Online Courses and Programs Standards

This policy is to be read in conjunction and as consistent with the Faculty Handbook, in particular Section 3.6.1.8 (“Other Duties Related to Teaching”)

I. Definitions

Instructional Minutes – direct faculty instruction in the classroom or the equivalent amount of work to meet the minimum number required to meet the credit hours for a course. See SACSCOC Credit Hours – Policy Statement available at https://sacscoc.org/app/uploads/2019/08/Credit-Hours.pdf

Modalities– course modalities (also called “instructional methods”) that are used to define general course characteristics. A course’s designated modality will help students know:

• Where their course is located (e.g. on campus and/or online)
• When their course is meeting (e.g. regular meeting times or no meeting times)
• How they are expected to engage (e.g. attend class or independent online activities)
• These modalities should help students understand the general expectations of courses as they
  register for classes

The modalities mostly fall under two main categories: On Campus and Online. There is an additional modality called Flex that is either on campus or online. Each course will have a designated modality identified in the syllabus as well as describe attendance requirements associated with the modality.

Learning Management System – A learning management system (“LMS”) is a software application or Web-based technology used to plan, implement, and assess a specific learning process. Typically, a learning management system provides the faculty member with a way to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, as well as assess student performance. An LMS may also provide students with the ability to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, Chat rooms, and discussion forums. St. Mary’s University employs Canvas as its LMS standard.

Module – An online learning component that contains organized content and activities to create a clear learning path.

On Campus – any course that meets on campus with instruction delivered directly to students by an instructor in a classroom setting. Students attend in-person at designated dates and times. This modality may be supplemented with online materials, but student seat time is offered only through in-person synchronous meetings. All requirements for instructional minutes as required by accreditation are met through regular attendance of students in live class sessions with the appropriate number of out-of-class activities to meet the minimum engagement requirements. Outside homework assignments and readings that do not replace instructional minutes do not count as asynchronous instruction.

Online – any course in which students are physically separated from the faculty member or each other for fifty percent or more of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction among students and between the students and the faculty member, either synchronously or asynchronously.

1. Online Fully Asynchronous – any online course in which instructional materials are made available to the students to access at no particular time, with no requirement that students be online at a particular time. These materials replace live instructional minutes that would normally occur in an On Campus course.
2. Online Fully Synchronous – any online course that requires students and instructors to be online at the same time instead of in-person to meet the required instructional minutes. Lectures, discussions, and presentations occur at a specific hour via video-conferencing such as Zoom. All students must be online at the designated time to participate.
3. Hybrid Courses –
   • On Campus Hybrid – any course requiring a reduced on-campus attendance of fifty percent or more for instructional minutes. All other instructional minutes are completed using asynchronous instructional methods.
   • Online Hybrid – any online course requiring a reduced synchronous video conferencing modality to meet the required instructional minutes. All other instructional minutes are completed using asynchronous instructional methods
4. Flex Live – any course that qualifies as an online course by utilizing live video conferencing instruction, but also provides simultaneous options for live, in-person classroom instruction, requiring attendance.

II. Standards for all Online Courses

Each department and/or school that utilizes an online modality shall at a minimum abide by the standards and definitions set forth in this policy. Further each department and/or school that utilizes an online modality shall develop its own guidelines for online instruction that may be more stringent and detailed than defined herein that is responsive to the needs of the students in the department’s degree program as well as the educational goals of the degree and University. The department and/or school online policies shall be reviewed and approved by the Provost’s office prior to implementation.

Standards for evaluating proposed online courses or programs

When evaluating existing or proposed online courses or programs, the following standards should be used as a guide to determine whether a course or program is consistent with the goals and mission of St. Mary’s University.

• Mission Standards — Online courses and programs must contribute to the St. Mary’s mission and be consistent with the distinctive features of education in the Catholic, Marianist tradition. Though in different ways, community and personal attention must remain instruments of education and formation to a degree comparable to the campus environment.
• Quality Standards — Online courses and programs must meet the same quality standards that are required of similar courses and programs offered on campus. The content of online courses and programs must carry the same academic rigor and expectations of on-campus courses and programs.
• Admission Standards — Students must satisfy, at a minimum, the same requirements for admission into online courses or programs that are required of on-campus students. Admission standards may require students to have access to the necessary technology associated with the online class or program.
• Faculty Qualifications — Faculty who teach online courses must meet the same standards, review, and approval procedures used by St. Mary’s to select and evaluate faculty responsible for on-campus instruction. In addition, faculty must have or acquire the technological and pedagogical skills necessary for effective online teaching. Mary’s will offer appropriate training for faculty development as necessary.

