semester hour vs course credit

semester hour and course credit both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
semester hour	Yes	No	No	No
course credit	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, course credit is a hypernym of semester hour; that is, course credit is a word with a broader meaning than semester hour:

semester hour: a unit of academic credit; one hour a week for an academic semester
course credit: recognition by a college or university that a course of studies has been successfully completed; typically measured in semester hours

Other hypernyms of semester hour include credit.

semester hour (noun)	course credit (noun)
a unit of academic credit; one hour a week for an academic semester	recognition by a college or university that a course of studies has been successfully completed; typically measured in semester hours