DISTRIBUTED LEARNING POLICY
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN BERNARDINO
FACULTY SENATE

Table of Contents

Preamble
Definitions
General Principles Applicable to the Distributed Learning Policy
Curriculum and Instruction
Faculty
Support for Distributed Learning: Facilities and Resouces
Support for Distributed Learning: Student Services
Academic Integrity
The Distributed Learning Committee
Annual Report
Attachment 1: Faculty Distributed Learning Planning Notification Form(s)
Attachment 2: Distributed Learning Student Supplemental Questions Form

Preamble

The central tenet of this document is to preserve and protect the academic quality of courses offered through California State University, San Bernardino. Although the University prizes academic freedom and wishes to encourage innovation in instruction, the faculty also has a collective responsibility to ensure the academic quality and integrity of the University's courses, programs and degrees. Distributed learning may allow the University to more fully achieve its mission by addressing such factors as the large service area, dispersed student population, expected enrollment growth and limited space on campus. In all circumstances, academic excellence takes precedence over managerial or economic efficiencies (Attachment 3).

Table of Contents

Definitions

Distributed learning in this document means any mode of electronically mediated instruction where class members are not, nor are expected to be, in the same physical location as the instructor during the regularly scheduled class time.

For this document, the following specific distributed learning definitions will be the operative ones for online technologies (modified from Allen, I. and J. Seamen. 2006. Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006. Massachusetts: Sloan Consortium):

• Traditional -- Course with no online technology used – content is delivered in writing or orally.
• Web Facilitated – Course that uses web-based technology to facilitate what is essentially a face-to-face course. No scheduled face-to-face class sessions are normally replaced with online activities.
• Blended – Course that blends online and face-to-face delivery. Face-to- face class sessions could be replaced with some online sessions or activities.
• Online -- Course where most or all of the content is delivered online. There are commonly no face-to-face meetings.

This policy does not apply to off-campus, on-site, live instruction, which is covered in FAM 440 Off-Campus Courses Offered as a Part of the Regular College Program.

This policy shall apply to all credit-bearing courses and programs offered through distributed learning by California State University, San Bernardino. Nothing in this policy shall imply that distributed learning is a preferred or required mode of instruction

Table of Contents

A. General Principles Applicable to the Distributed Learning Policy

1. The campus will adhere to regulations for distributed learning provided by the appropriate accreditation bodies (WASC, et al.).
2. Distributed learning courses (web facilitated, blended and online) and programs shall be consistent with the educational mission of the College and the University.
3. All programs that are offered solely or partially through distributed learning shall provide the opportunity for appropriate, substantial, personal and timely interactions between faculty and students and among students.
4. Tenure-track faculty are essential to the academic integrity of any program including those offered via distributed learning.
5. No faculty member shall be compelled (directly or indirectly) to teach via distributed learning without his/her consent. This component of the policy shall not apply to off-campus, on-site, live instruction (see FAM 440).
6. All courses shall be under the direction of CSUSB faculty.
7. Admissions criteria to credit-bearing classes and programs shall be comparable for students on and off campus. Specialized programs, e.g. the executive MBA, may have unique admissions criteria but must still be approved through the existing curricular process.
8. Students and faculty shall have appropriate access to the University library resources and services.
9. The university shall offer appropriate training and support services to faculty teaching distributed learning courses.
10. The university shall offer appropriate training and support services to students taking distributed learning courses.
11. Faculty and students have a right to know the modes of delivery and technological requirements of each course, program and degree offered by the University. Students shall have access to this information before enrolling in a course or program, subject to the provisions in section B.2 below.
12. Faculty teaching blended courses should stipulate as soon as possible before the course commences, the approximate number of face-to-face sessions that are to be replaced by online sessions or activities. If course management (for example, faculty assignment and scheduling) makes it impossible to inform students before they have enrolled, students shall be informed of the approximate number of face-to-face versus and online sessions or activities at the beginning of the course. Students shall have access to this information as soon as is reasonable before beginning a course, subject to the provisions in section B.2 below.
13. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, current University policies and procedures also apply.

Table of Contents

B. Curriculum and Instruction

Technology is changing quickly and influencing the development of new models of teaching and learning. At the same time, these new technologies are playing an increasingly important role in society. The university must ensure that these new technologies meet the standards of academic excellence as defined in its mission statement.

