This policy requires all faculty and staff members at Kentucky State University to provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities to ensure equal access to educational opportunities. Faculty and staff must take proactive steps to facilitate accommodations for students with disabilities, including providing accessible course materials, collaborating with the Office of Accessibility and Disability Services, and maintaining privacy and confidentiality. By complying with this policy, faculty and staff members can help to create an inclusive and accessible learning environment for all students.

Weekly announcements inform students about course expectations for the week ahead. These posts are most effective when they are concise, cover the basic requirements for the week, and are written or recorded professionally.

By 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time on the first day of each module, the instructor should post a written or recorded announcement in the LMS introducing the new module to students. This weekly announcement should highlight essential aspects of the learning activities. It should also introduce the assignments for the week and invite students to contact the instructor if additional guidance is needed. It is an opportunity to engage in a personable way while conveying information on items such as reminders and the workload for the week. Specifics such as items that tend to be more challenging, intensive reading for the week, or a significant assignment being due are essential to highlight in these weekly announcements.

Commented [JM72]: No earlier than? We need to determine how the LMS gives access to each week of work. That might dictate how we write this.

The weekly announcements are a point of regular and substantive interaction between the instructor and the students. The consistent posting at the start of each week establishes an expectation that students will progress collectively from one module to the next and that the course progresses from start to completion.

In addition to posting the announcement on the course landing page in the LMS, instructors should use the LMS to email the announcement to students directly. The arrival of the email in students' inboxes each week will help drive their academic engagement with the course.

Most online courses are asynchronous and do not involve synchronous lectures. However, video recordings of lectures or recorded presentations are commonly used instead of (or in combination with) synchronous learning opportunities within the parameters specified by programmatic accreditors. The instructor might host a voluntary video conference for students to attend, recording and posting it for those who could not attend to view later. Instructors may find this is an effective way to facilitate academic engagement with students and efficiently discuss their questions about course assignments. Other effective practices include synchronous sessions by appointment or synchronous group projects.

In asynchronous online learning, the instructor must not require students to participate in synchronous course elements to avoid creating conflicts with how the programs are marketed to students (i.e., professors must avoid requirements that conflict with the advertised program.

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Commented [JM73]: Confirm this.