CCS Course Modalities
CCS offers courses delivered in online and hybrid modalities, in addition to courses taught in person. Please see the definitions of these modalities below, taken from the CCS Instructional Methods policy:
ONLA – Online With No Scheduled Meeting Times (Online Asynchronous)
This fully online course format does not require students to attend any live sessions, offering maximum flexibility. All course materials, lectures, assignments, and assessments are accessible via Canvas, allowing students to complete their coursework at their own pace within the established deadlines. Canvas serves as the primary platform for all course content, including access to grades, the syllabus, and instructions. This modality supports asynchronous learning, enabling students to engage with the content and complete their weekly assignments according to their individual schedules, making it ideal for those balancing various commitments.
ONLS – Online with Scheduled Meeting Times (Online Synchronous)
These courses are conducted entirely online but with specific requirements for students to participate in scheduled, real-time sessions. These live sessions are an important part of the course and may involve demonstrations, critiques, discussions, draw-overs, etc. Participation in these scheduled online meetings is essential for developing a collaborative learning environment, allowing for synchronous interaction between students and the instructor. Canvas will be used to host all course materials, grades, the syllabus, and facilitate interactions outside of live sessions. The scheduled times will be scheduled and listed at the time of registration.
HYB – In-Person with Online Requirements (Hybrid)
This course format combines the flexibility of online instruction with the benefits of face-to-face engagement. There is a mix of the course content and assignments that are delivered online and can be accessed asynchronously along with mandatory in-person sessions. These sessions are scheduled in advance and may include activities such as workshops, labs, critiques, or exams. Canvas is utilized to host all online materials, assignments, and interactions, providing a centralized platform for accessing course content and facilitating communication.
Developing Online and Hybrid Courses
Online course delivery and facilitation requires a more structured experience for students who are not meeting together in a physical classroom. The following resources will help you develop strong online and hybrid courses at CCS:
- Building Online Asynchronous Courses: guides you through best practices in the development of a robust online course experience for students.
- Online/Hybrid Canvas Course Checklist: designed to help instructors evaluate an online or hybrid course site, as well as the pedagogical dimensions of the course (evaluation, engagement, technology, and resources).
Working with the EdTech Team
When approved by Academic Affairs and the Curriculum Committee, the EdTech team provides one-on-one course development through an instructional design approach in collaboration with faculty. The department chair can initiate this process by submitting the Course Curriculum Development Request Form. This form submission will be reviewed by the academic deans and the director of Educational Technology + Innovation to determine scope. If approved by all parties, the director of EdTech will request a meeting to establish project timelines, discuss financial follow-up, and to review subject matter expert (SME) expectations. The timeline for all online course build projects with the EdTech team will be heavily dependent on faculty and/or SME responsiveness and subject to change from initial timelines outlined by the director.
An educational specialist will reach out to the faculty/SME who is assigned to work on this course development. In the process of course development, the faculty/SME is expected to meet regularly with the educational specialist. See Developing or Modifying Course Curriculum for all faculty/SME expectations.
The EdTech team has created a template for course development to ensure consistency, quality engagement and evaluation in online and hybrid courses. The faculty/SME can make use of EdTech’s recording studio for video lectures. The educational specialist will build out course content in Canvas, utilizing a Canvas template built for consistency and ease of use by students. Prior to launch, the course will be reviewed by both the EdTech team and the faculty/SME, as well as checked for accessibility.
Online Course Policies
Regular and Substantive Interaction Policy for Online Courses
Student-instructor interactions are an integral part of the learning environment at CCS, which includes the online learning environment. Focusing on regular and substantive interaction, whether synchronous or asynchronous, not only maintains CCS’s compliance with the Department of Education, but delivers the quality of education consistent with what students and instructors expect at the college.
The U.S. Department of Education requires that all online course offerings must incorporate “regular and substantive interaction between students and instructors.” Regular interaction is defined as on a “scheduled and predictable basis,” and must be initiated by the faculty member AND be concerning the course material.
To reinforce the importance of student and instructor engagement and assure RSI, CCS requires that faculty spend a minimum of 5 days per week interacting with students and responding to course inquiries.
Examples of RSI include:
- Scheduling video conferencing meetings to discuss the individual student’s progress in the course.
- Posting a discussion board to reinforce concepts learned in the module’s lecture and actively responding to posts.
- Providing a written critique on students’ work in progress.
- Asking a student to visit you during office hours or to schedule a phone call or video conference with you.
- Posting weekly announcements and sending messages regarding learnings within the course.
- Holding a required online review session every other week during the semester.
- Sending a message previewing concepts introduced in the next unit and listing questions for students to have in mind when reading the course material.
- Identifying students struggling to reach the outcomes through observation of discussion activity, assessment completion, or even user activity and offer additional opportunities for interaction.
- Using working/study groups that are moderated by the instructor.
It is important to note that each of these methods is initiated by the faculty member AND are about the content being covered in the course.
Interactions NOT considered RSI include:
- A student reaching out via email, phone, text for additional help.
- A faculty member checking in on a student’s well-being (although encouraged, this is not a form of RSI.)
- Optional/supplemental recorded webinars, videos, and reading materials.
- Contact with instructors not related to the course subject matter.
- Sending a welcome message during the first week of class and another around mid-semester.
- Reminding students of the course attendance policy.
- Providing an open-ended online forum that is not moderated by the instructor.
- A student dropping in during regularly scheduled open office hours.
- Adding grades to the course gradebook.
- Encouraging students to participate in an optional, one-time online critique session.
- Posting an announcement about an upcoming assignment deadline.
Attendance in Online Courses
For courses that are taught online, faculty must document whether students have been academically engaged at least once in the first two weeks of their online course. See the bolded activities below for examples that meet this engagement as defined by the US Department of Education for financial aid eligibility.
The following is quoted from the Federal Student Aid Handbook.
For distance education, documenting that a student has logged into an online course is not sufficient to demonstrate academic attendance by the student. A school must demonstrate that a student participated in class or was otherwise engaged in an academically related activity. Examples of acceptable evidence of academic attendance and attendance at an academically related activity in a distance education course/program include, but are not limited to:
- student submission of an academic assignment,
- student submission of an exam,
- documented student participation in an interactive tutorial, webinar or other interactive or computer-assisted instruction,
- a posting by the student showing the student’s participation in an online study group that is assigned by the institution,
- a posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student’s participation in an online discussion about academic matters, and
- an email from the student or other documentation showing that the student-initiated contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.
Please note that only active participation by a student in an instructional activity related to the student’s course of study meets the definition of “academic engagement”.