ONLINE LEARNING COMMITTEE
AMMON COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Amanda Marin-Chollom (Psychological Science) 25 (0)
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Michael Gendron (Management Information Systems) 24 (1)
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Wesley Henry (Educational Leadership and Instructional Technology) 25 (0)
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY
Michael Wizevich (Geological Sciences) 24 (1)
LIBRARY
Joy Hansen (Library) 25 (2)
ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE
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ACADEMIC STANDARDS COMMITTEE
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CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
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GRADUATE STUDIES ONLINE SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIR
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IDDLD
Jennifer Nicoletti
ASSOCIATE VP
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CLIENT SUPPORT SERVICES
Amy Kullgren
[ MISSION ]
The Online Learning Committee is charged with the academic quality control of online learning which include: making recommendations about the creation and selection of online course offerings, making evaluations of CCSU’s use of technology in online course offerings, making recommendations about faculty training, and making an ongoing assessment of the online course program overall.
[ MEMBERSHIP ]
Committee membership will be composed as follows:
- One faculty member from CLASS, elected by CLASS faculty via the Senate’s Election Committee
- One faculty member from SEPS, elected by SEPS faculty via the Senate’s Election Committee
- One faculty member from SoB, elected by SoB faculty via the Senate’s Election Committee
- One faculty member from SEST, elected by SEST faculty via the Senate’s Election Committee
- One faculty member from the Library, elected by Library faculty
- One member from the Graduate Studies Committee, appointed by the Graduate Studies Committee
- One member of the Curriculum Committee, appointed by the Curriculum Committee
- One member of the Assessment Committee, appointed by the Assessment Committee
- One member of the Instructional Technology Committee, appointed by the IT Committee
- One member of the Academic Standards Committee, appointed by the Academic Standards Committee
- The Director of the IDTRC or designee, ex officio and non-voting
- The Director of Client Support Services, ex officio and non-voting
- The Associate VPAA charged with oversight of online courses or designee, ex officio and non-voting
Terms: Faculty members elected to the committee to represent their College or School shall serve two-year terms and may serve up to three consecutive terms. Members from CLASS and SEPS will be elected in even numbered years. Members from SOB and SEST will be elected in odd numbered years. Faculty members appointed to the committee to represent another committee shall serve one-year terms. Appointed members and those serving ex officio have no term limits.
[ PRIMARY FUNCTIONS ]
The primary functions of the Online Learning Committee are to:
1. Make recommendations concerning the creation and selection of online courses, and evaluation of the use of technology in CCSU’s online course offerings
2. Make recommendations concerning the provision of appropriate training for all faculty wishing to teach an online, online-hybrid, or on-ground-hybrid course
3. Provide ongoing assessment of the online course program overall
4. Make recommendations regarding Online Learning
5. Gather, analyze and review the aggregated data from the sections of the online Student Opinion Surveys
6. Submit an annual report to the Faculty Senate
7. Propose guidelines and policies regarding Online Learning to the Senate
[ ONLINE LEARNING COMMITTEE PROCEDURES ]
1. Online Course Proposal: Faculty will propose to teach an online course to their departments and fill out the Online Course Form that includes a rationale for the use of online learning. The Faculty member will also self-identify their level of expertise in online teaching and training needs. Departments will approve these requests in the initial draft of the schedule. At the same time, department chairs will submit the Online Course Form to the Committee for evaluation. In the event that the number of requests to teach online or online-hybrid courses in a given fall or spring semester exceeds the cap on such courses established by the Faculty Senate, the committee will prioritize the requests according to the following criteria (please note that these priorities apply only to undergraduate course offerings; the School of Graduate Studies has its own criteria in place) and make recommendations to department chairs, deans, and the provost about which courses are best to offer online. The Committee will make these recommendations before the final draft of the schedule is submitted.
Online Courses
1. Courses in which the content or subject matter is already substantially online (e.g. online searching in library sciences, online course development in education).
2. Courses designed to meet the specific needs of their target audiences (e.g. a course for students involved in full-time internships)
3. Courses with other compelling rationales for using the online format (given the value of campus community as well as student-faculty and student-student face-to-face contact, the convenience to faculty or students of not having to come to campus will be among the least compelling rationales).
Online-Hybrid Courses
1. Courses in which the content or subject matter is already substantially online (e.g. online searching in library sciences, online course development in education).
2. Courses designed to meet the specific needs of their target audiences (e.g. a course for students involved in full-time internships)
3. “3+1” courses: 4 credit courses where 3 credits are offered on ground with a 1-credit “between class” online component that has a compelling rationale for being online
4. Courses where the online component is synchronous, or broken into small groups meeting synchronously, allowing students to express themselves online as an alternative or enhancement to on-ground participation.
5. Courses with other compelling rationales for the substitution of online for on-ground sessions.
2. Training for Teaching Online: Faculty teaching online and hybrid courses will participate in training opportunities as needed utilizing local Instructional Design and Technology Resource Center facilities, which may also include Quality Matters training. All faculty wishing to teach in online or online-hybrid format shall self-designate on the Online Course Form their current online and hybrid course level of proficiency from the list below in order to allow IDTRC to work with the faculty member to design the appropriate training to best support their training and course development needs:
Expert user: Excellence in online learning. Certified by Quality Matters, Online Learning Consortium, etc. Would be willing to serve as a mentor. Confident to teach or moderate an online teaching session and in no need of additional training at this time.
User: some confidence in online teaching in need of support for improved course delivery.
Novice: never taught online.
Expert users may be asked to allow other faculty members to see their Blackboard courses as models of best practices, but this is voluntary. The Committee will review all Blackboard courses in order to make recommendations to department chairs, deans, and the provost about additional training needs.
3. Student Opinion Surveys in Online and Online-Hybrid Courses: Article 4.11.8 of the Contract requires that student opinion surveys be administered in all courses by a third party. The Committee will make recommendations about how to administer these surveys. Each department with online courses will designate a person to be trained by IDTRC in administrating it for their department. In addition to department course evaluation (student opinion surveys), data will be collected from students in a separate assessment of online learning overall, in order to measure the overall effectiveness of online learning at CCSU. Data on online learning as a general process will be aggregated for overall assessment and cannot be used in promotion or tenure deliberations.
Approved by the Faculty Senate: November 13, 2017