Online delivery of courses is submitted via live chat. I'm hoping that the policy will change soon because the chat sessions are not part of the grade. Therefore, you put in all your work into the presentation and the odds are 1 in 5 students may show up. Even if the session is archived, you never know who is watching it. The institution does do a great job on discussion boards, projects. group area and project work each submitted in their respected area.
The new policy (which I only found out about a month or so ago) is a minimum of 3 sentence feedback on all assignments submitted. This is a good policy but sometimes I find it extremely difficult to come up with those 3 sentences - especially if the work is of poor quality.
I think office hours, chat rooms, and responding to emails (all dialogue) is the most important aspect of online learning. Because you're not getting the face-to-face lecture you get in the traditional classes, it's the dialogue between the instructors and students that help facilitate quality learning. I think office hours should definitely be required for online courses.
We haven't started our online classes yet but because of this online class I learned the importance of policies and I also learned online classes are not as easy as I thought. I always thought an online class was a easy way to get out of the real work, (for lazy people) boy was I wrong. It is harder to stay on track when you don’t have a person on your back to make sure you do the work and finish on time. You have to be self motivated so online education is not for everyone!!
Some of the policies at my institution for the delivery of online courses are:
1.) There must be an online library that students can access for research
2.) The online library must be accessible for students who are taking on-ground courses as well.
3.) Usage of the learning resources must be tracked
4.) There has to be at least 1 person on the advisory board who has experience using online resources and instruction
Some policies we have instituted are to present quizzes and polls within the lecture time. Also making the lecture more about the coming weeks assignments rather than what the student will be reading about in their assignment.
Hi, Melissa,
I really like your ideas about taking advantage of hybrid courses "in class" time by using quizzes and polls. I also think it is great to have students hear lectures BEFORE they read the material.
Another "activate prior knowledge" ploy is to have students take a stab at end-of-chapter questions BEFORE they read the chapter. In this way new material can seem like an old friend, or at least something students can recognize concepts within (sorry to end with a preposition.)
Awesome. THis was one of my concerns when starting to look into distance ed for my school. I know how useful forums can be when the discussions are on-topic, and know that I will have to do the same with some of the instructors that are already in place.
Awesome- I may need to implement this.
When I was a Distance Ed student this was a requirement. I feel that it is still a valid approach to the question of accountability within our students.
One of the new policies that has had to be implemented both from an academic perspective and to be compliant with the Higher Education Act of 2009 is one of student authentication or verifying that the student enrolled is actually the student taking the course. While this is very easy in a resident school where a student physically attends class every day, it is much more difficult with students online. We have had to develop student identifiers for various portions of the online program in order to maintain compliance in this area.
Before students submit their work, they have to submit it to an online writing lab. They need to make the revisions before the instructor issues the final grade.
Our institution has dabbled in a few online courses and I am fairly new to the organization but I am not sure who created the policies. After reading through this section I can see the importance of making sure we have solid policies and procedures in place especially as the program grows. We are having a faculty meeting later this week and I look forward to discussing several of the issues mentioned.
An important policy that could be influenced by federal and state refund regulations has to do with refund policy for portions of a program that a student completes so that he/she is given the proper refund upon withdrawing. Although this is a negative issue, it should be addressed because it will come up.
Faculty input could be used to determine how many clock hours of residential instruction will constitute the equivalent of a lesson for the online instruction. This must be determined beforehand. I know of a school that did not establish this policy, and when it came time to refund via a portion of online instruction, they had no policy to fall back on.
Although I do not work for an institution, a policy that must be considered prior to initiation of an online course or program is a refund policy regarding withdrawals. Example: with residential (on ground) programs or courses, refunds are normally determined by the completion of clock hours to determine what percentage of the term or course has been completed. With distance learning the portion completed is via lessons completed instead of clock hours. Faculty should determine the equivalency of clock hours to lessons completed, and the school should have this policy (which could become a procedure) in place prior to initiating the course or program.
We have minimized the left hand navigational tool bar so that the student does not feel disoriented. We have set the limit at 8. We also have set all quizzes to be either M/C or T/F. All points in each course have to add up to 1000. We have built links to the dropbox for grading on each page that has an assignment. We have done this for positive flow for the student and to create a relaxing learning environment.
We are not presently hosting online classes in our state. In other markets, online instructors must attend rigorus training before they can host a class.
At a previous institution that I worked with, we did have to keep office hours. Students could "talk" to their instructors using a online instant messaging at pre-schedule times/days of the week.
Students must participate in class, giving substantial responses on the discussion board. Faculty are also expected to particpate substantially throughout the week. We must keep the students engaged throughout the course.
Online education has come such a long way in the past few years, with pre-taped lectures, the use of podcasts, and other methods of synchronous education.
That policy is very important, Jan. We emphasis the posts must be substantive in nature. As an instructor, I look for critical thinking, and not just what I call the Family Feud reply, "Good answer, Good answer."
Thank you, Sabina. I have never heard of the three sentence policy. To make it easier on yourself, maybe you can make a rubric. When I give feedback on an assignment/paper, I show the student where they fall in the rubric, then add a couple of personal comments regarding the information presented in their paper.
These are great ideas! Thank you.
