The community forum is an excellent way for the instructor to introduce oneself to students less formally, describing hobbies and other background information appropriate to the online course. This is also a great place to invite students to introduce themselves to the instructor and classmates. For example, the instructor could ask students to introduce themselves and share their degree program and current city or occupation. These self-introductions in the community forum are like those often occurring on the first day of a residential course. The goal is to create a welcoming, inclusive, friendly, and collegial environment for students to engage with one another and their instructor(s).

Responding to each student’s post in an introductory discussion forum effectively allows faculty to show presence and establish rapport in the learning community. This should be done where applicable. However, faculty can choose to build community with a summative response to the students’ introductions.

An introductory post is a minimal expectation, but instructors are encouraged to use other methods of facilitating community.

In the first week, students must exhibit academic engagement in an online course to avoid being dropped. This involves completing a course assignment or engaging the instructor about the course content.54 The instructor must ensure that each student who has not participated in the course through academic engagement is marked as “inactive” on the course roster. At the end of the first week, the instructor must send the current roster to the Registrar for processing.

See the federal requirements to document students' attendance for financial aid purposes (34 CFR 668.21(c)). See also the KYSU Online Course Attendance Policy.

At the start of the course, online faculty should be aware of their responsibility to facilitate a learning environment that upholds standards of academic conduct and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students as needed. This involves several policies cited in the syllabus and webpages of KYSU. Online faculty should engage with students about the policies as relevant.

All assignments must be completed by their deadlines as specified in the course schedule. Assignment deadlines typically coincide with the end of each module. Modules usually begin on a Monday and end on the following Sunday. Therefore, assignment deadlines generally are 11:59 PM on Sunday (except Module 8, which typically ends on a Friday).

Students who do not meet the deadline may submit their work late without requesting approval from the course instructor. Late work will be penalized with a standard grade reduction on the assignment. The standard penalty is a reduction of one (1) letter grade or ten percent (10%) of the assignment's possible points per week after the deadline.

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