Online Courses

Cultivate higher-level thinking skills with the following tools:

• Audio and/or visual content
• Projects: Encourage students to get up, go out, and collect practical skills
• Simulations
• Reality–based scenarios
• Interactivity
• Games
• Graphic novels
• Video: face-to-face
• Timely participation: Set multiple deadlines for a module

Source: Hennington, 2022

• Create smaller groups of students for the course duration.
• Create new leaders for each discussion board. Have these leaders develop relevant questions and lead the discussion.
• Select mediators to keep discussions moving and intervene in heated entries.
• Engage in discussions to demonstrate interest in student contributions, pose questions, and suggest areas to explore.
• Employ audio in addition to text.
• Use videos such as TED Talks, YouTube or create your own

Source: Hennington, 2022

• Urge students to share experiences and perspectives in and out of the discussion board.
• Set a few shared tasks.
• Identify and praise collaboration efforts.

Source: Hennington, 2022

• Respond to issues/problems quickly.
• Provide opportunities for optional synchronous (real-time) online meetings outside of the online classroom.
• Address challenges to understanding and engagement with tailored materials.
• Allow students to get a sense of you by bringing your personality into the course.
• Model the engagement you wish to see.

Attendance is critical to an institution appropriately using federal aid funds. Taking attendance allows
the institution to make clear determinations of when a student last attended class, which then has
implications to the use of federal funds and what federal funds must be returned. When it comes to
attendance in an online course it may seem a little unclear how attendance is defined. The Federal
Student Aid Handbook has very specific information to draw from that can help guide our decision making when designing courses for an online environment.

According to the 2023-2024 Federal Student Aid Handbook, acceptable indications of attendance in an
online course can include:

• 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 institution
• A posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student’s participation in an online
  discussion about academic matters
• An email from the student or other documentation showing that the student-initiated contact
  with a faculty member to ask a question about an academic subject studied in the course.

Essentially, a student must be required to do more than just “log in” to be documented as having
attended an online course.

Instructors must use eClass as a primary tool to deliver online courses.

Required Training

All faculty at MSMC must be proficient in the learning management system, regardless of course modality. Basic proficiency is achieved through one-time participation in eClass Basics for Faculty. Faculty must also maintain a certification to teach online, which is achieved by participating in the Training to Teach Online (TTOL). This certification must be renewed every three years in order to continue teaching in this modality.

Use of Other Instructional Tools

Instructors may supplement eClass with additional resources such as publisher tools, other web tools, etc. However, the instructor remains responsible for providing technical and/or learning support to their students for any external platforms/resources. The Office of Digital Learning be responsible for providing support to faculty and/or students for technical resources beyond eClass, per the Distance Education Policy. If a faculty member employs an alternative website or resource, they must be aware that the Office of Digital Learning cannot provide evidence that a student has attended or participated as directed by the instructor. This kind of report can be provided in eClass, but cannot be provided for resources outside of it.

There are a number of software solutions for holding office hours online. At MSMC, Zoom is a supported synchronous meeting tool, which can be integrated with eClass. It should be noted that the IT Support Center establishes Zoom accounts for MSMC instructors and provides further support for the tool.

• Adding Zoom to Your eClass Course (Video, 2 minutes)
• Scheduling Zoom Meeting Sessions in eClass (Video, 2 minutes)
• Starting and Ending a Zoom Meeting From Your Browser (Video, 1 minute)

Full Zoom Training Playlist (Video Playlist, times vary)