Explanation of The University of Dayton's Continuing Education Units
What do the VLCFF CEUs mean?
The Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation offers Continuing Education Units known as CEU's for the e-learning courses and seminars.
The University of Dayton's CEU is based upon the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). This means that a student receives 1 CEU for ten hours of course work.
The VLCFF expects that students spend approximately 5-6 minimum hours per week with the course materials and online interaction. Thus, the CEU's for VLCFF courses are:
- 6 week course = 3.0 CEU's
- 5 week course = 2.5 CEU's
- 4 week course = 2.0 CEU's
- 3 week seminar = 1.5 CEU's
We understand that some dioceses and/or other institutions total their CEU's in different ways. For example, some give 1 CEU per hour spent on a course. This means that if someone takes a 5 week course and spends 25-40 hours in the course the student receives 25-40 CEU's. This is not the academic standard UD applies.
Some dioceses may wish to translate the UD CEU's into their specific diocesan interpretation to parallel with their certification point system. This is no problem. However, the diocese does the interpretation for their particular context.
It is our desire to maintain the International Association for Continuing Education and Training because it is most translatable across the country and around the world.
How do we establish the basis for total contact hours?
Our research has indicated that the average student spends approximately 2-3 hours engaged in the required reading for the week and 2-3 hours on the required discussion boards, exercises and communication one-on-one with the facilitator. There are some students who spend more than 5-6 hours a week on the course. Sometimes students even ask to receive more CEU's since they worked so hard for the course. As with any learning experience, we indicate that the extra hours they put into their e-course is part of the adult learning experience and represents their personal dedication to their ongoing faith formation.