Memorandum No. 14 Standards for Distance Education Courses

Revised: June 25, 2025
Effective Date: November 29, 2001 
Approved by: President 
Policy Owner: Dean, Online Learning and Media Services

 

This document provides a uniform standard for distance education courses. Distance education courses are defined as those courses where the faculty member may be in a different physical location than the students. This encompasses online and hybrid courses. The goal of these standards is to promote high-quality distance education courses.

Types of Online Learning

In-Person

• There are regularly scheduled meeting times on campus.
• It is in the course schedule with the building name and room number

Online

Online Asynchronous 

• The course is taught entirely online.
• There are no scheduled meeting times.
• There is no expectation for students to come to campus, though some classes may require in-person testing
• It is in the schedule as ONLAS

Online Synchronous  

• The course is taught entirely online via live video conferencing (e.g., Zoom)
• There are regularly scheduled meeting times.
• The course is required to meet the same number of hours as a regular in-person course.
• There is no expectation for students to come to campus, though some classes may require in-person testing
• It is in the schedule as ONLSY
   

Hybrid

Hybrid Asynchronous

• This course is a combination of mandatory in-person meeting times and asynchronous online work.
• For the in-person part, there are regularly scheduled days and times when students must be in class. This may include required in-person exams.
• For the online asynchronous part, there is no specific day or time that students must be online, but you must meet the due dates for online coursework.
• It is in the schedule as HYBAS 

Hybrid Synchronous

• This course is a combination of mandatory in-person meeting times and mandatory online synchronous, e.g. live video conferencing meetings.
• For the in-person part, there are regularly scheduled days and times when students must be in class. This may include required in-person exams.
• For the online synchronous part, e.g. Zoom, there are specific days and times when students must attend class online.
• The syllabus will outline which days are in-person and which days are via live video conferencing.
• It is in the schedule as HYBSY  

HyFlex 

• Students choose how to attend class at any point.
• This course is taught in all three ways- in-person on campus, online synchronous e.g. via live video conferencing and asynchronous online and students can choose how to attend class on any given day.
• The live video conferencing meetings are scheduled at the same time as the in-person class on campus.
• The online option does not have a scheduled time to meet.
• Tests and exams are delivered online, though some classes may require in-person testing
• It is in the schedule as HYFLX

 

Hosting

Online courses shall be delivered within the College’s approved learning management system (LMS) for asynchronous courses or on an approved College video conferencing platform (e.g. Zoom) for synchronous courses.  Publisher materials should be deep linked into the LMS.

 

Online Course Design

Regular and Substantive Interaction

In accordance with Federal regulations 34 C.F.R. §600.2 of the Higher Education Act (HEA), regular and substantive interaction between instructor and student shall occur in fully online and hybrid courses. Federal regulations define substantive interaction as engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion. Substantive interaction also includes at least two of the following—
(i) Providing direct instruction;
(ii) Assessing or providing feedback on a student's coursework;
(iii) Providing information regarding or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency;
(iv) Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or
(v) Other instructional activities approved by the institution's or program's accrediting agency.
Instructors shall maintain regular online communications and interactions with students on a schedule made known to their students.

Assessment of Students and Maintaining Academic Integrity
Online courses shall include online tests and/or practice quizzes, projects, or other forms of assessment as appropriate. Provision for the academic integrity of the assessment should be part of the course design (for example, the use of multiple approaches to learning assessment or the use of technological solutions for maintaining academic integrity such as online test proctoring).

Support

The College shall provide the following forms of support for online and hybrid courses:

For Students:

• Technical support for the LMS and other instructional software via phone, e-mail, or online chat by the Office of Online Learning and/or software vendor where available.
• For general computer support or assistance with the Microsoft Office suite, students should be directed to contact the Learning Lab.  
• An online tutorial or other documentation for use of the LMS.

Academic support through online tutoring, advising, library resources, etc. For Faculty:

• Access to technology to manage courses.
• Training to teach online. Specifically, training includes best practices in online pedagogy, instructional technology including the LMS, and compliance with relevant laws such as those related to copyright, accessibility and regular and substantive interaction.
• Instructors of online courses who require additional necessary software directly related to their courses shall be provided with a copy for use at home. (This applies only to software that students are required to have purchased.) 
• Library resources and services in electronic format, e.g. eBooks, electronic journals, etc.

Initial Approval for Fully Online and Hybrid Courses

Prior to being assigned an online or hybrid course for the first time, faculty will work with their department heads to follow these procedures for a pre-check of the course for minimum standards:

• The faculty and department head identify new course development needs and request a course development sandbox in the LMS from the Office of Online Learning.
• Faculty build the course and work with the department head to ensure alignment with course learning outcomes and content rigor.
• When the course development process is complete, the department head submits a dynamic form to request a review from the Office of Online Learning who will review the course for: 
• Compliance with federal and state laws (e.g. copyright laws, regular and substantive interaction, and accessibility.)
• Compliance with other College policies and procedures related to online courses and LMS use.
• The Director of Online Learning forwards a recommendation for revision or approval to the department head.  
• If revisions are needed, the department head works with faculty to make corrections. Once revisions are made, the department head resubmits the course for approval.
• If no revisions are needed, the Director of Online Learning submits the recommendation for approval to the department head.

On-Going Quality Assurance Review

Existing online courses are reviewed at regular intervals, either as part of required departmental evaluation plans, or voluntary participation, or as directed by the department head.  To ensure student success and continued compliance with federal and state laws, the faculty-led Online Learning Advisory Group (OLAG), and the Office of Online Learning currently utilize a custom rubric based on the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric to review courses.