Student Guidelines for Online and Hybrid Courses

I. Definitions

A. Distance Education: Education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor synchronously or asynchronously.

B. Distance Education Programs follow the U.S. Department of Education definition, whereby all required coursework for program completion is able to be completed via distance education courses.

C. Course Categories:

1. Traditional Courses have a significant portion of class sessions with the learner(s) and the instructor(s) in the same location. Between 0% ‐ 29% of the content in such courses may be delivered online, but 30% ‐ 100% must be delivered in‐person to fit this category of course.
2. Hybrid Courses offer 30‐49% of all class sessions online with the remaining portion (70‐51%, respectively) offered in a traditional in‐person classroom. A hybrid course is not an online course.
3. Online Courses follow the U.S. Department of Education definition, which requires 100% of all content, assessment and course activities to be completed online.

¹ https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/

II. Student Requirements and Expectations

1. The ability of students to succeed in the online environment depends on their ability to understand the class structure and the technology of online content delivery, online interactions, motivation and self‐discipline.
2. Online courses are part of the student’s regular course load, and they are counted the same as on‐campus courses.
3. Students enrolling in online courses or programs must have reliable internet access and be able to successfully navigate the LMS and use the required technologies.
4. In addition to the standard teaching evaluation students complete for all Hood College courses, students are required to complete a few additional questions on the evaluation specific to the online delivery of a given course.

III. Student Integrity and Authentication

1. Students are issued a unique username and password for access to Hood’s LMS.
2. Proctored exams requiring the student to be present on campus may only be used in hybrid courses.
3. Faculty may use other means or technologies to authenticate the work of online students (e.g., proctored exams, special software, web cameras). If a faculty member chooses to use additional means of authenticating the work of online students, the students must be informed in writing at the time of course registration of any actual and/or projected associated costs (e.g., cost of specialized software, estimated cost of web camera). Any projected additional student costs associated with verification of student identity/authentication of online student work must be approved by the graduate dean following a recommendation from the program director.
4. Students in all courses and programs, regardless of delivery format, must adhere to Hood’s Academic Integrity policy.

IV. Student Privacy: Student privacy in all courses and programs regardless of delivery format is protected as per the Policies and Procedures Relating to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. 

V. Technical Support

1. The institution provides online students with reasonable technical support for each educational technology hardware, software, and delivery system required in a program.
2. Online students will have direct access to telephone and online chat technical support during business hours (9‐5pm EST) and offline (email) support at all other times.
3. Technical support should be timely and reply to students within a reasonable timeframe, preferably within 24 hours if not sooner.