Many of our policies changed with the implementation of the Integrity Rules in July 2011 but the most impactful seemed to be attendance.
Previously students participated in an online class by logging into the portal and enetering the classroom. Now participation is defined as posting in the discussion forum or uploading a document.
Thais,
I agree with you. There could be an option of creating rubrics, finding and incorporating updated online material in existing courses, and so on. Less boring for you and more specific growth that can be documented for accreditors. Perhaps if you suggested these alternatives, it might cause some rethinking.
Linda Scharp
One of the online institutions that I work for requires instructors to take at least two contuning education classes each semester. It seems a little excessive to me, though. I think that two a year would be sufficient.
Certainly the biggest change has occurred in the definition of attendance. Previously, attendance was defined as student log-ins but now that policy has been redefined to require students to demonstrate active participation in their classrooms. Examples of active participation includes participation in the discussion forums, submission of assignments, emailing the instructor about course content of assignment requirements and attendance in a live lecture, workshop or chat session. Our biggest challenge with our current system is providing attendance credit to students who,unable to attend a live session, access the archived recording of the session. Although these students are listening tothe lecture, we are unable to track this participation.
We have also changed grading policies to encourage students to submit assignments and to participate in discussion forums early in the week. Discussion forums are not very helpful if all students wait until Sunday night to begin posting. We also encourage instructors to participate in the discussion forums.
As per our Main Campus,all three campuses most utilized the same template when they are doing the on-line courses and programs.
One Policy change that we have adopted is the minimum requirements for students posting threaded discussions.
In the past, we had two deadlines, one on Thursday (by Midnight) the other on Sunday.
Our new policy requires a first post to be done by Wednesday. This leads the students to participate sooner. Thus, promoting longer, more involved discussions throughout the week.
Training faculty members to correctly oversee forums discussions is very important. Our online instructors attend (online) several training sessions that explain in detail how forums should be handled. We discuss everything from Blooms to the socratic method and how to bring students back on topic if they veer off. We also train our instructors how to keep the forums going when it appears the conversations my be decreasing. Regardless of how instructors are trained to handle forums, all forums should be a vehicle for student discussion of ideas and concepts, not simply answering questions they can look up in their book.
The most significant policy changes that have occurred at my Institution are in regards to Attendance. Our Attendance standards have been rewritten to assist in the student's academic progression. Originally our attendance policy simply stated that a student must log in to the class a minimum of one time per week (mon-sun) or be administratively withdrawn. The new policy ties in assignment submission and graded activities. A student must submit a minimum of one graded activity per week. This policy has greatly increased retention and academic progression. Students can no longer skate through by merely logging in, they must put forth effort in the coursework.
Our online courses are self-contained and self-paced. The information is provided in text and/or video format. If additional text books are needed, they are mentioned in the online course descriptions.
Regarding chat rooms, do your students actively participate in them? Our program will start in Nov and I plan to assign specfic times when the instructor is available but I have heard that many times the instructor is the only one in the chat room.
Online students attendance is now being monitored through the discussion question praticipation. The students must respond to the intial question and then engage in two responses with their peers to create the discussion thread. The students are graded on content as well.
The policy for submission of assignments and completion of tests was updated to include the time frames, deadlines, and late point deduction as well.
I wonder, too, about limiting the delivery of multimedia. In our institution, we encourage our faculty, subject matter experts,and instructional designers to incorporate various media in their courses, when appropriate. In many of our courses, lectures are video lectures, and our students react favorably to them.
For our school, the change in policy is in the way attendance is taken. In our old policy, attendance was based upon participation, which we defined as participation in threaded discussions. Our new policy expands the definition of participation to include, not only participation in threaded discussions, but also the submission of assignments, completion of exams, and other activities that require students to submit some type of course work.
We are currently in the process of setting up the Policy and Program Studies Service which I think will address the education policy analysis and the evaluation of programs aspects of this implementation.
Wow, this sounds great Chris!
These are some of our policies:
1. Instructors conduct two chat rooms per week per class. Students have to attend at least one per week.
2. Turnaround time for answering questions is 12 hours during weekdays and 24 hours on weekends.
3. Instructors are required to use plagiarism software to screen student submissions.
4. Faculty must attend 4 quarterly in service presentations on school policy, use of our LMS, trends, resources, etc.
5. Work must be graded within 72 hours of submission.
I'm not aware of specific policy changes but the university has switched from WebCT to Sakai (I'm guessing this should be under process rather than policy) but a lot has changed!
The program has used the Sakai to begin a hybrid aspect but we are now exploring a more extensive hybrid arrangement. We will have some new policies and policy changes on the program level to explore.
Office hours and Tutoring are the hot topics here...they are really the two items that fire up the faculty, and really get them engaged in conversation
At this time we don't have policies other than the ones set by the instructors in regards to how/when the assignments will be turned it.
I am mostly looking forward to seeing the online program launch. I am getting an MBA online and I am quite pleased with the delivery of content, and how independent I can be with my learning.
Good thoughts. I just wrote "what is a credit" on my list of things to discuss with my boss when we form a committee and begin to dig in deep.