1. The curricular process approves the content of new courses. Therefore, new courses taught in a distributed learning format (see definition in preamble) must first go through the regular curricular approval process.
2. In the case of existing courses, approval for the use of distributed learning is within the purview of the department and/or program subject to the principles set forth in this Policy.
3. Each time a new or existing course will be taught via distributed learning the instructor must submit the Distributed Learning Notification Form prior to the submission of the class schedule unless there are serious exigent circumstances (e.g. unanticipated instructor change) in which case the form must be submitted within 10 days of the occurrence of those circumstances. The notification form will be obtained from and submitted to the office of Online & Distributed Learning (Attachment 1). Copies of the completed form will be distributed to the department and/or program chair, college dean, Online & Distributed Learning and Academic Scheduling.
4. In the event of a complaint or a dispute regarding the delivery mode of any course, the department chair and/or college dean will conduct a review that follows university procedures and expressly takes into account the principles listed in this Policy.
5. At the program level, periodic program reviews should be used to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction of distributed learning courses. Care should be taken to abide by the standards established by the appropriate accrediting agencies. Programmatic use of distributed learning may constitute a "substantive change" in the program, as defined by WASC, and necessitate a WASC review. Other accreditations may also be affected, as well as the availability of federal financial assistance under Title IV of the Higher Education Act.
6. The university shall not contract with any private or public entity
   • to deliver distributed learning courses or programs to that entity without the prior approval of the relevant department or program,
   • for such entity to deliver distributed learning courses or programs to CSUSB without the prior approval of the relevant department or program, nor
   • to deliver that entity's distributed learning courses or programs in place of or in addition to CSUSB courses without the prior approval of the relevant department or program.

Table of Contents

C. Faculty

1. The development and utilization of distributed learning must not be used to reduce or eliminate tenure-track faculty positions.
2. A faculty member may choose to offer office hours electronically after consultation with and approval of the department chair and dean.
3. Class size and faculty workload will be determined by the college dean after consultation with the faculty member and the department chair, and must take into account the level of interaction between faculty and students. All blended and online courses must provide for appropriate and personal interactions between faculty and students.
4. Because distributed learning may involve the use of technologies and teaching methods which require specialized training, the faculty member engaged in distributed learning is responsible for making use of the university-offered resources and training where appropriate.

Table of Contents

D. Support for Distributed Learning: Facilities and Resources

1. Consistent with the mission of CSUSB, funding for distributed learning will be provided as appropriate without impairment of resources for other modes of instruction.
2. The university shall provide appropriate information, support and training to faculty for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
3. Faculty choosing to use non-university-supported resources (e.g. third-party servers, non-university-supported software) must state in their syllabus that the university will not provide technical support for those resources and that the university does not endorse any products which may be advertised through those resources. These faculty are responsible for compliance with all principles of this policy, including, reasonable, technical support for students. Faculty who use university supported resources shall not be held responsible for technical support of these resources.
4. The notification process for distributed learning courses will identify the distributed learning course mode (web facilitated, blended, online)in the class schedule and assist in resource planning.
5. An instrument (or instruments) for students and faculty to evaluate the technology must be made available for all courses using distributed learning.
6. University policies concerning evaluations of teaching effectiveness and outcomes assessment also apply.

Table of Contents

E. Support for Distributed Learning: Student Services

1. The office of Online & Distributed Learning (or designee) will handle student questions and refer students to appropriate available services for distributed learning.
2. The university must provide:
   • access to the range of student services appropriate to support distributed learning courses including admissions, financial aid, academic advising, delivery of course materials and placement and counseling;
   • adequate means for resolving student complaints;
   • adequate information about and resources for obtaining the technical competence to use the necessary technologies;
   • information about access to library and other learning services;
   • information about access to other available university support services;
   • assistance to prospective students in understanding the nature and potential challenges of learning in distributed learning environments; and
   • technical support of hardware and software.
3. Advertising, recruiting and admissions information must adequately and accurately represent the requirements and services available for distributed learning courses and programs.
4. A distributed learning supplemental data collection form will be administered to all students who take a blended or online class (Attachment 2). This form will provide data for the understanding and improvement of distributed learning classes. Retention, Promotion, and Tenure Evaluation Committees cannot use data collected using this form in the faculty evaluation process, unless submitted by the individual faculty member.

Table of Contents

F. Academic Integrity

1. The academic integrity of a course is ultimately the responsibility of the faculty member. The university must inform faculty involved in distributed learning about the variety of assessment tools, the relative level of security of these assessments and methods for limiting students' use of unauthorizedresources. The university will provide criteria for ensuring student identity.
2. On the Distributed Learning Notification Form, faculty must explain their procedures for ensuring student identity. If the office of Online & Distributed Learning determines that there is not sufficient security then the office of Online & Distributed Learning is required to inform the appropriate chair, the appropriate dean, and the provost.
3. The university should provide reasonable accommodation for assessment services for courses taught via distributed learning.
4. Consistent with the university policy on plagiarism and cheating, reasonable safeguards shall be in place to ensure academic honesty.
5. Faculty are responsible for adhering to CSUSB's Intellectual Property Policy and Acceptable Use Policy for Electronic Communications.

