Online Course Preparation

In the Spring of 2009 the Online Learning Advisory Committee convened and provided several recommendations as State University of New York at Fredonia adds to the 100% online course offerings. The committee based their recommendations on past SLN practices and agreed that instructor preparation and a course review process was an important component of quality online courses.

Course Approval Process

Initial academic course approvals remain within the purview of the college deans, department chairs, instructors, and the Academic Affairs Committee. Department chairs may request that courses be approved for online delivery mode if the course being proposed is a good candidate for online delivery.

Instructor and Course Approval Process

The approval process for a new online course includes several steps. These steps may take considerable instructor, departmental, and course design assistance for optimal use of FREDLearn functionality depending on how the instructor wants to deliver the course. To ensure that the instructor has the appropriate technological and pedagogical expertise to design and deliver a successful online course, faculty must follow these steps and have their courses reviewed before they will appear in the course offerings. 

• Contact Lisa Melohusky (lisa.melohusky@fredonia.edu), Director of Online Learning, to indicate your interest in developing an online course;
• Demonstrate FREDLearn competence by completing the Introduction to FREDLearn and FREDLearn Gradebook workshops. Schedules for these workshops can be found on the PDC Calendar;
• Complete "Building Your Online Course," BYOC, an asynchronous online course preparing instructors to teach online. BYOC is a 4-week online course offered multiple times during the year. 
• Complete three course modules for preliminary technical review (OSCQR Review Rubric) by the Online Learning Office. Please contact the office to discuss timelines for development.
• Upon approval of the preliminary technical review, complete and submit the full course for final technical review two weeks prior to start of the course.

After an instructor successfully completes the above criteria for developing their first online course subsequent course developments only require the last two bullets in the above list.

Instructor Approval to Offer Master Courses

An online Master Course is a course that is fully designed, built, and passed through the OSCQR rubric by a certified online instructor (see steps above). A Master Course is shared in its entirety with the new instructor, no changes or additions will be made to the course by the new instructor. To be eligible to teach a Master Course the new instructor will need to:

• Contact Online Learning at OLL@fredonia.edu indicating your interest in teaching an online Master Course. Please include the course you will be teaching.
•  Demonstrate FREDLearn competence by completing the Introduction to FREDLearn and FREDLearn Gradebook workshops. Schedules for these workshops can be found on the PDC Calendar;
• Complete four on-demand MicroCourses. The average completion time for each MicroCourse is 5 hours.
  • MicroCourse 1: Online Learning Basics  
  • MicroCourse 2: Online Student Supports
  • MicroCourse 3: Interaction/Engagement
  • MicroCourse 4: Assessment for Learning

Master courses are developed to meet high demand needs or are part of a fully online program. Campus administration identifies good course candidates and works with the departments to develop master courses with an expert instructor.