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 (CEUs) for their e-learning courses and seminars.
CEUs are awarded based on the number of contact hours completed in a course. It's important to note that CEUs cannot be applied to a degree program. However, earning CEUs can be beneficial for maintaining certification or licensure and documenting one's continuing professional education for an employer.
At the University of Dayton, the CEU system follows the guidelines of the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). According to this standard, students receive 1 CEU for every ten hours of coursework.
For VLCFF courses, students are expected to dedicate approximately 5-6 hours per week to engage with course materials and participate in online interactions. Based on this, the CEU allocations for VLCFF courses are as follows:
- 6-week course: 3.0 CEUs
- 5-week course: 2.5 CEUs
- 4-week course: 2.0 CEUs
- 3-week seminar: 1.5 CEUs
We understand that some dioceses and institutions have their own methods of calculating CEUs. For example, some assign 1 CEU for every hour spent on a course. Under this approach, a 5-week course attended for 25-40 hours would result in 25-40 CEUs. However, it's important to clarify that this differs from the academic standard applied by the University of Dayton.
Certain dioceses may wish to convert UD's CEUs into their specific diocesan interpretation to align with their certification point system. This is acceptable, but the responsibility of interpretation lies with the diocese, tailored to their specific context.
Our intention is to maintain the International Association for Continuing Education and Training as our standard, as it is widely recognized and easily adaptable across various regions in the country and around the world.
How do we establish the basis for total contact hours?
Based on our research, we have found that on average, students dedicate around 2-3 hours to the required reading for the week and an additional 2-3 hours for engaging in discussions, exercises, and one-on-one communication with the facilitator. However, it's worth noting that some students may exceed the recommended 5-6 hours per week for the course. In certain cases, students even express a desire to receive more CEUs due to their extensive efforts in the course. However, as with any learning experience, the extra time invested in an e-course is an integral part of the adult learning experience, reflecting a personal commitment to ongoing faith formation.