(1) All programs should be measured in terms of 50-minute contact hours. The shortest recognized program should consist of one contact hour.

(a) The purpose of this standard is to develop uniformity in the measurement of continuing education activity. A contact hour is 50 minutes of continuous participation in a group program. Under this standard, credit is granted only for full contact hours. For example, a group program lasting 100 minutes would count for two hours. However, one lasting between 50 and 100 minutes would count only for one hour. For continuous conferences and conventions, when individual segments are less than 50 minutes, the sum of the segments should be considered one total program. For example, five 30-minute presentations would equal 150 minutes and should be counted as three contact hours. For universities or college courses, each semester hour credit should equal 15 hours toward the requirement. A quarter hours credit should equal 10 hours.

(b) Sponsors are encouraged to monitor group programs in order to accurately assign the appropriate number of credit hours for participants who arrive late or leave before a program is completed.

(c) Since credit is not allowed for preparation time for group programs, it should not be granted for the equivalent time in self-study programs. Self-study programs should be pre-tested to determine average completion time. One-half of the average completion time is the recommended credit to be allowed. For example, a self-study program that takes an average of 800 minutes to complete is recommended for eight "contact hours" of credit.

(2) When an instructor or discussion leader serves at a program for which participants receive credit and at a level that contributes to his or her professional competence, credit should be given for preparation and presentation time measured in terms of contact hours.

(a) Instructors and discussion leaders should receive credit for both preparation and presentation. For the first time they present a program, they should receive contact hour credit for actual preparation hours up to two times the class contact hours. If a course is rated at eight contact hours, the instructor could receive up to 24 contact hours of credit (16 hours for preparation and eight hours for presentation) . For repetitious presentations the instructor should receive no credit unless he can demonstrate that the subject matter involved was changed sufficiently to require significant additional study or research.

(b) In addition, the maximum credit for preparation and presentation should not exceed 50 percent of the total credit an instructor or discussion leader accumulates in a reporting period. For example, if a discussion leader's state required 40 hours of continuing education yearly, and he actually taught 16 hours and took 30 hours to prepare, the most credit he could claim would be 20 hours.