GVSU Physics Department
Teaching Credit for Lab Courses
A. Labs which count 1:1
Lab or activity-based courses for which one contact hour counts as one teaching
credit are an integral part of a course and are generally taught by the course instructor.
These labs are distinguished by the following characteristics:
 Faculty time is required to set up the lab equipment/materials. The equipment is
more technical and/or the materials more specialized, requiring a higher level of
expertise than is reasonable to expect of staff.
 There is generally no departmental lab manual for these courses.
 These labs require formative assessment throughout the entire class period. They
absolutely cannot be staffed by our usual pool of adjuncts, as they require Ph.D.
level understanding of both content and pedagogy.
 Extensive faculty time is required to assess student work after the class meeting.
Generally this involves evaluation of either portfolios or written lab reports.
The following courses/labs belong in this category:
1. Inquiry courses: Phy 105, Phy 201, Phy 204, Phy 205 (and Phy 220 when taught in the
workshop format)
2. Upper-division labs: Phy 302, Phy 309, Phy 311
B. Labs which count 2:3
Lab courses for which two teaching credits are assigned for three contact hours are
generally associated with large lecture courses, so that the multiple sections of the
labs must be taught by a variety of different instructors. This necessitates a certain
level of standardization for these labs:
 The departmental lab coordinator sets up the lab equipment/materials.
 There is generally a departmental lab manual for these courses.
 These labs are highly-structured, so that it is not impossible to have them taught
by adjunct faculty (though our department strongly desires to reduce our reliance
on adjunct instructors in order to improve the quality of inquiry-based teaching as
well as the integration of the lectures with the labs).
 Submitted student work is generally presented in a standard format which requires
only moderate time for assessment after the class meeting.
The following labs belong in this category: Phy 200, Phy 220, Phy 221, Phy 230, Phy 231