Summerterm Course Offering Policies and Proposal Guidelines

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Effective as of Summer 2024

All summeterm course offerings must be approved by the Academic Affairs Committee. These courses will be offered in an online asynchronous mode of instruction. Asynchronous courses are those that do not include any required synchronous meeting times, with course direct instruction materials available (lectures, notes, assignments, etc.) on the university’s LMS. Asynchronous courses still require instructor availability to students for one-on-one or group instruction (e.g., office hours, review sessions, optional discussions offered at various times of day).

AAC Course Proposal Form

Summerterm Policies for Instructors

  1. Intent to offer a course during the summerterm must be submitted via the online course proposal form.
    • Contact hours and course work must equate to that of a full semester course  of the same unit value. The Academic Affairs Committee reserves the right to request revisions to comply with New York State standards.
  2. Instructor's must set their own course caps, but they should not be lower than at least five students.
  3. All  summerterm courses regardless of unit value must have a minimum enrollment of five students.
    • If a course is moved to an independent study, the instructor shall be compensated with the independent study rate x the number of students enrolled.
    • The independent study rate is determined based on 1.0 unit. If the instructor is teaching a .5-unit course, the independent study rate shall be ½ of the full instructor rate per student.
    • If enrollment increases to five or more students before the end of the add/drop period, the instructor shall be compensated at the full rate rather than the independent study rate.
  4. Instructors of courses with enrollment equal to or less than four students as of one week before the term start date can teach the course as an independent study for each student or cancel it.
  5. Instructor compensation is determined by the Finance Office each fiscal year.
  6. Instructors must determine if they want to cancel their course at least one week before the term starts.
  7. For courses with enrollment equal to or greater than sixteen students, the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs may consider allowing the instructor to offer an additional section upon request. Enrollment equal to or less than fifteen students will not be considered for additional sections.
    • An additional section would qualify for additional compensation.
    • The Associate Dean reserves the right to deny the request
  8. Roster verification must be complete by the dates set forth by the University Registrar.
  9. The add/drop period is set by the Registrar's Office and must be followed due to the format of the summeterm session.
  10. Each course proposal must support enough overall hours to meet the requirements for the same unit value offered in a 15-week course.
    • For example, a 1.0 unit 15-week course requires 135 hours, so a 1.0 summerterm course must also reach 135 hours over the condensed summer schedule.

Summerterm Course Proposal Guidelines

Course proposals should speak to the specific ways in which normal expectations for in-person course content, student engagement, and learning outcomes will be met in the online asynchronous modality. This should include detailed descriptions of which technologies will be used, how student participation will be assessed, and what interactions will comprise the requisite course contact hours.

Proposals must address each of the following points:

Instructional Design

Describe how student engagement with course materials will occur (e.g., meetings via Zoom, Teams, or other platform; recorded lectures; online discussion boards or blogs, materials posted to LMS), including meeting contact-hour requirements.

  • Specify how students will meet contact-hour expectations (45 contact hours for a 1-unit course). Students must be “on task” for this amount of time such as e.g., participating in discussion sessions or group work, watching lectures, engaging in online discussion forums, taking exams and doing other assessments.
  • Specify provisions for instructor-student and student-student interactions in the course. Opportunities for both must be built into the course, even if asynchronous. Examples include, but are not limited to, synchronous class discussions or asynchronous online discussion forums/blogs; one-on-one instructor meetings with students; optional group discussions/question-and- answer sessions conducted by the instructor at different times of day, to accommodate students in a variety of time zones/work situations; group projects in which students must collaborate with each other.
  • Specify all minimum technology requirements for the course (such as high-speed internet access, ability to engage in synchronous video discussion, access to specific applications required to complete course work).
Assignment Design and Student Assessment

Describe the design of course assignments and how students will be evaluated to ensure active student engagement (including meeting contact-hour expectations), learning of course skills and content, and provision of timely and formative feedback on student work.

