Dear Colleagues – Bill Davis, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Engagement and Student Achievement, recently shared some correspondence that may be useful for anyone considering the idea of incorporating online course delivery. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Question 1: When considering a change that includes remote delivery, can the program or college make this determination independently, or does the university have a specific process?
Answer: As stipulated in the Faculty Manual, the decision on course modality lies in the domain of the instructor with the permission of the chair or the director of the academic program. Once that decision is made, guidance on course instructional modalities should be followed regarding how the course is placed on the time schedule through the WSU Registrar (see Question 3 below). New courses and major curricular changes are evaluated through the Faculty Senate.
Question 2: Is there specific documentation that should be maintained for accreditation purposes?
Answer: At least through the spring semester of 2022, it is important to ensure that all instructors who employ on-line modalities have received appropriate training from AOI. Future guidance from our accrediting body (NWCCU) will change in response to new requirements from the Department of Education. Discussions about these changes will be ongoing between Faculty Senate, the Provost’s Office and others during the spring semester.
Question 3: Should the amount of asynchronous time be held to a certain limit – e.g., limited to no more than 25% of a program that has been 100% synchronous?
Answer: In terms of teaching pedagogy, there are no hard and fast rules about a conversion like this, but a consultation between the faculty member and an instructional designer at AOI is highly recommended so that the best delivery model is developed. Once this decision is reached, there are two options in the EPPM that can be used for courses with largely (more than 75%) asynchronous online instruction. The first is online (ON) where there is 100% course instruction in an asynchronous online fashion. The second is Hybrid (HY) which is a mix of asynchronous online teaching (>75%) and the rest face to face (in person or videoconference; <25%).
Doug Call, Chair, Faculty Senate
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