Online Class Sessions

The GMU composition program encourages instructors to involve their students in online writing, discussion, and learning as part of teaching writing, research, and critical thinking in the 21st century.  To ensure that standards for student learning remain high, we ask that faculty follow some basic guidelines.

Most of these recommendations for class session design, assignment development, and ensuring technology access are common sense. 

Definitions

An online class session is defined as a required, scheduled class session that replaces a face-to-face meeting with a series of specific educational tasks and interactions that take place in a virtual/online environment. 

An online class session is NOT the same thing as

• holding a class meeting in a computer classroom

• having an online research session with a librarian

• assigning homework that requires online work

• having an email discussion list

A hybrid course design refers to courses that are, with approval by the composition director and the department, designed to include 35-50% of class meetings as online class sessions.  Please email Shelley Reid (ereid1@gmu.edu) if you are interested in developing a hybrid course for English 302.

General Policies

• All hybrid courses must be approved by the composition director and the department at least one semester before they are offered.
  
• Online class sessions do not need specific approval.
  
• Online class sessions must be announced in a written syllabus given out to students (or posted online where students regularly check) at least two weeks in advance of the online meeting.
  
• Online class sessions must be instructionally equivalent to face-to-face meetings (see below).
  
• Online class sessions must be fully accessible by all enrolled students without undue hardship (see below).
  
• No more than two contiguous weeks of online class sessions may be scheduled at one time during a semester, and instructors are strongly encouraged to limit their online classes to no more than every other week.

Curriculum Policies

Online class sessions must be instructionally equivalent to face-to-face meetings.  That is, they

• Must include direct instructor guidance suitable to the learning goals of the class and at a level comparable to that given in a classroom setting
  • "Work on your research essays" is not sufficient instructor guidance for a class session
    
  • Informational handouts, peer-review guides, detailed instructions, assessment rubrics and/or timely instructor response to student activity may be combined to produce sufficient guidance
• Must include student participation and interaction suitable to the learning goals of the class and comparable to that given in a classroom setting
  • Even students who don't express themselves vocally in a classroom setting are likely to have heard other students' contributions and had the opportunity to connect with and reflect on them; instruction for an online class session should attempt to ensure at least that level of interaction (through requiring not just posting but responding to other posts, for instance)
    
  • Where appropriate, students should have opportunities to ask questions and have them answered in a timely way, to provide examples or alternative ideas, and/or to have their contributions assessed
• Must move students toward specific practice with and improvement in their critical reading, writing, and/or researching skills, and should make those goals clearly visible to students.
  
• Must not pose undue hardships on students; they should not
  • require more time-on-task of average students than attending a physical class
    
  • require students to significantly change their working schedules (i.e., a student who so wishes should be able to complete his or her online class work during the normally scheduled class time, unless other arrangements are made well in advance)
    
  • require technologies not easily accessible to all students (see below)
• Should have clear, accessible, stand-alone instructions and technology protocols, with clear statements of what will be assessed/graded and on what criteria.
  
• Should be distinguished from "homework" so as to provide distinct interactive space (see #2 above) and so as not to unduly increase student workloads (see 5b below); of course, students may as usual be required to complete homework assignments either before or after their online class participation.
  
• Should strive to take specific advantage of some element of online study:  online class sessions whose only justification is the physical convenience of (some) students are treading thin curricular ice.  In a writing course, for instance, online environments can provide
  • Increased opportunities for students to write reflectively, analytically, argumentatively, or in an exploratory mode
    
  • Increased opportunities for students to write for a live, responsive audience
    
  • Opportunities for increased class participation, especially from students with alternative points of view, regarding topics that are complex or sensitive, and/or in situations where additional response-time is needed or desired
    
  • Opportunities for formal analysis and/or synthesis of other student responses
    
  • Collaboration over extended periods of time on complex projects
    
  • Flexible timing, so that students who work quickly and students who work more slowly can both work at a comfortable pace
    
  • Opportunities for honest response to and evaluation of peers, where such responses may be more muted or hurried in a face-to-face setting
    
  • Opportunities for composing in different genres, with current technological tools, and/or in more public online space

Technology Access and Support Policies

Online class sessions must be fully accessible to all students, in terms of hardware, software, instructional and technological support, and timing.  Please remember that students did not know when they signed up for your course that online class sessions would be required, and some may need additional support to complete the work you are asking of them.

Instructors must make preparations and reasonable accommodations to enable all students to

• Have sufficient access to hardware and software, either on personal computers at home or in public labs with broad availability at GMU
  
• Complete the class-session tasks using commonly available resources; this may require the instructor to
  •  provide directions that take into account multiple common platforms (Windows, Vista, Mac OS)
    
  • provide lead-time so that students who own or use less-common hardware or software can make arrangements for accessing the necessary tools
    
  • and/or make arrangements for students to receive or take advantage of technical support or supplementary instruction at GMU
• Have or quickly locate technical support for completing the class-session tasks
  
• Complete the class-session tasks without making special trips to campus or making significant, sudden changes to a weekly schedule

During the first online class session(s) of a semester, instructors should anticipate confusions, misunderstandings, timing-issues, and/or technology-related problems, and should plan to have protocols and assessment policies that encourage student participation as much as possible, to provide alternatives, and/or to reduce the grade-penalties for mistakes or incompletions.