For over a century, the American higher education system has used a metric to track learning. This metric became known as the credit hour (CH). The foundation of the CH was time in a classroom. Within the last few decades, asynchronous online education (ASO) has developed. However, a new metric did not develop in order to track learning with no designated classroom time. Thus, translation of CH values for ASO became a concern. The purpose of this study was to determine how class time in an asynchronous online higher education learning environment was translated into CHs. Specifically, I examined: (a) What methods do national and regional policies set forth for determining the translation of asynchronous online class time into CHs? (b) What methods do public higher education system policies set forth for determining the translation of asynchronous online class time into CHs? Policy analysis and interviews provided data for this study. Findings indicated that in literature the issue of CH use generally and with ASO is considered a problem. However, there was no literature the addressed how to assign CHs to ASO, nor were there discussions on related policies. Additional findings indicated that CH definitions and practices varied leaving an interpreted value for a CH. Data did not provide regulations guiding CH assignment to ASO. In October 2010, federal regulations were ratified making a CH worth an equivalent amount of learning that occurred within one hour of instruction plus two student work hours. The new standard was designed to equalize all learning modalities to the same value. The unresolved issue, then, was determining how much learning happened within three hours. Three major conclusions emerged from the study: (a) The federal government, accrediting agencies, and public higher education systems assign credit to asynchronous online education by the same metric as face-to-face classroom learning time; (b) Local institutions administration and faculty have the responsibility for assigning CHs to asynchronous online education; (c) There are some efforts toward considering a non-time based metric for assigning CHs to asynchronous online education.