A course is measured in terms of number of credit hours. A credit hour is a measuring unit of the number of class (or lecture) hours and the number of hours students spend doing the required assignments per week studying a given subject. Typically a subject may be assigned 1, 1.5, 2, 3, or 4 credits depending on the scope and purpose of study. For an undergraduate degree, basic courses may have 1 credit or 2 credits. In a Master’s degree, most courses are either 3 or 4 credits.
Thus a 1.5 credit hour course requires 15-22 lecture hours (50 minutes each) and 30-44 hours of student work and it may be studied in one session of two hours per week for 8-11 weeks.
In other words, a person taking a 1.5 credit course will need to attend classes once a week for 8-11 weeks, and a person taking 3 credit course would attend classes once a week for 16 weeks (or twice a week for 8 weeks).