Academic Senate Regulation 760 provides the following guideline: one unit equals a minimum of three hours of work per week, or at least 45 total hours over a 15-week semester. This work includes time spent in class as well as time spent doing work outside of class. This adds up to 45 hours of work each semester for each unit.
In a standard lecture or seminar class structure, that would work out to one hour of meeting time, and two hours of work outside the meeting (for readings, writing assignments, problem sets, discussion, etc.), for each unit earned. If your class starts after the beginning of the semester (e.g., 2nd or 3rd week), you can account for that in extra class time or work outside of class.
When mapping out the amount of work hours and units you want to assign your class, it’s helpful to think about your facilitation needs and semester timeline. For example, some facilitators choose to start their course several weeks into the semester, once the majority of students’ schedules have settled. This allows them to avoid the sometimes disruptive period of having multiple students adding and dropping the course. Other facilitators choose to run their class more intensely up until Thanksgiving or even spring break, but not after, leaving themselves and their students more time to spend on final work in other classes.
To help with your planning process, you can refer to the Academic Senate’s Unit Value Worksheet on page 2 of the Course Proposal Form (CPF) packet.