SUNY Fredonia offers two types of online course modalities, Asynchronous Online (online) and Synchronous Online (Live Digital Instruction or LDI). These modalities offer flexible course options for students as well as allowing Fredonia to include instructional expertise from around the world. Faculty that teach in these modalities complete training that aligns with the SUNY Online Course Quality Review Rubric. The full Online Education Policy is available in the policy catalog.
Course Approval Process
Initial academic course approvals remain within the purview of the college deans, department chairs, instructors, and the Academic Affairs Committee. Department chairs may request that courses be approved for online delivery mode if the course being proposed is a good candidate for online delivery.
Instructor and Course Approval Process
The approval process for a new online course includes several steps. These steps may take considerable instructor, departmental, and course design assistance for optimal use of FREDLearn functionality depending on how the instructor wants to deliver the course. To ensure that the instructor has the appropriate technological and pedagogical expertise to design and deliver a successful online course, faculty must follow these steps and have their courses reviewed before they will appear in the course offerings.
- Contact Lisa Melohusky (lisa.melohusky@fredonia.edu), Director of Online Learning, to indicate your interest in developing an online course;
- Demonstrate FREDLearn competence by completing the Introduction to FREDLearn and FREDLearn Gradebook workshops. Schedules for these workshops can be found on the PDC Calendar;
- For Asynchronous Online courses complete "Building Your Online Course," BYOC, an asynchronous online course preparing instructors to teach online. BYOC is a 4-week online course offered multiple times during the year.
- Complete three course modules for preliminary technical review (OSCQR Review Rubric) by the Online Learning Office. Please contact the office to discuss timelines for development.
- Upon approval of the preliminary technical review, complete and submit the full course for final technical review two weeks prior to start of the course.
- For Synchronous Online courses complete the online, on-demand Live Digital Instruction Course. Contact Online Learning at OLL@fredonia.edu to be added to this course.
- At the completion of the Live Digital Instruction course the materials submitted will be reviewed by the Online Learning Office and the individual will work with an instructional designer to make any necessary revisions.
The training for developing an online course is only required once. Subsequent course developments require the the reviews listed above.
Instructor Approval to Offer Master Courses
An online Master Course is a course that is fully designed, built, and passed through the OSCQR rubric by a certified online instructor (see steps above). A Master Course is shared in its entirety with the new instructor, no changes or additions will be made to the course by the new instructor. To be eligible to teach a Master Course the new instructor will need to:
- Contact Online Learning at OLL@fredonia.edu indicating your interest in teaching an online Master Course. Please include the course you will be teaching.
- Demonstrate FREDLearn competence by completing the Introduction to FREDLearn and FREDLearn Gradebook workshops. Schedules for these workshops can be found on the PDC Calendar;
- Complete Master Course Instructor training. This includes how to use a Master course, maintaining the accessibility of the course, and student engagement.
Master courses are developed to meet a course's high demand need or are part of a fully online program. Departments and campus administration identify good course candidates and content experts to develop master courses.