Course Schedule and Syllabus Information

Course Schedule and Syllabus Information

The Organization’s commitment to distance learning should include specific policies that address the following four areas: Institutional Planning and Support, Learner Support, Faculty Support, and Assessment.

Institutional Planning And Support

The organization’s distance learning activity is consistent with the mission of the institution.

The organization demonstrates evidence that it values distance learning-through its strategic planning, goals, policies, procedures, faculty recognition, and infrastructure-.

The organization’s distance learning programs show evidence of careful planning including identification of need, the nature and size of intended audiences, and provisions for serving those audiences. Plans should include areas targeted for growth in terms of course offerings and any plans for full degree offerings. It should also include plans for allocation of resources for the areas of growth including instructional staffing and support functions. The organization has committed sufficient resources to its distance learning program to assure its success.

The organization has clearly identified a single office or officer with responsibility for assuring the quality of all distance education courses offered.

The organization ensures that the administration of its distance learning courses is carried out by knowledgeable individuals with adequate time and resources to accomplish this task.

The organization should experiment with offering courses in a wide variety of subject areas and encourage all disciplines to consider developing distance education classes.

Learner Support

The organization should assure students are prepared to participate in an online course.

Distance learning classes provide clear statements of the learner’s responsibilities and expectations of student participation and learning.

The organization ensures that class size allows for a high degree of interactivity between faculty and students; therefore, class size should be determined by each department and faculty developing online classes.

The organization assures that departments within the college offering degrees via distance education make certain students receive appropriate academic advisement.

Information on campus services that are available to online students, such as library services, information resources, tutoring services, writing center, and assistance for students with disabilities, should be easily accessible.

Login instructions for the Learning Management System should be sent to all students who have registered for online classes.

A well- documented technology plan is in place and is operational, to ensure both quality standards and the integrity of the online courses offered.

The reliability of the technology delivery system (Learning Management System) is as dependable as possible.

Faculty Support

Faculty is provided with adequate training and technical support in the development of online courses.

Instructor training and assistance, including peer mentoring, continues throughout the development of online courses.

Sustained professional development opportunities have been established and implemented. This process should recognize that teaching in a distance learning environment requires different pedagogical and communication strategies to function effectively and that faculty and the institution share the responsibility for assuring effectiveness.

Teaching online courses should be voluntary.

Decisions regarding the online delivery of specific courses should be made at the department level.

The organization should have a policy in place to determine the number of online courses that one faculty member may teach.

The organization should assure there is a policy in place regarding intellectual property rights for faculty who develop a course. The policy should clearly state whether faculty retain creative control over the use and re-use of the course. Protection of intellectual property rights for faculty who have created courses should be assured.

The organization should assure that guidelines exist regarding the minimum standards for course development, design and delivery of online courses.

The organization assures that course design is managed by teams made up of faculty, content experts, instructional designers, technical experts.

Assessment

The organization ensures that an evaluation process is used to improve the teaching and learning processes.

Intended learning outcomes are reviewed regularly to ensure clarity, usefulness, and appropriateness.

Evaluations are conducted that examine student success in online learning courses across curriculums, including student performance, intended learning outcomes and student retention in online classes.

Data on enrollment in online courses and the successful use of this technology are used to evaluate the institutions effectiveness in this method of course delivery.

Satisfaction surveys are conducted to determine student satisfaction with course delivery as well as faculty satisfaction in developing and teaching online courses.