Department of Computer Science & Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.

(Approved by Senate on July 1, 2015).

One credit indicates an effort of 50 minutes (1 credit-hour ) per working week.
One credit-hour of lecture is assumed to need two credit-hours (1 hour 40 minutes) outside the class room in terms of student effort to thoroughly comprehend the subject material, do the homeworks etc. Thus, a course with 3 lectures a week will be a 3+ (3 x 2) = 9 credit course, indicating that a student needs to put in 9 credit-hours (7 hours 30 minutes) of work a week on this course, inside and outside the classroom put together.
A 1 credit-hour supervised session with no effort required outside should count for one credit. Thus, an afternoon (2 hours 30 min- utes) laboratory session, where the student runs an experiment, collects data, interprets it and writes a report should be awarded 3 credits. If a laboratory course requires effort outside of the allotted 2.5 hour slot, appropriate credit should be awarded (1 credit for 1 credit-hour , i.e., 50 minutes). In the same vein, a 1 credit-hour tutorial session should be awarded 1 credit, if no work is expected outside.
In any given semester, a student should not be required to register for more than 60 credits. This means a maximum academic time commitment of about 50 clock hours every week. However, students who are registering for honors courses, can take more than 60 hours per week, in consultation with the faculty advisor.

Theory course with 3 lectures and one tutorial per week: 3 + (3 x 2) + 1 = 10 credits, assuming the tutorial does not require any work outside (3-1-0-4 in the current system). The structure will be (3-1-0-0-6-10)
Theory course with 2 lectures and one afternoon laboratory session per week: 2 + (2 x 2) + 3 = 9 credits, assuming the laboratory session needs no work outside of the three hour slot (2-0-3-4 in the current system). The structure will be (2-0-0-3-4-9)
Theory course with 3 lectures and two credit-hours of tutorials per week: 3 + (3 x 2) + 2 = 11 credits, assuming the tutorial does not require any work outside (3-2-0-5 in the current system). The structure will be (3-0-0-0-6-9)
A 24 credit project, carried out during a semester, entails an average effort of 24 credit- hours a week (20 clock hours). The structure will be (0-0-0-0-24-24)
One afternoon laboratory course that requires no work outside the lab session: 3 credits (0-0-3-2 in the current system). The structure will be (0-0-0-3-0-3)
One afternoon laboratory course that requires 2 credit-hours (1 hour 40 minutes) for preparation/analysis (before/after the lab): 3 + 2 = 5 credits. Depending on the time needed outside the lab session, appropriate credits should be awarded. (There is no provision for this in our current curriculum). The structure in this case will be (0-0-0-3-2-5)