Assigning Faculty for DE Courses

According to the Pasadena Area Community College District Policy for Distance Education, faculty must be well-versed in online teaching pedagogy in order to teach distance education courses. This means that faculty should have either completed the New Online or Hybrid Instructor Training or, in lieu of training, have been cleared to teach by the Distance Education Department because of prior online teaching experience or coursework.

Faculty who have not been cleared by the Distance Education Department cannot teach online or hybrid courses. This applies to full-time and adjunct faculty members alike. Assigning generic STAFF to any distance education course section in the Schedule of Classes does not comply with district policy.

While the Distance Education Department understands that this may place some undue constraints on staffing, this policy is in place to make certain that online and hybrid course delivery meets Federal, state and WASC quality standards for online instruction. Contact the Distance Education Department for any questions about or assistance with faculty training concerns.

Schedule of Classes

In addition to assigning faculty trained in online instruction to distance education course sections, it is also necessary to use a standardized footnote to describe online or hybrid courses.

STANDARDIZED FOOTNOTES

Demonstrate PCC’s compliance with Federal, state and WASC guidelines for online instruction. Establish a comprehensive college-wide protocol for logging in to all distance education course sections. Make it easier for students to understand what is required of them to login and complete their Check-In Assignment.

Title IV Considerations & Footnotes

Recent Federal and WASC guidelines to prevent financial aid fraud mean that initial student logins to distance education courses no longer count as student participation. Several online programs in the community college system have recently been targeted by financial aid fraud schemes in which a ‘student’ registers for an online course, logs in, and then drops the course after financial aid funds have been dispersed.

A letter sent in October 2011 by the Department of Education calls upon post-secondary distance education programs to put more stringent measures into place to make certain that students are not just enrolled in courses, but also actively participate:

…institutions [need] to take steps necessary to ensure that students are academically engaged prior to disbursing Title IV student aid funds. If students do not begin attendance, Title IV funds must be returned (34 CFR 668.21(a))(Runcie & Ocha).

Because of these new legal requirements, footnotes for fully online courses at PCC need to be explicit about:

COURSE CHECK-IN ASSIGNMENT	If students do not complete a documented assignment within 24 hours of the first day the course begins that actively engages them, then they will be dropped from the class. E-mailing the instructor at a personal e-mail address or counting logins as ‘attendance’ do not fall within these guidelines.
COURSE COMMUNICATION	Communication with instructors must originate from within the CANVAS LMS (the INBOX). Instructors can no longer require students to contact them via their personal email. This is so that PCC can provide documentable evidence of regular effective contact and student participation in learning activities, such as a posting in the discussion forum, a syllabus quiz or other form of self-assessment.

Footnotes for hybrid courses at PCC need to be explicit about:

ON-CAMPUS MEETINGS

Hybrid footnotes must include the meeting time and place of an on campus orientation and that students will be dropped if they do not attend the first class session. Footnotes must also include information about additional on-campus meetings and cannot include TBA if there are any on-ground meetings during the semester.

Standard Online Footnote

ONLINE FOOTNOTE

No on-campus meetings required. Just before the semester begins, students receive a welcome e-mail with detailed course information at the e-mail address provided to PCC at registration. Students MUST login to the course at https://canvas.pasadena.edu to complete an introductory assignment by midnight, (insert date for day after course begins), or they may be dropped from class.

Standard Hybrid Footnote

ON-CAMPUS ORIENTATION	This partially online class also includes [Number of meetings] REQUIRED on-campus meeting: Orientation on (list required meeting with day, date, time, class). Students MUST attend the first on-campus meeting, or they may be dropped. Remaining course hours will be online at https://canvas.pasadena.edu.
REGULAR ON-CAMPUS MEETINGS	This partially online class also includes required, regular meetings on-campus as shown in the schedule. Students must attend the first on-campus class meeting or they may be dropped. Remaining course hours will be online at https://canvas.pasadena.edu.

Welcome Letter and Online Syllabus

In the face-to-face classroom a large part of the first class meeting is spent introducing the course, going over the syllabus, getting to know the students and answering any questions that arise about the course content or assignments.

Since students do not have this type of contact with the instructor or with other students in fully online classes and limited face-to-face contact in hybrid classes, they may often feel isolated and uncertain of what they need to do. In order to establish rapport with the students and to incorporate general best practices for distance education, instructors must introduce the course and login information with a welcome letter before the course begins.

THE WELCOME LETTER

Helps students unfamiliar with the distance education environment understand course expectations. Tells students how and where to login. Lets students know where to go for technical help and support. Establishes rapport and promotes regular effective contact with the students early on.

The online syllabus differs from its face-to-face counterpart. It still follows the main structure of the traditional syllabus, but, because it is the main source of information about the course, it needs to include a greater amount of detail.

