Credit hours are a measure of the amount of work required to achieve student learning outcomes for a specific course. In the United States, students generally receive credit hours based on the number of "contact hours" per week in class, for one term, better known as semester credit hours (SCH) . A contact hour includes any lecture or lab time when the professor is teaching the student or coaching the student while they apply the course information to an activity. Regardless of the duration of the course, a semester credit hour is 15-16 contact hours per semester. Most college and university courses are three semester credit hours (SCH) or 45-48 contact hours, so they usually meet for three hours per week over a 15-week semester.

To summarize, credit hours are a way of measuring how much credit a student receives for attending a course, which corresponds to the hours per week spent in that course. They are used to determine whether the requirements for an award have been met, to facilitate transfer between institutions, or to enhance intercomparability of qualifications.