In higher education in Canada, Nigeria and the United States, a course is a unit of teaching that typically lasts one academic term, is led by one or more instructors, and has a fixed roster of students. A course is usually an individual subject. Courses generally have a fixed program of sessions every week during the term, called lessons or classes. Students may receive a grade and academic credit after completion of the course. In India, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore, as well as parts of Canada, a course is the entire programme of studies required to complete a university degree, and the word "unit" or "module" would be used to refer to an academic course as used in North America and the rest of Europe. This corresponds roughly to an academic major in the United States system. In South Africa, a course is officially the collection of all courses over a year or semester, though the American usage is common. In the Philippines, a course can be an individual subject or the entire programme. Courses are time-limited in most universities worldwide, lasting anywhere between several weeks to several semesters. They can either be compulsory material or "elective". An elective is usually not a required course, but there are a certain number of non-specific electives that are required for certain majors.
Types of courses
Courses are made up of individual sessions, typically on a fixed weekly schedule. There are different formats of course in universities:
the lecture course, where the instructor gives lectures with minimal interaction;
the seminar, where students prepare and present their original written work for discussion and critique;
the :wikt:colloquium|colloquium or reading course, where the instructor assigns readings for each session which are then discussed by the members;
the tutorial course, where one or a small number of students work on a topic and meet with the instructor weekly for discussion and guidance.
the Directed Individual Study course, where a student requests to create and title an area of study for themselves which is more concentrated and in-depth than a standard course. It is directed under a tenured faculty member and approved by a department chair or possibly the dean within that specific college;
the laboratory course, where most work takes place in a laboratory.
Many courses combine these formats. Lecture courses often include weekly discussion sections with smaller groups of students led by the principal instructor, another instructor, or teaching assistant. Laboratory courses often combine lectures, discussion sections, and laboratory sessions. Students are expected to do various kinds of work for a course:
Attending course sessions.
Reading and studying course readings assigned in the course syllabus.
Discussing material they have read.
Writing short and long papers based on assigned reading and their own libraryresearch.
Completing homework or problem sets.
Completing laboratory exercises.
Taking quizzes and examinations.
The exact work required depends on the discipline, the course, and the particular instructor. Unlike most European university courses, grades are generally determined by all of these kinds of work, not only the final examination.
Elective and required courses
An elective course is one chosen by a student from a number of optional subjects or courses in a curriculum, as opposed to a required course which the student must take. While required courses are deemed essential for an academic degree, elective courses tend to be more specialized. Elective courses usually have fewer students than the required courses. The term elective is also used for a period of medical study conducted away from the student's home medical school, often abroad. Motivations for choosing such a program include a wish to experience other cultures and to learn how to work in the clinical situations in other countries. Typically, North American universities require students to achieve both breadth of knowledge across disciplines and depth of knowledge in a particular chosen subject area, known as a major. Thus, students of the Arts or Humanities are required to take some science courses, and vice versa. Normally, students are free to choose their particular electives from among a wide range of courses offered by their university, as long as the students possess the prerequisite knowledge to understand the subject matter being taught. An English major, for example, might also study one or two years of chemistry, biology or physics as well as mathematics and a foreign language. Elective courses are also offered in the third and fourth years of university, though the choice is more restrictive and will depend upon the particular major the student has chosen. For example, at the University of British Columbia, students intending to specialize in Sanskrit as part of a major in Asian language and culture will usually have to complete several Sanskrit and Hindustani or Punjabi courses during the first two years of university, as well as additional courses in other languages of India in the third and fourth years of study. In addition to these required courses, however, students would choose among several third- and fourth-year elective courses on topics not directly related to India, such as the history and culture of China, Japan or Indonesia.
In the United States, most universities implement a course numbering system where each course is identified by the name of the major followed by a 3- or 4-digit number − for example, CS 123. This common numbering system was designed to make transfer between colleges easier. In theory, any numbered course in one academic institution should bring a student to the same standard as a similarly numbered course at other institutions. The first digit of the course number is related to its level, or relative difficulty, of the course, and can roughly correspond the year of study in which the course is likely to be taken. It is common for the second digit to represent the subfield in the department within which the course is offered − for example, in a Physics department, all courses numbered PHYS 47xx may be about magnetism, while all PHYS 48xx courses may be about optics. The attribution of the third and fourth digits is less standardized, but in general, sequences of related courses tend to have consecutive course numbers, with gaps between such sequences to signal different sets of courses. The course number 101 is often used for an introductory course at a beginner's level in a department's subject area.