The relevant program director or department chair is responsible for assuring the competency of the faculty teaching online undergraduate courses. Faculty teaching graduate-level online courses must be eligible to teach graduate-level courses and be approved by Graduate Council.

• Oversight — All online courses must be offered through the department or program administering the corresponding on-campus courses or through the appropriate department or program if there is no comparable on-campus course. The supervision, monitoring, and evaluation processes for instructors must be equivalent to on-campus courses. Department chairs will have access to all online undergraduate courses within their department. Directors of graduate programs will have access to all online graduate courses within their department.
• Evaluation — All online courses and programs must meet the same evaluation standards for courses and programs offered on campus. This includes student teaching evaluation for every course as well as regular assessment of student learning outcomes for online courses and programs to assure the comparability of online courses and programs with equivalent on campus courses and programs. If there are professional accrediting standards for comparable on-campus programs, online programs must meet (or work towards) those same professional accrediting standards. Student evaluations will also elicit student feedback from students on their experience with and evaluation of instructional technologies associated with the course.
• Support Services — Students in online courses and programs must be provided academic support services comparable to those available for on-campus students, including but not limited to: academic advising, counseling and testing, library and other learning resources, tutoring services, career services, international student services, and financial aid.
• SACSCOC — Institutions must also adhere to criteria outlined by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges in:
  • 2019 Guidelines for Addressing Distance and Correspondence Education, Off-Campus Instructional Sites, and Branch Campuses;
  • 2024 The Principles of Accreditation; and
  • Any future guidelines, updates or revisions of policies adopted by SACSCOC that bear upon distance education

Standards for faculty teaching an online course

To ensure quality and uniformity in the presentation of online courses at St. Mary’s University, the instructor of any online course offered at St. Mary’s University shall also adhere to the following standards:

1. The instructor shall successfully complete, either prior to or contemporaneous with building the course, St. Mary’s online certification program or an equivalent program.
2. The course shall have a syllabus that clearly states:
   1. The course name
   2. Student Learning Outcomes
   3. Technology requirements
   4. Technology competencies for students
   5. Requirements for synchronous and/or asynchronous faculty/student and student/student interaction.
   6. Where to find University and Law School policies governing student issues
   7. Statement regarding disabilities and accommodations and who to contact for more information
   8. Netiquette expectations
   9. Online attendance policies
   10. Grading expectations
   11. Statement concerning generative AI
3. Each online course must be hosted on a secure system and have a process for verifying the identity of students registered in the course, including a unique, secure login and password. Online courses offered through Canvas shall be presumed to meet this requirement.
4. Online courses with asynchronous components must include interactive tools and course design elements that provide the opportunity for regular and substantive interaction between faculty and students and among students. The asynchronous components must, at a minimum, be the equivalent amount of work as would be required for the instructional minutes it is replacing.
5. Faculty must regularly monitor student effort, provide opportunities for communication, and provide regular and prompt feedback on student effort and performance. Any graded assessment must have a grade recorded and available to the student no later than two weeks after the turn-in date for the fall and spring terms, and no later than one week after the turn-in date for summer terms. Faculty will respond in a timely fashion to student questions and concerns.
6. All online courses must be designed to use the technological resources available at the University, supportable by the University, and reasonably available to students. Faculty training and assistance will be provided by Academic Technology Services.
7. All final examinations must comply with University’s Exam Policies and Procedures for Students.
8. All students participating in online courses will abide by the St. Mary’s University Code of Student Conduct. Programs offered through the law school will also abide by the St. Mary’s University School of Law Honor Code.
9. . Regulatory Compliance – Each online course will protect student privacy according to federal and institutional Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines. All online courses will be provided from secure sites, and all required course elements that require student identification will be limited to those sites. The University shall provide reasonable accommodation opportunities to ensure all online courses comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, pursuant to the St. Mary’s University’s Online Learning Accessibility Policy. The School of Law will also abide by the Disability Policy contained in the St. Mary’s University School of Law Student Handbook.

III. Online Teaching Certification Requirements

Online Teaching Certification Program (OTCP) –The OTCP is cohort based, online certification course required by the Office of the Provost in order to teach any Online modality. The course consists of seven learning modules with a suggested duration of 10 to 12 week. This includes time to work on creating an online course for future use.

Full-time faculty that teach online courses are expected to undergo online training as part of their ongoing professional development. Part-time faulty who go through online training may be compensated at the discretion of the Provost’s Office.

