The eighth meeting of the AY 2015-16 Faculty Senate was called to order at 3:19 pm on Monday, December 14, 2015, Hathaway Hall Room 123. Agenda was approved with modification to move APC to first on the agenda. Faculty Senate minutes of November 30, 2015 were approved with one correction to note approval by unanimous vote of Curriculum Committee’s Action Item to identify a class offered through the “Bridges of Opportunity Training Program” as off-site and thus requiring compliance with off-site regulations.
Committee Chair Moffett presented an Action Item New Policy proposal from the APC that addresses consistency of delivery of online course content at the University. This is the first policy that defines different types of courses, noting who should review online courses and by what process those courses are developed, as well as distinguishing those students who should not take online courses. The proposal calls for a University-wide Distance Education Committee and a Director of Online Programs to Chair the committee. After extensive discussion the proposal was approved unanimously by the Senate, with minor friendly editorial amendments including the inclusion of a Library representative on the committee.
Chair Moffett pointed out that the proposed new position of Director of On-Line Courses will be a quality assurance person who will not be evaluating the course content, which will still be under the purview of the academic units.
President Smith said that the ad hoc committee will look at online class evaluation systems/criteria for on-line courses in recognition of the format differences between on-line and traditional and hybrid classes, such as the classroom observations of traditional courses.
The APC discussed various rationale for Freshmen taking on-line classes and the Senate once again discussed those as well, summarized below:
The student's previous experience and success with on-line delivery
Athletic and other extra-curricular university sponsored travel.
Residential distance from campus.
Full-time work and pursuit of degree at the same time
Families with children who work course schedules around those responsibilities
Degree programs that are advertised as “completely on-line” need lower level core classes offered as on-line.
Supportive data in the defense of student success rate on-line as compared to traditional delivery.
Perceived ‘discrimination’ against students who reside on-campus and/or do not have jobs in the application for exception process.
There was extensive Senate discussion about consideration of curriculum specific appropriate use of hybrid and on-line classes, such as science classes that require a lab performance assessment and capstone research papers. The pros and cons for the practice of recording lectures and posting online as a course supplement was discussed. It is a viable study and review aid, as well as make-up mechanism