What is BSU Online?

BSU Online is the system used by BSU faculty and students for supporting instruction and learning through the Internet.  This system allows for different modalities of instruction/learning such as web-assisted, blended or fully online. These modalities are described further below in this document.

A core component of BSU System is the learning management system (LMS) or online course platform, which is a software application that allows faculty and students meet in virtual spaces corresponding to as a classroom. 

Each student, faculty and professional of the BSU community has an account to BSU Online and accesses the system through a virtual portal or entry point that identifies the areas of access of this person and the privileges within the system.  All classes are automatically provided with course shells each semester within BSU Online.

Who runs BSU Online?

BSU Online is operated under the Division of Information Technology under the Vice-President of Information Technology.  The department of Academic Computing and Distance Education (ACDE) is the unit tasked with supporting online courses.  The Director of Academic Computing and Distance Education is the person responsible for planning, implementation, development, management and evaluation of BSU Online.

The University Committee on Information Technology (UCIT) is an advisory body, (consisting of faculty, staff and students to BSU Online, and it provides input regarding the overall efforts for online learning in campus, training needs, program priorities and quality feedback. A sub-committee on Distance Education, consisting of faculty, staff and students representing information technology, teaching and learning, library services and media operations, should also provide valuable contributions to the success of BSU Online.

Who gets access to BSU Online?

All Bowie State University (BSU) students, staff, and faculty have user accounts on the BSU Online system while with the University. BSU Online user names and passwords correspond to the individual’s Bulldog Connection login.

Instructor access to course shells is based on information provided by the Bulldog Connect database.  If no instructor is listed, none will be able to access the course until the database is updated and synced.  Instructor access is also contingent on a valid contract.

BSU Online user accounts will remain active for the duration of their affiliation with the University, including a contractual period such as a semester or academic year. Users whose affiliation with BSU has ceased will have their course management system accounts removed.

University System of Maryland (USM) and BSU policies for acceptable use apply to all users of the BSU Online system.  Guest accounts may be granted to users outside of the University through the Support Services Help Desk.  Department or Program approval must be obtained prior to the creation of an account. A BSU Online guest account does not entitle the user to other BSU computer access, use of the BSU computer labs, BSU email, or other privileges.

What types of teaching and learning are supported by BSU Online?

The provision of services of BSU Online to BSU programs and courses is essentially determined by the type of instruction and learning activities going on in the courses.

• Traditional Instruction:  face-to-face or “web-enhanced” courses in which the bulk of teaching occurs through scheduled meetings. The web component is used for creating a “basic presence” online and some activities can be supplemented with the tools offered by the learning management system
• Blended or Hybrid: includes courses in which 50% or more of the instruction and learning activities are carried out online, while the remainder occurs through scheduled meetings. A criterion for these courses is that the “sit time” of the student is reduced in at least 50% with respect to their traditional instruction counterparts.
• Online: courses intentionally designed to be offered entirely online, in which the online activities must supply equivalent or better forms of engaging students in learning that their traditional counterparts.

On average, first-time freshmen will complete at least 12 credits required for graduation outside of the traditional classroom experience as part of their undergraduate programs, as determined by University of Maryland System policy .

When are course shells created in BSU Online?

All courses for the upcoming academic semester will be automatically created a minimum of three weeks prior to the start of the semester.  Courses will be created based on the Bulldog Connection schedule of classes for that semester.

• ACDE strongly recommends that departments properly identify an online course’s Mode of Instruction as “Online” in Bulldog Connect, the database supporting the University’s course schedule.  Departments should also identify the instructors for these online sections.
• Section codes must not be reused when a course is offered twice during shorter terms (e.g., 1st/2nd 8-week semesters, summer semesters) to avoid database conflicts.
• ACDE strongly recommends that departments identify any specific course requirements for online and blended learning, such as descriptions of dates when students and instructors will meet for orientation, in the NOTES section of the database.