Standard OTCP Track

• Audience: Faculty slated to teach online in the next semester (at least 5 months away)
• Use Case: Faculty who are asked to teach online a semester or more ahead of time to design their online course
• Duration: 10 to 12-week curriculum ending in online course presentation
• Curriculum Format: Cohort-based asynchronous Canvas course with module-based curriculum requirement weekly activity throughout
• Presentation Course: Sample built by the professor without student enrollment
• Presentation Format: Present in-person or virtually over Zoom (or other web conferencing option) sample course and instruction design and delivery approach
• Presentation Duration: Approximately 60-90 minutes with OTCP review panel
• Benefit: Best practice option to provide faculty the time, instruction, and support needed to
  build ahead of their online course

Emergency OTCP Track

• Audience: Faculty slated to teach online in the current or impending semester (current or less than 3 months away)
• Use Case: Faculty who are hired or asked to teach online without prior notice
• Duration: 16-week curriculum ending in online course presentation (can run concurrent with instructor teaching online course)
• Curriculum Format: Asynchronous Canvas course with module-based curriculum requiring weekly activity throughout
• Presentation Course: The current semester’s online course built by the professor without student enrollment
• Presentation Format: Present in-person or virtually over Zoom (or other web conferencing option) sample course and instruction design and delivery approach
• Presentation Duration: Approximately 60-90 minutes with OTCP review panel
• Requirements: Faculty must enroll, begin, and complete the OTCP curriculum at the end of the semester in which they are temporarily allowed to provide online instruction. They must complete the presentation course within 3 months requirement and receive full certification approval before teaching
• Benefit: Provides a one-time option for faculty to emergency teach an online course while being certified and fully supported by ATS along the way
• Support: Because the professor is slated to teach online in the current semester, the ATS team provides emergency support and weekly meetings throughout the semester so the professor can design and deliver a quality online course to the current semester’s students

National Standards Alignment – The OTCP is built upon the nationally recognized Quality Matters™ (QM) rubric and principles for effective online course design. Academic Technology Services incorporates QM, and other industry standards, into the OTCP curriculum and best practices to ensure St. Mary’s online instructional meets the highest level of excellence.

Renewal – The OTCP certification must renew five years from the original certification date for faculty to continue teaching any Online modality. A renewal process of completing a two-week short course and presentation is required for faculty to maintain their active online teaching certification.

IV: Appendix: St. Mary’s Modality

Modality Label	On Campus	On Campus Hybrid	Online Synchronous	Online Asynchronous	Online Hybrid	Flex Live
Descriptions	Meets on campus at regularly designated dates.	Meets on campus at a reduced number of designated dates.	Meets online at regularly designated dates.	No designated meeting dates.	Meets online at a reduced number of designated dates.	Meets on campus and online at the same regularly designated dates.
Meeting Location	On Campus	On Campus	Online	No meetings	Online	Student’s Choice
Scheduled Attendance	Always	Sometimes	Always	Never	Sometimes	Always
Independent Online Work	Occasionally	Regularly	Occasionally	Always	Regularly	Occasionally
Example	Class meets on campus on MWF from 8:00 – 8:50 AM	Class meets on campus on 6 specified dates throughout the semester. All other coursework is completed independently online.	Class meets online via Zoom on MWF from 8:00 – 8:50 AM.	No meeting times. All coursework is completed online.	Class meets online via Zoom on 6 specified dates throughout the semester. All other coursework is completed independently online.	Class meets on MWF from 8:00 – 8:50 AM. Students have the option to attend online or in-person.
Canvas Presence	Recommended	Required	Recommended	Required	Required	Recommended
Ideal Audience	● Residential Undergraduate Students ● Commuter Students ● Residential Non-working Graduates	● Students who work or commute and less flexibility	● Remote students interested in a high level of live instructor interaction	● Remote students with restrictive schedules ● Working students	● Remote students with restrictive schedules but would like contact time with the instructor	● Students who may be required to change their preferred attendance mode
Pros	● Familiar format ● Requires minimal technology mastery ● Maximum flexibility in the classroom	● Combines the best of face-to-face and online environments ● Highlighted as more effective than strictly face-to-face or online	● Most similar format to in person instruction ● Easiest form of online instruction for building community	● Most flexible format in terms of location and schedule for both instructor and student	● Accommodates flexible schedules for both instructors and students. ● Incorporates direct contact with the instructor. ● Provides community while still providing flexibility	● Increased flexibility for students ● Not necessary for instructors to invest time in creating asynchronous learning modules
Cons	● Limits enrollment based on room capacity and residential students with availability in the time frame and window offered	● Requires a campus presence which limits flexibility ● Requires careful planning of face-to-face and online instruction	● Students must be able to have availability to meet during specific class times	● Challenging to build a sense of community in the class ● Difficult to keep students engaged and motivated ● Requires time investment on the part of the instructor to build online content	● Students must be able to have availability to meet during specific class times ● Requires time investment on the part of the instructor to build online content	● Requires the instructor to have a high level of technology skills ● Challenging to build community within the course