Assigning high school credits for quarter vs semester DE classes

[Porridge]

If you DC took some DE classes through a semester system college, and some through a quarter-system college, how did you convert those to high school credits? If I try to use some consistent conversion factor, I end up with weird fractional numbers.

For instance, if the 5 unit semester DE course = 1 high school credit, then the 3 unit semester DE course would = 0.6 high school credits. It seems weird to put 0.6 on a transcript.

My first Q: What would you do with this 3 unit semester-system course? Would you call it 0.6 high school credits?

My DC is now taking a 6 unit quarter system DE course. When I compare syllabi, the course covers most of what the AP Bio syllabus covers, minus 2 topics, so I think it's pretty close to 1 high school credit.

My 2nd question -- how do you think about DE courses on the quarter system?  Will colleges think it's weird if I make a 6 unit quarter-system course = 1 high school credit = 5 unit semester-system course? Or will they even notice / care (am I overthinking this)?

If there's already a good thread on this, I'd appreciate the link 🙂 

[cintinative]

I assign 1 high school credit to a semester long college course, regardless of if it is 5 credit hours or 3 credit hours.

We have not done quarters here so I'm no help with that.

These links are from the High school motherlode #2. I have not read them recently, but maybe one of them answers this question?

awarding credit for college courses
Transcript questions (award 0.5 or 1.0 credit for college courses?) -- July 7 2018, kwhadman
Awarding credits for college classes [taken] in high school — Feb 2 2018, RootAnn
Awarding dual enrollment / high school credits on transcript -- Jan 4 2018, cassia
Transcript help: assigning credits for community college classes (lengthy discussion on whether to award 0.5 or 1.0, and why) -- Feb 6 2016, Hiking'Mama
Transcript credits for concurrent student questions (how much credit to give for dual enrollment lab science?) -- July 1 2016, Excelsior! Academy

[Porridge]

Thank you, @cintinative!  The links are helpful. I forgot that I could try to calculate Carnegie hours. Her 6 unit DE course this quarter is 12 hours in class every week + expected additional 6-10 hours outside of class per week, so that is easily enough for a full high-school credit.

[regentrude]

It has been my experience that quarter courses often cover pretty much the same amount of material as semester courses.
I would give one highschool credit per college class, be it quarter or semester.

The different credit hours may reflect the work load for the course, but I gave one highschool credit for a 3 credit course and for a 4 credit course. Keep it simple.

For example, algebra based physics at my uni is 3 credit hours, calculus based physics is 4. You'd give a highschool credit for physics irrespective of what math level it was; anything else doesn't make much sense.

Edited September 30, 2023 by regentrude

[EKS]

A 5 unit quarter course is equivalent to a 3 unit semester course (actually more like 3.3 units; 5 x 10 = 50 vs 3 x 15 = 45, 50/45 = 1.1, 1.1 x 3 = 3.3).

I would either do what the above posters have suggested, or use 3 semester units = 1 high school credit (and 5 quarter units = 1 high school credit) and go from there.  

You could also decide (as I did) that the college courses should be worth 0.5 high school credits because the amount of work required was a joke.

[Porridge]

25 minutes ago, EKS said:

You could also decide (as I did) that the college courses should be worth 0.5 high school credits because the amount of work required was a joke

Yeah, we've been a little surprised. DD's 5 unit world-language course is a decent amount of work, but she has heard from other students that some of the English and history classes are a super light. Because of that, she's requested that she do english and history with me instead of through DE.