Curriculum & Instruction
Course Quality Assurance: Assuring the quality of your courses is critical to the credibility of your program and to students’ success. Whether you are creating your own courses or purchasing them from one of the many commercial vendors, the same standards of quality should apply, which will allow online courses to enjoy parity with your face-to-face courses. …more info
Class Size: Appropriate class size is as much a debate in online learning programs as it is in face-to-face programs, although the details of the debate are sometimes different. Educationally, optimal class size depends on the level of teacher-student interaction the courses require, which can vary significantly. …more info
Course Completion and Drop/Add: Just as they do in face-to-face courses, students will come and go. Defining your course completion and drop/add policies is critical for smooth transitions in and out of classes for students, as well as keeping track of course completion, retention and drop rates for program evaluation purposes. Particularly in rolling enrollment situations, these definitions can be a little tricky. …more info
Face Time or Interaction Requirements: Many programs choose to require some amount of face time for their online participants. In some cases, this choice is tied to state funding or attendance requirements. In other cases, programs have educational reasons for preferring a “hybrid” or “blended” approach. Similarly, some programs define how much teacher-student or student-student interaction should be incorporated into a course, including expectations regarding how quickly teachers are expected to respond to phone calls, emails or postings. …more info