Distance Education Course Approval
Faculty members should be familiar with the course approval process before they design, adopt or teach an Online/Hybrid course. This course approval process takes about two semesters to complete.
New Course With an Online/Hybrid Format
- All new Online/Hybrid courses must also go through the DE course approval process. This process begins by completing all parts of the course approval forms and submission through CurricUNET Links to an external site..
- Division dean must approve the submission before it is forwarded to your college Curriculum Committee.
- After the final approval by the Curriculum Committee, the design of the actual course can begin. The faculty member must have completed the required training to develop the course.
- Faculty members developing an online course need to work in tandem with the DE support staff at their colleges, which may include the following: Instructional Designer, Instructional Technologist, and Distance Education Coordinator along with other successful Online/Hybrid teaching faculty. The peer consultation process is an important component for the creation of a quality Online/Hybrid course. Throughout the development/design process, faculty collaboration should be used to ensure best practices and to share insights into both technology and pedagogy.
- Moving from the traditional classroom to a “virtual” classroom is not as simple as merely putting existing course notes and readings online. This would be considered a “Correspondence Course Links to an external site.” and therefore not an Online/Hybrid course. Faculty must develop a course that creates a strong “instructor presence."
Sample Language for DE Addendum Sections in CurricUNET
Faculty Training Section
- Faculty members who teach in the distance education modality will have completed training in the past five years in the following areas: online teaching pedagogy, technical training in the learning management system currently in use, and accessibility best practices. Faculty training may be completed within the District, or a nationally recognized training program.
Online Method Limitations Section
- To reflect the experience that students would have in a face-to-face course, the instructor could facilitate student-to-student interaction through the use of the following examples: graded discussion forums, collaborative fully online group projects, etc.
- The course instructor will provide specific details regarding course exams in the syllabus and welcome message to students. Online courses may have in-person proctored exam requirements. Students who cannot attend the proctored session may be offered alternatives such as taking the exam at an SMCCCD learning center, a California Community Colleges Proctoring Network location, or testing centers at other colleges.
Accessibility Section
- Accurate transcripts are included for audio recordings.
- Closed captions, audio descriptions, and transcripts are included for videos.
- Instructional materials have been tagged to indicate organizational structure and reading order.
Images, tables and/or diagrams include textual representations. - If applicable, the instructor will ask the publisher (e.g. McGraw-Hill and Pearson) to provide a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) which evaluates how accessible the product is according to section 508 standards.
- If any instructional resources are not accessible for a student, faculty will work with the Disability Resource Center to propose an alternative activity, resource, or assignment for any student with an accommodation to meet section 508 standards.
Contact Section
- Choose as many applicable choices as possible from the drop-down menu.
- Please specify at least one form of contact in which the instructor responds to student inquiries within 24-48 hours of receipt.
- Specify one regular and substantive Links to an external site. student-to-student contact method.