THE ONLINE SYLLABUS

Gives students information about the course assignments and texts. Provides a map for the course on the Learning Management System. Sets up guidelines for class participation and grading criteria. Explains the course schedule in detail.

These are the differences between the welcome letter and online syllabus.

WELCOME LETTER	SYLLABUS
Informal tone Briefly introduces the course Describes first week Tells how to login to the LMS	Formal tone Details course learning objectives Describes the entire semester Is posted on the LMS

Welcome Letter In Detail

Welcome letters should include:

COURSE INFORMATION	Course name, section number Course dates Instructor name/information Contact information: phone number & email
COURSE TYPE	Fully online or hybrid – for hybrid, place and date of first meeting.
LOGIN INFORMATION	Required textbook(s) Login information/link: CANVAS URL (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/) Login instructions (http://online.pasadena.edu/how-to-login-to-classes/) CANVAS support link (http://online.pasadena.edu/canvas-support/) Getting started/orientation links/course Check-In Assignment Syllabus link
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION	Distance education student resource(s)/website (http://online.pasadena.edu) Information about accessibility & link to DSPS website Self-assessment for online learning links (http://online.pasadena.edu/learnmore/skills-you-need-to-succeed/)
CONTACT INFORMATION	CANVAS Inbox location Where to post questions Email format

Welcome Letter Template

The following are PDF templates and examples for a welcome letter.

• TEMPLATE PDF
• COMPLETED EXAMPLE PDF

 

Syllabus in Detail

The online syllabus should include three main elements: the contract, map, and schedule.

The Course Contract is the core of the online syllabus, providing students with information about academic policies and expectations. In short, everything they need to know so that they can access the course content, understand course policies, and complete assignments.

The Course Map helps students understand site navigation. In many online syllabi, this is often embedded within the text of the contract components. For example: “You can respond to the Discussion Board by clicking the DISCUSSIONS link on the Course Menu.” It is also possible to include a separate section in the syllabus with a guide to important links.

The Course Schedule in an online syllabus is similar to a face-to-face syllabus. It includes a description of weekly lessons, readings, activities, discussions, projects and assessments. Because there is so much additional information in an online syllabus it is also particularly helpful to call special attention to Important Dates in the semester. It is also useful to give students a general weekly timeline for when lessons are released and activities, discussions and assessments are due.

COURSE CONTRACT	COURSE MAP	COURSE SCHEDULE
Course information Course description Student Learning objectives Course requirements Course communication Course participation policy Course assignments Grading criteria Other course policies Academic honesty Add/Drop Late work Accessibility statement & resources Additional resources Tech support Student resources Distance Education website	Where to find: Lectures Assignments Formal & informal discussions Additional resources Where & how to post: Assignments Discussions Course questions	Important course dates Weekly schedule Reading due dates Lecture release dates Quiz dates Discussion due dates Other assignment dates

Online Syllabus Template

The following are PDF templates and examples for a Online/Hybrid Course Syllabus.

• TEMPLATE PDF
• COMPLETED EXAMPLE PDF

 

Course Check-In Assignment

The course Check-In Assignment is a mandatory requirement for all distance education courses that do not have an initial on-campus orientation. If students do not complete this assignment, they must be dropped from the course.

A CHECK-IN ASSIGNMENT

Satisfies the Add/Drop requirement that students attend the ‘first’ day of class. Ensures that the students registered for the class are ‘attending’ class. Provides documentable evidence of establishing regular effective contact with students from the beginning of the course.

With the recent rise in Federal financial aid fraud, the course Check-In Assignment has become a legal necessity — it is no longer enough to have students simply log in to the LMS. This assignment is a way to make certain that students actually participate fully in class, that is, they do more than simply register for classes, log in once and then stop ‘attending’.

There is no standardized course Check-In Assignment for PCC distance education classes, which means that instructors have some flexibility in terms of the type of assignment they can develop for their courses. All assignments, however, must take place within CANVAS and must be completed no later than 24 hours after the date the course begins.

Assignment Examples

SYLLABUS QUIZ	A graded quiz on the contents of the online course syllabus (policies, projects, etc.).
SELF-ASSESSMENT	General questions/survey about the course content so that the student can get an idea of what the course will be about and instructors can get an idea of how much their students may already know about the course topics.
ICEBREAKERS	Community-building activities that help students feel more comfortable and connected in the classroom. These could be as simple as a self-introduction, an answer to an open-ended question posted in the discussion forum, or the popular Two Truths and a Lie Activity. Check out this online resource for more ideas about icebreakers.
NEEDS ANALYSIS	A questionnaire about students’ background, basic knowledge of course content and learning preferences. This can easily be created as an ungraded quiz in CANVAS or as a series of questions that students send to you through the CANVAS Inbox.
GOAL-SETTING	Students can create and post a plan for their learning during the course of the semester.