Rules for Assignment of Teaching Credit

Overview

There are two standard approaches used to measure course activity and teaching workload at UC Berkeley, via the Class Schedule & Instructional Record (CSIR) process:  one approach considers class counts, enrollments, and student credit hours (SCH) by credited department (usually the instructor's pay department); the other looks at these same metrics by course-listing unit. Which of these datasets you use in a given analysis depends both on what you're trying to measure, and the particular circumstances of the unit(s) involved.

Both sets of data are generated by Berkeley’s Student Information System, and are available to campus users through the Cal Answers reporting system.  Within the set of Student Curriculum dashboards in Cal Answers, the “Departmental Teaching Workload” dashboard shows data by credited department. (This dashboard is also the source of the data in the Academic Personnel Office's APBears system.)  All other dashboards in the Student Curriculum area of Cal Answers show data by course-listing unit.

The basic difference between the metrics described above deals with whether the data is reported under the unit that listed the course in the Schedule of Classes, or under the unit that paid the instructor of the course (and to which teaching credit is then assigned). Generally, metrics reported by course-listing unit are more useful in curriculum analyses and classroom scheduling, where you're interested in the subject matter area of the courses. Metrics reported by credited unit, on the other hand, are more useful in resource allocation or instructional workload analyses, where you're interested in who's providing courses.

This document defines each of these metrics and discusses the rules we use to compute them under different scenarios, while also providing an extensive set of examples. These rules were originally developed in the 1990s and have subsequently been reviewed numerous times by Berkeley's Provost and Vice Provosts to incorporate new data elements and processes. Note, however, that teaching activity does not represent the full effort required to deliver a course. In addition, many instructors have responsibilities outside of teaching (such as research, administration, and lab management), so it is not accurate to use these metrics to represent instructors' overall workloads.

Definitions

Academic Pay Unit – This is the unit (typically an L4 department or L5 disc/group) or units under which an instructor has a non-zero FTE listed in the UCPath system. We map each pay unit to a corresponding academic unit for allocation of teaching credit.

Class Count – We define a class as a single offered section of a course in a given term. Each class can be primary (such as a lecture), independent study, or secondary (such as a discussion section). The number of classes offered may be prorated in team-teaching, crosslisting, and roomsharing situations.

Course-Listing Department – This is the unit that lists a given course in the Schedule of Classes.  For example, MATH 1A is listed by the Department of Mathematics.

Credited Department – This is the unit that receives credit for teaching activity, based on how the instructor is paid.  The credited unit can be the same as the course-listing unit, but it can also be different in some cases, such as when a professor paid by one department teaches a class listed by another department.

Crosslisting – A crosslisted course is listed under more than one department in the catalog.  For a given class (an offered section of such a course), students can usually choose which listing to enroll under.  For example, if ASTRON C207 and PHYSICS C207 are crosslisted, some students will enroll under Astronomy and some under Physics, but they will all be in the same class.  We count this entire bundle of crosslisted classes as one class for teaching workload purposes. In the Student Information System, both crosslists and roomshares are referred to as “combined sections.”

Enrollment Count – The total number of students enrolled in a given class.

Roomsharing – Roomsharing occurs when two or more classes (usually, but not always crosslisted) occupy the same classroom at the same time.  Like crosslisted classes, we treat each bundle of roomshared classes as one class for teaching workload purposes. In the Student Information System, both roomshares and crosslists are referred to as “combined sections.”

Student Credit Hours – Student credit hours (SCH) are the sum of the credit units received by the students enrolled in a given class.  We calculate this as a sum, because some classes give individual students a variable number of units.

Team Teaching – A team-taught class has more than one instructor.

Metrics by Credited Department

Rules for Allocation of Teaching Workload Metrics by Credited Department

The assignment of teaching credit to a given unit can be complicated in certain situations, but it follows a well-defined set of rules based on the instructors’ pay department(s):

  1. If the instructor for a class has only one academic pay department, and that pay department matches the course-listing department, then all teaching credit for that class goes to that department. For example, if an instructor is paid by Astronomy and teaches an Astronomy class, all teaching credit for that class goes to Astronomy.

  2. If the instructor for a class has only one academic pay department, and it does not match the course-listing department, then all teaching credit for the class goes to the instructor's pay department. For example, if an instructor is paid by History and teaches a Political Science class, all teaching credit for that class goes to History.

  3. If the instructor for a class has multiple academic pay departments, and one of them matches the course-listing department, then all teaching credit goes to the pay department that matches the course-listing unit. For example, if an instructor is paid by Nuclear Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, and teaches a Mechanical Engineering class, all teaching credit for that class goes to the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

  4. If the instructor has multiple academic pay departments, and the course-listing department doesn't match any of those pay departments, then the teaching credit is allocated among the instructor's academic pay departments based on the instructor’s payroll distributions. For example, if English pays 60% of an instructor's salary and Comparative Literature pays 40%, and the instructor teaches a Rhetoric class, 60% of the teaching credit goes to English and 40% goes to Comparative Literature.

