Course Credit or Placement

Seeking Course Credit or Placement for your Duke TIP e-Studies Course

Duke University TIP does not grant credit or issue a grade for completion of a Duke TIP course. Some schools, however, may be willing to grant credit or placement for a student's work in the e-Studies Program. Students and parents interested in seeking credit or placement should begin working with officials at the local school as soon as the student is placed in the e-Studies course. Here are some suggestions to help families with the process.

  1. Contact the school counselor, vice-principal, registrar, or department chair (the person who would grant credit or placement for a student's work in the course).
  2. Explain that Duke TIP e-Studies students enroll in a fifteen-week course (fall or spring), or a seven week course (summer), with approximately 70-105 hours of coursework.
  3. Inform the school official that students receive a course description, syllabus, and an evaluation rubric upon completion of the course.

School officials will use the information provided to decide whether or not to grant course credit or placement. Many factors may influence a school's decision, including state and local standards and requirements and the ability to match e-Studies course content to a comparable course in the school.

If a local school grants course credit for a student's work in Duke TIP's e-Studies Program, it means that the school is willing to accept the e-Studies course as an equivalent to a similar course offered in the local system or school. Often a school district will require a certain number of contact hours for the course to qualify for credit. The nature of an online course makes it difficult to approximate contact hours, but e-Studies courses are designed to require 70-105 hours of contact with course instructor, peers, content, and instructional activities. If the school official asks for a grade from Duke TIP, remember that Duke TIP's e-Studies Program is a non-graded program, and thus we are unable to issue a grade or transcript for work completed.

If a local school agrees to issue placement for an e-Studies course, this means that the local school will agree to acknowledge that a student has mastered the material covered in a particular course, and the school agrees to place the student in the next most appropriate course. This placement often allows a student to accelerate in a particular area.