New course shells are created using the BSU Online default course template.  The template items form the structure and organization of the course using the University’s course management system.   The instructor may opt to include additional components, with or without consultation, collaboration and creation with Academic Computing.

• NOTE: BSU Online is not the archival record of a course. Other University systems serve as the archival record of course enrollments, grades, etc.
  

How long are course shells available?

Course duration will be set by default to make courses available to students one week before and 6 weeks after the current semester. Once duration has expired, students will not be able to access course content, unless they have received a status of “Incomplete.” In such case, the course access will expire one week after the date set for the incomplete.  Instructors will be notified when a course shell is reopened to accommodate an Incomplete Access Request.

Instructors are responsible for archiving and exporting their own course materials at the end of the semester.

• Archiving preserves the course instruction, submitted assignments, gradebook and student interaction.
• Exporting preserves course content, not student content.

DIT purges course sites after 2 full academic years (e.g., course sites created for Fall 2007 will be deleted in Fall 2009).  This process is to conserve disk space and reduce load on the LMS database.

How are students enrolled in BSU Online?

Student enrollment in each BSU Online course corresponds with the official enrollment maintained by the University and is updated automatically until the end of the add/drop period.  Manual adjustments to course enrollment are auto-corrected; students who are in the wrong section should go to the Registrar’s Office to correct their schedules. If a student drops a course after they have been enrolled, the student will automatically be “disabled” in the course and not be able to see or participate in the course. 

What is involved with planning and development my online course?

Initial planning, development of course materials, training and marketing are process components that users must take into account when they are involved in offering online-supported courses.  ACDE recommends at least one full semester for planning and development.

• Development course shells may be requested. Please note that at no time will any student be enrolled into a development course shell. Instructors can request other departmental faculty and staff be enrolled into the course.  Development shells have the “DEV” tag in their course ID and title.  Faculty who wish to use the course site developed by another instructor need to receive written permission from the original instructor first, and forward that permission to Academic Computing.
• Creation of course content is the responsibility of the instructor. If a sample instructional module is required as a condition of approval as an online course, ACDE will assist the department and instructor in developing that content.
• ACDE recommends that only one course per instructor should be developed for online-supported activities, unless the instructor has at least 2 years of experience in online instruction and interaction or demonstrates mastery of the necessary tools needed for classroom management and production of course content. 
• ACDE recommends that the instructor utilize the support of an instructional designer for the development of instructional content and assessments for the online, hybrid and web-supported format.  If an instructor requests assistance to develop course content, s/he will be asked complete a Memorandum of Understanding, with signatures from the instructor and ACDE. 
• Instructional content is defined as lectures, notes, presentations, guides, multimedia and other digital content. 
• Assessment is defined by exams, quizzes, exercises, essays, case studies, presentations and other appropriate instruments to gauge student learning.
• The Division of Information Technology is not responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and/or legality of the content uploaded to BSU Online courses by its students, staff, or faculty.  Users who upload material to BSU Online are responsible legally and otherwise for their own content.
• Academic Computing will remove offensive or illegal content from a course if asked to by the instructor of record or by the department chair and/or dean.
• Students wanting offensive or illegal content removed from a course will need to appeal their case to the course instructor.

How are students with disabilities accommodated in an online course?

Although the LMS itself is compliant with Section 508 standards, not all of the content uploaded to course management system is.  Instructors and students are urged to consider ways to make their files and other materials accessible to users with disabilities.  Multiple versions of course content (e.g., transcript for multimedia) must be provided to accommodate students with disabilities.  Course design, including images and multimedia, must maintain compliance with web accessibility standards.

How do I know if my course is ready to go online?

ACDE recommends that online courses undergo an initial review to meet designated online standards established to ensure quality and consistency in design, organization, presentation and pedagogy, using the Quality Matters rubric .  The purpose of the review is to determine the quality and effectiveness of the online course design in the pre-delivery phase.   The reviewing team should consist of the instructor, peer faculty, and an instructional designer from ACDE.  

How do faculty get training?