  5. If the instructor for a class is not paid by an academic department, then all teaching credit for the class goes to the course-listing department. For example, if an instructor is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and teaches an Integrative Biology class, all teaching credit for that class go to Integrative Biology.

  6. For team-taught classes, we split the teaching credit equally among all instructors who are actually teaching the class. (An equal split is the default. Departmental schedulers have the ability to specify unequal splits using the “Contact” minutes field when configuring instructors for meeting patterns in the Student Information System.) We then assign each instructor's teaching credit to academic departments based on the five rules above.

  7. For crosslisted or roomshared classes, we follow the same teaching credit allocation rules as for classes that aren't crosslisted or roomshared. We simply apply those rules to each component of the crosslisted/roomshared bundle in turn.

For easier reference, this flowchart provides a graphical representation of these allocation rules:

Flow chart of teaching credit allocation rules

See examples, which all occurred in Fall 2017, below.

Examples of Allocation of Teaching Workload Metrics by Credited Department

Credited Department Example 1 (Using Rule I)

For a single-instructor class, where the course-listing and academic pay departments match, all teaching credit goes to that department:

  • Integrative Biology 117-001 had 232 enrollments and generated 464 student credit hours.

  • The class was taught by an instructor paid only by Integrative Biology.

  • Credit for 1 class, 232 enrollments, and 464 SCH went to the Department of Integrative Biology, because it paid the instructor (per Rule I above).

Credited Department Example 2 (Using Rule II)

For a single-instructor class, where the course-listing and academic pay departments don’t match, all teaching credit goes to the academic pay department:

  • Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies 39-001 had 13 enrollments and generated 26 student credit hours.

  • The class was taught by an instructor paid only by Rhetoric.

  • Credit for 1 class, 13 enrollments, and 26 SCH went to the Department of Rhetoric, because it paid the instructor (per Rule II above).

Credited Department Example 3 (Using Rule III)

For a class taught by a single instructor with multiple academic pay departments, where one of them matches the course-listing department, all teaching credit goes to the academic pay department that matches the course-listing department:

  • African-American Studies 27AC-001 had 185 enrollments and generated 555 student credit hours.

  • The class was taught by an instructor paid by both African-American Studies and Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies.

  • Credit for 1 class, 185 enrollments and 555 SCH went to the Department of African-American Studies, because it was one of the units that paid the instructor, and it listed the course (per Rule III above).

Credited Department Example 4 (Using Rule IV)

For a class taught by a single instructor with multiple academic pay departments, where none of them match the course-listing department, teaching credit gets prorated among the academic pay departments based on the payroll distributions:

  • Plant Biology 292-007 had 2 enrollments and generated 2 student credit hours.

  • The class was taught by an instructor paid 50% by Earth & Planetary Science and 50% by Environmental Science, Policy, & Management (ESPM).

  • Since neither pay department matched the course-listing department, we prorated teaching credit between both, according to the instructor’s payroll distributions.  The Department of Earth & Planetary Science got credit for 0.5 classes, 1 enrollment, and 1 SCH. And the Department of ESPM also got credit for 0.5 classes, 1 enrollment, and 1 SCH (per Rule IV above).

Credited Department Example 5 (Using Rule V)

For a class taught by a single instructor who is not paid by an academic department, all teaching credit goes to the course-listing department:

  • Molecular & Cell Biology 199-455 had 2 enrollments and generated 5 student credit hours.

  • The class was taught by an instructor who was not paid by an academic department.

  • Credit for 1 class, 2 enrollments, and 5 SCH went to the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, since it listed the course (per Rule V above).

Credited Department Example 6 (Using Rule VI and Rule II)

For a team-taught class, we split the teaching credit among the instructors (either equally by default, or according to contact minutes entered in SIS by a departmental scheduler), then allocate each portion of teaching credit according to the rules above:

  • Biology 1A-001 had 456 enrollments and generated 1,368 student credit hours.

  • The class was taught by a team of three instructors, one paid by Molecular & Cell Biology, and two paid by Plant & Microbial Biology.

  • By default, we split the credit equally among the instructors, so each received 0.33 classes, 152 enrollments, and 456 SCH (per Rule VI above).

  • In all three cases, the instructor pay department did not match the course-listing department, so we assigned teaching credit to the pay departments as follows:  the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology got 0.33 classes, 152 enrollments, and 456 SCH; the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology got 0.67 classes, 304 enrollments, and 912 SCH (per Rule II above).

