5.1.6.p.2. Procedure: Southeastern Technical College Online and Blended Course Credit Hour Assignment
Southeastern Technical College (STC)conforms to the commonly accepted practice in higher education for determining credit hour awards for courses and programs. The credit hour procedure for distance education is consistent with the standards of courses offered through on campus instruction, although some or all of the content, and faculty to student interaction, occurs at a distance. PURPOSE The purpose of this procedure is to provide guidelines for the assignment of credit hours to blended and online courses and to show the process is consistent with on campus courses. DEFINITIONS Online Synchronous: Course is taught fully online synchronously with course content, activities and interactions occurring entirely online. This delivery method requires students to be online at specific dates/times. A proctored event is required. Online Asynchronous: Course is taught fully online asynchronously with course content, activities and interactions occurring entirely online. This delivery method does not require students to be online at specific dates/times. A proctored event is required. Blended: Course is taught with the majority of the course content, activities and interactions occurring online (>50% but <100% online) but requires students to come on campus for specific labs, assignments, activities, or events.Georgia Virtual Technical Connection (GVTC): a statewide consortium of technical colleges. GVTC brings together the resources of 22 technical colleges, providing support to instructors and working together to keep costs of high quality online instruction down by sharing the burden equally. Master Review Team: a team comprised of instructors, deans, and vice presidents, who review online and blended courses to determine if the course meets all requirements as outlined on the STC Master Review Checklist. Master Shell Template: a template imported into Blackboard courses after it has been approved by a Master Review Team member, which includes a variety of content that is required to be present in all blended and online courses. Blackboard: the platform that GVTC and STC utilize for the development, adoption, and implementation of online and blended courses. Institutional Review Process Form (IRP): a form that an instructor must complete and submit along with the course syllabus to the respective dean for new online and blended courses even if the courses have been previously offered online or blended by another faculty member. Instructional Process Evaluation Instrument (IPEI): a form that the Deans of Academic Affairs use to evaluate online and blended courses. Confidential Instructional Process Evaluation Instrument: a form that the Deans of Academic Affairs use to evaluate on campus courses. SPIRIT (Strategic Planning, Improvements, Results, and Implementation through Teamwork): STC's web-based, database planning/assessment system. PROCEDURES General Instructors are required to utilize the approved online or blended syllabus template, which includes the course competencies. Institutional syllabi for blended and online courses are posted on the S Drive for deans to assess and review. The Dean will compare the blended or online course syllabus to the same course taught on campus to ensure course competencies are the same and activities/assignments are comparable for the courses. The Dean will request additional information from the instructor of the course as needed. The Dean will confirm the course meets the credit hours required by the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) curriculum. Instructors are required to utilize the approved master shell template when creating courses. Philosophy TCSG and/or STC courses are developed to be implemented through various modalities. The choice of modality is determined by the instructor with dean approval. Blended and online courses differ from on campus courses in the way instructional time is interpreted. Blended and online courses must incorporate sufficient academic engagement at a distance in order to meet the same competencies and student learning outcomes expected in on campus courses. For purposes of this procedure, categories of course approval will be assigned as follows: Online Blended Best Practices STC requires that all online courses and blended courses include a minimum of five discussion forum assignments where students respond to questions or scenarios posted by their instructor. Students are also required to respond to other student responses to ensure both student-to-instructor and student-to-student interaction. These discussion assignments employ the use of a grading rubric and are incorporated into the grading system of the students overall grade. Criteria Online Before an instructor can offer an online course, he/she must submit an Institutional Review Process Form (IRP) along with the course syllabus to their respective dean to review in advance of the semester in which the course is to be offered. The Dean will review the IRP and the course syllabus/lesson plan for accuracy and give final approval signature. One online master course review per instructor will take place each fiscal year. The course will be assigned a reviewer from The Master Review Team, who will review the course to ensure that all requirements are met as outlined on the STC Master Review Checklist. The respective Dean is responsible for reviewing and examining the course syllabus to confirm assignments are comparable regardless of the modality. The Dean will review instructor-to-student and student-to-student interaction to ensure learning is not taking place in isolation and that students are academically engaged. Examples of activities which promote student academic engagement may include but are not limited to the following: completing and submitting an online assignment, taking an examination, performing proctored events, completing an interactive tutorial, utilizing computer-assisted instruction, reading, conducting research, participating in group activities, contributing to an academic online discussion, and initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course. During the semester, the Deans will evaluate online courses utilizing the IPEI form. At a minimum, new instructors are evaluated by the Dean once each term for a period of one year. At a minimum, instructors employed one to three years will be evaluated by the Dean two times annually. At a minimum, instructors employed more than three years will be evaluated by the Dean once per year. Blended Before an instructor can offer a blended course, he/she must submit an Institutional Review Process Form (IRP) along with the course syllabus to their respective dean to review in advance of the semester in which the course is to be offered. The Dean will review the schedule and syllabi and lesson plan to ensure that the correct minutes of the course is taught on campus. The lesson plan must indicate which activities are performed on campus and which activities are performed online. The activities taking place online should ensure that students are academically engaged. The Dean will give final approval signature. One blended master course review per instructor will take place each fiscal year. The course will be assigned a reviewer from The Master Review Team, who will review the course to ensure that all requirements are met as outlined on the STC Master Review Checklist. The respective Dean is responsible for reviewing and examining the course syllabus to confirm assignments are comparable regardless of the modality. Examples of activities which promote student academic engagement may include but are not limited to the following: completing and submitting an online assignment, taking an examination, completing an interactive tutorial, utilizing computer-assisted instruction, reading, conducting research, participating in group activities, contributing to an academic online discussion, and initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course. During the semester, the Deans will evaluate blended courses utilizing the IPEI form. At a minimum, new instructors are evaluated by the Dean once each term for a period of one year. At a minimum, instructors employed one to three years will be evaluated by the Dean two times annually. At a minimum, instructors employed more than three years will be evaluated by the Dean once per year. RESPONSIBILITY The course instructor is responsible for an accurate and articulate institutional course syllabus. The respective Dean is responsible for reviewing and examining the course syllabus to confirm assignments are comparable regardless of the modality. INSTITUTIONALLY DEVELOPED COURSE A process is followed on the rare occasion that STC creates a course that is not a TCSG approved course. In this instance, Southeastern Technical College adheres to The Technical College System of Georgia's Policy 5.1.6, Structure of Associate Degree, Diploma, and Technical Certificate of Credit Programs. This policy delineates the minimum/maximum number of semester credit hours allowed for each program. When a need for a new course is determined, a committee is formed by the appropriate dean. The committee researches internal data and literature. A list of competencies is identified and appropriate instructional minutes are assigned to each competency. The minutes are added to determine the total contact hours for the course. Credit hours are determined as defined by the U.S. Department of Education and followed by the TCSG Policy 5.1.6, Structure of Associate Degree, Diploma, and Technical Certificate of Credit Programs. The new course must receive approval from Faculty Council, Executive Council, and the Technical College System of Georgia. EMERGENCY PROCEDURES In cases of emergency or pandemics, course modality may be changed at the discretion of Academic Affairs leadership. References Exhibit: Instructional Process Evaluation Instrument Exhibit: Institutional Review Process form (IRP)
Adopted: January 26, 2012 Reviewed: September 15, 2016; September 18, 2017; September 16, 2019; September 20, 2021; September 18, 2023; Revised: July 16, 2018; September 19, 2022;