ABOUT OUR COURSES

Course Style

Our courses are all online asynchronous and hosted in Canvas. Each course derives from a “blueprint”, meaning every section of that course includes the same core content. Instructors can add content but cannot remove content. Assignments may also be edited but should align with course outcomes. Courses are regularly revised (see below).

Course Revisions

A revision is a collaboration between the faculty subject matter expert and the instructional design team, with guidance from the program manager. A revision is often triggered by a new textbook edition, a textbook change, or to update content.

Course Setup

About 60 days before the course starts, you gain access to your course in Canvas. This is the time you have to prepare your course for student readiness. You are expected to assign due dates to assignments, add dates to the course calendar document, link any digital content (you will be given instructions), add a welcome announcement and weekly announcements, create any additional help videos, etc. It is recommended you add an announcement each week of the course introducing material, offering guidance on difficult topics, or as a wrap-up. This is also a good place to add short videos. If there are edits that you cannot make because you are locked out, email the request to ttchelp@uwplatt.edu. You will need to publish your course so students can see it for preview week (see below in the courses section). It is best not to publish too early since your course may be subdivided into two if there are a lot of students registered (we aim to cap courses at 25-30 for undergrad).

Grading

All courses should have an established grading scale in the syllabus, and the grade book is pre-set. Some graduatelevel courses do not have “+” or “-”grades, so be sure to note what grading scale has been chosen and presented in the syllabus. If you opt to give an incomplete, this extra time is unpaid work for you and should be based on exceptional circumstances. A mutually agreed on extended time should be recorded on the Course Completion Contract, available on the Registrar’s Forms page. This course completion document is required for undergraduate courses but not required for graduate courses. Students are granted six months to complete by default, but shorter time frames usually mean better success. You will want to extend their access in Canvas beyond the standard end date. On the home page in the right navigation, click on “Extend Student Access.” From there, you can assign a new end date to a specific student; you will also write the reason why.

Group Projects

If your course has group projects, wait until the end of week one to create groups, as students can change their registration through week one of the term.

Late Policy

This is not pre-determined. You will need to determine yours and post it in your course (on the calendar or as an announcement).

Preview Week

The week before the course starts, students gain access to their courses to preview content and plan their terms. Be sure to publish your course on or before the start of Preview Week. TTC “Course Setup” emails will include how to set start and end dates to auto-publish.

Proctoring

We have Respondus monitor and lockdown browser available. If you opt to add this to an exam, you need to announce it to students so they are aware at start of class, as it does require certain technical requirements (camera, etc.).