery into grades and
credits, so students may easily apply to graduate schools and jobs.
41% percent of graduates attend a single college
59% attend two or more colleges and 24 of those percent attend three or more colleges

10. The Self-Winding Clock: On the (Credit) Hour
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