Senate to maintain parity between different modalities of courses and programs while adhering to accreditation standards within the framework of KYSU Online.

The Online Advisory Committee’s primary role includes reviewing, recommending, and approving policies, online courses, and online programs for KYSU Online in coordination with the residential courses and programs of Kentucky State University’s traditional academic programs. The committee ensures that KYSU Online’s courses and programs align with the traditional programs approved by the Faculty Senate.

The Online Advisory Committee will engage with two general areas of KYSU Online’s academic operations: 1) policy and 2) curriculum. For further information about the Online Advisory Committee, consult the document, KYSU Online Advisory Committee Procedures, and the document, KYSU Curriculum Proposal Procedures.

Program Coordinators support the curricular and academic affairs of their respective programs. As assigned, they serve as liaisons to the Online Advisory Committee, the Director of Online Education, and the Department Chairs of residential programs to ensure that degree programs are sufficiently coordinated and assessed across modalities. Program Coordinators report directly to the Director of Online Education.12

Commented [JM15]: Deanna, please confirm this is an accurate description of how program coordinators function.

The growth of KYSU Online will require hiring adjunct faculty who teach exclusively online courses. Unlike adjunct faculty who teach residential courses and report directly to the Department Chair, online adjunct faculty will not report to administrators within the residentially based departments. Instead, online faculty will report to a Faculty Mentor for instructional and general administrative matters. For content- and curriculum-related concerns, online faculty will report to other administrators, such as Subject-Matter Experts (SME).

Faculty Mentors are the primary source of administrative support for online faculty. Faculty Mentors work with online faculty across degree programs, Schools, and Colleges, focusing solely on the best practices vital to ensuring a student-centered approach to online instruction and compliance with distance education standards (e.g., roster verifications, adherence to online schedule, academic engagement, regular and substantive interaction, etc.). They provide administrative quality control and assess the course management practices of online faculty to promote continuous improvement. The Faculty Mentor also supports online faculty with student and administrative matters that require escalation or engagement with other offices.

Each Faculty Mentor oversees a maximum of 20 online faculty members. These faculty members may include part-time (adjunct) employees and full-time faculty members who teach online courses. The Faculty Mentor reports directly to the Associate Vice President of Online Education and coordinates with the Director of Online Education, Program Coordinators, and Subject Matter Experts to facilitating online faculty engagement as relevant.

Commented [MD16]: We will also include "extended contract faculty" who are KSU fulltime faculty teaching additional online courses.

The term “online faculty” refers to the group of qualified academic personnel (individual members of the online faculty) who are assigned to online course sections as the instructors of Commented [JM15]: Deanna, please confirm this is an accurate description of how program coordinators function.

Commented [JM17R16]: FT = can't use online to fulfill load, online special approval. FT online faculty = can use online load to fulfill contracted load. Extended contract = not tenured but on a contract. Commented [JM18R16]: We need to see how this lands in the residential faculty handbook prior to further changes to the categories here.