Credited Department Example 7 (Using Rule VII, Rule I, and Rule II)

For a crosslisted or roomshared class taught by a single instructor, we separately process each part of the course bundle through Rules I - V above to allocate teaching credit:

  • American Studies C171-001 and Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning C171-001 were crosslisted.

  • American Studies C171-001 had 19 enrollments, generated 57 SCH, and counted as 0.5 of a class.  Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning C171-001 had 33 enrollments, generated 99 SCH, and counted as 0.5 of a class.

  • The crosslisted class was taught by a single instructor who was paid by Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning.

  • The teaching credit generated by the American Studies portion of the bundle went to the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, because that department paid the instructor (per Rule VII and Rule II).

  • The teaching credit generated by the Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning portion of the bundle also went to the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, because the pay department and course-listing department matched (per Rule VII and Rule I).

  • The Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning therefore received a total of 1 class, 52 enrollments, and 156 SCH.

Credited Department Example 8 (Using Rule VII, Rule VI, Rule V, and Rule III)

Finally, for a crosslisted/roomshared, team-taught class, we first divide the bundle into its constituent classes, then treat each of those as a team-taught class and separately process each through Rules I - V above to allocate teaching credit:

  • Chemistry C130-001 and Molecular & Cell Biology C100A-001 were crosslisted and team-taught.

  • Chemistry C130-001 had 25 enrollments, generated 100 SCH, and counted as 0.5 of a class.  Molecular & Cell Biology C100A-001 had 176 enrollments, generated 704 SCH, and counted as 0.5 of a class.

  • The crosslisted class was taught by two instructors, one who was not paid by an academic department, and one paid by both Chemistry and Molecular & Cell Biology.

  • For Chemistry C130-001, each instructor received 0.25 classes, 12.5 enrollments, and 50 SCH (per Rule VII and Rule VI); for Molecular & Cell Biology C100A-001, each instructor received 0.25 classes, 88 enrollments, and 352 SCH (also per Rule VII and Rule VI).

  • The first instructor was not paid by an academic unit, so teaching credit for that instructor’s share of both parts of the crosslisted bundle went to the course-listing department in each case (per Rule V).

  • One of the second instructor’s pay departments matched the course-listing unit in both parts of the crosslisted bundle, so this instructor’s teaching credit was allocated to the matching department in each case (per Rule III).

  • The final result was that the Department of Chemistry received credit for (0.25 + 0.25) = 0.5 classes, (12.5 + 12.5) = 25 enrollments, and (50 + 50) = 100 SCH; and the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology received credit for (0.25 + 0.25) = 0.5 classes, (88 + 88) = 176 enrollments, and (352 + 352) = 704 SCH.

Metrics by Course-Listing Department

Rules for Allocation of Teaching Workload Metrics by Course-Listing Department

Teaching metrics by course-listing department for a given class always go to the unit that lists the course in the Schedule of Classes. This rule applies to all classes, whether single-instructor, team-taught, or crosslisted/roomshared, and regardless of which unit actually pays the instructor. In the case of a crosslisted class bundle, students must choose to enroll under one of the course-listing departments; each listing department then receives all of the teaching metrics generated by the students who enrolled under that department.  In addition, we do not prorate the class count within a bundle; each of the constituent classes counts as 1 under this approach.

See examples, which all occurred in Fall 2017, below.

Examples of Allocation of Teaching Workload Metrics by Course-Listing Department

Course-Listing Department Example 1

For a single-instructor class, all teaching credit goes to the course-listing department:

  • Anthropology 127A-001 had 20 enrollments and generated 80 student credit hours.

  • The class was taught by a single instructor.

  • All teaching credit went to the course-listing unit, the Department of Anthropology, regardless of which unit paid the instructor.

Course-Listing Department Example 2

For a team-taught class, all teaching credit goes to the course-listing department:

  • History 1-001 had 109 enrollments and generated 436 SCH.

  • The class was team-taught by two instructors.

  • All teaching credit went to the course-listing unit, the Department of History, regardless of which units paid the instructors.

Course-Listing Department Example 3

For a crosslisted/roomshared class bundle, all teaching credit goes to the course-listing department for each part of the bundle. As noted above, each part of the bundle counts as a separate class:

  • City & Regional Planning C139-001 and Political Science C139-001 were crosslisted.

  • 12 students enrolled under the City & Regional Planning code, generating 48 SCH; 44 students enrolled under the Political Science code, generating 176 SCH.

  • The class was taught by a single instructor. It doesn’t matter who paid that instructor.

  • The Department of City & Regional Planning received all of the teaching credit for the students who enrolled in the class under that code:  1 class, 12 enrollments, and 48 SCH; the Department of Political Science received all of the teaching credit for the students who enrolled under that code:  1 class, 44 enrollments, and 176 SCH.