Contact Us
Email: digitallearning@msmc.edu
Phone: 845-569-3457
Hours of Operation: Mon-Fri 8:00a – 4:30p (Closed Weekends)
Acadeum (Online Course Sharing)
Mount Saint Mary College (MSMC) has entered into a partnership with the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) course sharing consortium and Acadeum. Through this partnership, MSMC and our peer and sister institutions are able to offer fully online courses, majors, concentrations, and minors to MSMC and non-MSMC students aiding in student recruitment and increased enrollment across institutions, especially in under-enrolled courses.
With over 9,000 courses available across multiple term start dates, selecting courses for students on Acadeum Course Share can have a lasting impact on student success:
- Find alternatives for under-enrolled sections and waitlisted courses
- Create options for bottlenecks and course conflicts for double major or Honor students
- Ensure student athlete eligibility and flexibility
- Help newly admitted students who may be out of sequence or need prerequisites
- Make certain that upcoming graduates can access the courses they need for an on-time completion
For Faculty and Academic Schools/Divisions:
- MSMC faculty will be able to offer courses in their specialization that could potentially be under-enrolled
- MSMC Divisions and Schools will be able to maintain/increase full-time teaching loads
- MSMC faculty will increase their pedagogical and innovative capacity and discover alternative teaching methods that extend to the face-to-face classroom
- MSMC will increase capacity to offer majors, concentrations, or minors to students outside of MSMC aiding in student recruitment and increased enrollment
For Students:
- MSMC traditional students, transfer students, adult and non-traditional students will have enhanced course options, including elective courses
- MSMC athletes will have course options for summer and winter
- MSMC will be able to retain MSMC students that enroll in community college courses over the summer and winter
- MSMC will help support students to graduate on-time
When submitting course projections to the Registrar, Chairpersons can select the column for “Acadeum” to indicate they would like to advertise the online course to visiting students. Our office will also send a reminder email to Chairpersons about 3-4 months before a session or semester begins to request a list of course offerings, or to ensure the list provided in the projections is still accurate.
Chairpersons may be asked to help gather recent syllabi that reflect an online delivery format to accompany the course listing with Acadeum. Our office then posts the course offerings to Acadeum’s platform approximately 2-3 months before the course begins. Visiting students can then begin to enroll in our courses.
Evaluating Course Equivalencies
Chairpersons are in charge of reviewing/approving courses that MSMC students can take through Acadeum to determine equivalency.
Approving/Denying Incoming Enrollment Requests
If courses receive an enrollment request through Acadeum, the Registrar will approve or deny the enrollment request based upon the course’s current enrollment numbers. If the course is full, the Registrar will not process the external registration request.
Student On-Boarding Process
Upon enrollment acceptance, visiting Acadeum students will receive an automated “Welcome Letter.” This letter establishes the required steps for setting up an MSMC email account, which is required for accessing all MSMC platforms including eClass. It also gives them information on our self-paced, asynchronous “Online Learning Student Orientation Tutorial (OLSOT).” This required tutorial is necessary to become acquainted with eClass, as well as MSMC policies and guidelines for learning online. It also provides best practices and tips for success in online courses.
Divisions who may have a visiting student through Acadeum are not required to do anything additional in terms of “on-boarding” a visiting student.
As with any online course, our Instructional Design Team can support you in getting your course prepared.
Certification to Teach Online
All MSMC faculty are required to obtain or maintain their certification status to teach any online course at MSMC. If you are unsure of your certification status, please email Kayla.Gori@msmc.edu.
Online Teaching Support
If your certification status is up-to-date, instructional design support is optional. However, instructors are always welcome to request support by emailing digitallearning@msmc.edu.
Getting Ready to Teach
Instructors who may have a visiting Acadeum student in their course are not required to do anything additional in terms of “on-boarding” a visiting student. Acadeum students will enroll in courses just like any other MSMC student, participate in our online learner orientation, and will be given an MSMC account and email to complete their coursework with us.
As with any online course, instructors should:
- use the current Hybrid-Online Course Syllabus Template to develop the syllabus
- self assess one’s online course design using MSMC’s Online Course Review Tool.
- make the eClass course and gradebook visible to students about a week prior to the course start date.
- have the “Welcome” module available with the syllabus and other course documents ready for students to view a week before the course start date.
- send a welcome announcement/email to the class to notify them that the eClass course is accessible to them. This message may also include any initial first steps they should take upon visiting or beginning the course.
- add an instructor block on the eClass course page which displays your image, contact information, and/or link to your faculty bio page.
- utilize the eClass gradebook to securely distribute grades and feedback to students once the course begins.
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Participation Check-In
If a visiting student enrolls in your course, you will be asked to provide a participation update within the first few days of class. You will receive an email reminder from our office with additional instructions. To measure the participation of online learners, instructors should reference MSMC’s definitions for active participation in fully online courses. An online student can be considered an “active participant” if they achieve any of the following:
- Student submission of an academic assignment;
- Student submission of an exam;
- Documented student participation in an interactive tutorial or computer-assisted instruction;
- A posting by the student showing the student’s participation in an online study group that is assigned by the instructor;
- A posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student’s participation in an online discussion about academic course material;
- An email from the student or other documentation showing that the student initiated contact with an instructor to ask a question about an academic subject studied in the course.
- NOTE: Simply logging in to the eClass course and viewing materials is not considered active participation.
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MSMC students are able to enroll in online courses through the consortium/Acadeum. If you are registering a student on the Acadeum platform, please use the below resource:
- Advisors and Students Requesting Courses through Acadeum
- MSMC students will be required to complete an orientation elsewhere to become acquainted with a peer or sister school’s learning management system (which may or may not be the same LMS as what is used at MSMC).