Table of Contents

G. The Distributed Learning Committee

Membership: The Distributed Learning Committee shall include one faculty member from each College. Members shall serve two-year staggered terms. The committee shall also include, as non-voting members, the Director of the office of Online & Distributed Learning; the Dean (or designee) of the College of Extended Learning; the Vice-President (or designee) of Information Resources and Technology, and the Director (or designee) of the Teaching Resource Center. The committee shall select a chair at the beginning of each academic year from among the voting members of the committee.

Duties: This Committee will monitor policy issues that arise with regard to the University Policy on Distributed Learning and shall, as it considers appropriate, (1) refer a particular issue to one of the standing committees of the Faculty Senate for the development of policy or (2) develop a policy on a particular issue itself and then refer the proposed policy to the Executive Committee. The Distributed Learning Committee shall monitor and report on distributed learning trends and issues on the campus.

Table of Contents

H. Annual Report

The Distributed Learning Committee shall oversee the production of an annual distributed learning report. The office of Online & Distributed Learning shall produce the report. The report shall discuss the state of distributed learning at CSUSB, including campus trends for online courses. Specific topics and issues to be addressed are, among others, distributed learning growth trends, the nature of blended courses, department and program online activity summaries, faculty workload issues, student and faculty perceptions of quality, and future directions.

Table of Contents

Attachment 1: Faculty Distributed Learning Planning Notification Form(s)

Distributed Learning Planning Notification Form
Faculty Name:
Email Address:
College:
Department:
Degree Program:

Course Name and Number:
Section Number:
Estimated number of students in this course:

Term this course will be offered:
Has this course previously been offered in a Distance Learning format?
Yes (When:_____ ) No

Course Design/Structure (check one):
__ Fully Online (no face to face class sessions)
__ Blended (some sessions are face to face, some are online)
__ Approximate the number of face to face class sessions that are replaced by online sessions.
__ Approximate percentage of instruction done online.
__ All class sessions meet face to face; supplemental materials may be online (web facilitated)

Course Delivery Format (check one):
__ Blackboard
__ Moodle
__ URL for non-Blackboard course:
__ Other (please indicate) _________________________________

Student Identity: What procedures will you use to ensure student identity?
How will you ensure compliance with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) in this course?
Do you desire assistance?
Have you had training?
Special instructions/requirements for creating the course:

Table of Contents

Attachment 2 -- Distributed Learning Student Supplemental Questions Form

Supplemental Distributed Learning Student Questions
Course:
Term:
Professor:

NOTE: Number one will be reformatted into table, with comment section area right under the table and did you seek help and did you get it?

1. How well did the following technologies work in your class?
   • Online course documents (e.g. PowerPoint, Word documents)
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Online quizzes
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Discussion board
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Chat room
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Online library materials
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Internet links
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Streaming video
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Audio (e.g. streaming or podcast)
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Desktop videoconferencing (video chat)
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Desktop audio conferencing (audio chat—e.g. I.M., Skype)
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • WIKI
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Digital drop box
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • VOIP
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Blogs
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
   • Other (fill in the blank) ________________________
     • No problems
     • Some problems
     • Many problems
     • Did not use this technology in this class
2. Where did you primarily access the online components of the course?
   • Home
   • CSUSB campus
   • Work
   • Other
3. Choose which best characterizes this class:
   • All class sessions were online.
   • Most class sessions were online.
   • Most class sessions were face to face.
   • All class sessions were face to face.
4. Please specify the number of face-to-face class sessions that were replaced with online sessions or activities?
   • 0
   • 1-3
   • 4-6
   • 7-9
   • More than 9
5. What technical support was available for this course? Please check all that apply:
   • Help desk
   • Access to lab
   • Technical assistant assigned to course
   • Student training
   • None
   • Other- If you selected other, please specify;
6. What technical support did you ACTUALLY use in this course? Please check all that apply:
   • Help desk
   • Access to lab
   • Technical assistant assigned to course
   • Student training
   • None
   • Other- If you selected other, please specify;
7. How satisfied were you with the technical support?
   • Very satisfied
   • Moderately satisfied
   • Not very satisfied
   • Unsatisfied
   • Very unsatisfied
   • I did not use technical support
8. Please write any comments you wish to share about the technologies used in the course.

FSD 01-01.R2

Table of Contents