  • Specify how class participation and engagement will be evaluated given the online format, with special attention to evaluating asynchronous elements (e.g., using tools to track student time spent in relevant areas of the LMS, such as watching recorded lectures or participating in online forums).
  • Specify the key feedback touchpoints in the course—when students will submit assignments and receive feedback, when they will receive summative feedback on their progress during the course, and the manner in which individualized feedback will be conveyed. If exams or quizzes are required, specify how these will be conducted.
  • Describe ways in which student learning may be facilitated and assessed beyond graded work.
  • Describe how the course will address academic integrity, given the challenges intrinsic to the online format.
Content

Describe the course content and university/departmental/program learning goals that will be covered, and how these will be achieved using the specific remote teaching technologies and pedagogies employed.

  • For courses that are not already-approved university courses (i.e., special topics courses or courses substantially altered from their usual form due to the online modality), specify the course content and learning goals. For already-approved university courses, discuss how the course will address the course’s content and goals given the online teaching modality, and any changes to these due to the format.
  • Specify which university/departmental/program learning goals the course addresses and how these will be achieved.
Instructor Availability

Describe the nature of instructor availability throughout the course.

  • Describe the methods you will use for regular student engagement (e.g., daily check-in text or video messages for the class; individualized responses based on level and quality of student engagement with course materials).
  • Specify when and how instructor will be available for student support outside of class sessions (e.g., online office hours/individual meetings, regular e-mail interactions, interactions through the LMS). For asynchronous courses in particular, instructors must provide opportunities for student support that take into account students in a variety of time zones and with diverse weekly schedules (e.g., office hours or group discussion/question-and-answer sessions that occur at different times of day).

Guidance For Effective Online Instruction

  • Cultivate strategies to promote student engagement with the instructor, peers, and course content, to build a learning community. A SLU online course should not be a “correspondence course,” but allow and require regular engagement and feedback.
  • Spell out all expectations very clearly in the course description, syllabus, and through reminders throughout the class.
  • Take advantage of asynchronous elements to create a “flipped classroom” so that class time is devoted to discussion, answering questions, working on problems, and maximizing the beneficial interactions of students with instructor and peers. For asynchronous classes, build in at least some optional synchronous group learning opportunities.
  • Develop a strategy to promote academic integrity in your course. For quizzes and exams, it is likely impractical to proctor them synchronously, so think about how you can minimize the risk of dishonesty (e.g., avoiding multiple-choice, fill-in- the-blank or other easily searchable kinds of questions; offering a style of assessment that allows students to repeat questions until knowledge is mastered; reducing the stakes of assignments to curb temptation to and blunt effects of dishonesty). For papers and presentations, consider building in scaffolded steps, instructor-student meetings, and other check-in requirements before completed assignments are submitted.
  • Develop a strategy to communicate instructor availability, whether for one-on- one video (or phone) meetings, prompt e-mail/messaging communications, or some other mode. Students should know the instructor is available in ways equivalent to their experience in an in-person course on campus.
  • Promote student utilization of academic support services that are available during the summerterm: Academic Advising, Student Accessibility Services, IT Help Desk, library staff support, WORD Studio, PQRC. Note that while peer tutoring is not available during summerterm, the Peer Tutor Coordinator and Academic Support staff are prepared to provide equivalent support in most cases.
  • Spell out all technical requirements for the course ahead of time (e.g., high-speed internet, video capability, specialized software).
  • Work on technical and pedagogical skills required for the course ahead of time. Take advantage of our many Ed Tech resources, including the IT Support Portal (https://stlawu.myportallogin.com/) and the Ed Tech team.
  • Discuss summerterm course plans with your department chair, both to think about university and departmental course needs and to plan for how summerterm teaching will work as part of your long-term teaching, research, and service expectations.
  • PLAN AHEAD for potential logistical and pedagogical challenges and have strategies ready to address these. Complications of some sort are likely to occur. Plan for “known unknowns” and be prepared for “unknown unknowns.”