semester hours和credit hours问题

不知道有人发过没，我找到了一个外国网站上的解释，给大家参考下
What Are Semester Hours?
Working toward a college degree is a timely and difficult process. To streamline your experience--and to help ensure you graduate on time--it's best to understand the terminology associated with your university. Especially important among this language are the terms "credit hours" and "semester hours." By coming to understand their meaning and your school's requirements, building a schedule each semester will become much easier.

Credit Hours

Dallas Baptist University describes credit hours as "the basic unit for college credit" and notes they often reflect an estimate for in-class time required each week. In short, universities assign a number of "hours" to each class they offer, then use these numbers to track your progress toward a degree or certificate of completion.


Semester Hours

A semester is a unit of time commonly used in the educational system to denote half of an academic year. "Semester hours" are the credit hours for which a student has been registered during the course of a semester. For example, if a student is enrolled in five classes, and each class is awarded three credit hours, that student is enrolled in 15 credit hours for the semester.

受教了。。

来一个通俗版解释：

"Definition of credit hour
: the unit of measuring educational credit usually based on the number of classroom hours per week throughout a term" (摘自merriam-webster.com)

美国有些学校用“credit hour”, 有的学校只用“Credit”。根据上面的定义：1 credit hour的课对应着每周上1小时课的课业量。所以个人认为用这个词的学校时为了让学生将“学分”与课业量的关系有一个直观感觉。

而semester hour 是针对一学期的课程的，credit hour是针对一门课的，或者各个学期累计的学分量的。