Faculty may obtain online pedagogy and technical training from ACDE staff via workshops or in online sessions. ACDE will post available training opportunities on the university website.

Faculty may also obtain additional training through the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at BSU, the University System of Maryland, and/or other resources provided by the Institution or external organizations.

Training from another institution may be substituted on a case-by-case basis; documentation is required.  Not all training will be accepted due to specific University requirements.

Technical support should not be used as a substitute for training.

How is teaching & learning different in an online, hybrid or web-supported course?

According to the University System of Maryland’s Online Learning Strategic Plan (2006), pedagogy in an online environment is “significantly different” from classroom pedagogy.  As such, the success of any course or program offered online is dependent on quality instruction and assessment.

How do instructors interact with students?

The University’s LMS provides for appropriate real-time or delayed interaction between faculty and students.   This interaction reflects, at minimum, the asynchronous tools provided in the course management system, regardless of the discipline or course.  Asynchronous tools include the discussion board and email. Synchronous interaction via chat or instant messenger is highly recommended, especially for office hours.

ACDE further recommends that instructors:

• respond to student inquiry in a timely manner (e.g., within 48 hours);
• contact students who are not participating to remind them of their course obligations;
• provide adequate feedback on all assignments, especially the first major one, to suggest areas of improvement and growth;
• grade assessments/assignments in a timely manner (e.g., at minimum, 48 hours; at maximum, 7 days).

How do students access grades in an online course?

To ensure that students have access to their progress in an online course, faculty should also maintain an electronic gradebook using the LMS tools.

• Copies of the electronic gradebook and electronic student work are the sole responsibility of the instructor. ACDE staff are not responsible for deleted grades or work.
• Instructors should always make copies of the gradebook or download student work prior to removal of material from the course or archiving the course.
• The maintenance and security of student grades, information and content shall conform to USM andUniversity policies and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

How do we ensure academic honesty in an online course?

The Division of Information Technology will offer appropriate software for plagiarism detection; however, it is the responsibility of the faculty to ensure that reasonable safeguards are in place to prevent academic dishonesty.

How are online courses evaluated?

The Evaluation phase addresses formative and summative evaluation of courses supported or offered online, with the purpose of continuous improvement and innovation.

• ACDE will collaborate with the Provost’s office to ensure the course/instructor evaluations are delivered to online courses electronically and anonymously.
• Per the Faculty Handbook, peer review of faculty instruction must occur annually. However, observing an online course requires a different process due to the nature of the delivery format.  As a result, ACDE will collaborate with the Provost’s office to provide an electronic instrument that is 1) appropriate for the online environment and 2) consistent with the approved document.

How are faculty compensated for developing and/or teaching online courses?

Individual departments, colleges and the Office of the Provost will determine compensation or release time for the development and/or instruction of an online course.

• NOTE: Compensation may be offered by academic departments or by the Division of Information Technology through various grants or special funds geared to technology improvement.

What support is provided for BSU Online?

ACDE will provide technical and administrative support for all courses that have been designed for online or blended delivery modes.  This support may be in person or online via self-instructional guides. The BSU Online section of the University website also includes information about online and blended learning at BSU, including, but not limited to, definitions of both, recommended technology skills and required plugins.

ACDE will support the university approved LMS, keeping it in optimum conditions of operation and maintaining various tools that facilitate academic activities, such as synchronous communication, plagiarism detection and learning objects. The Division of Information Technology will not support LMS platforms not licensed by the University, especially those offered by textbook publishers.

Users must submit a ticket to the Support Services Help Desk (help@bowiestate.edu or 301-860-4357).  Please include the Course Name, Course ID, Instructor and Username.  Do not submit any passwords!  Be very descriptive, including any error messages received or screen captures.

Who owns course content?

Unless otherwise expressly stated in this document, Intellectual Property & Copyright issues fall under the University System of Maryland policy on intellectual property and copyright (IV - 3.20 and IV - 3.10 respectively).

• Copyright of the instructional content in an online-supported course belongs to the author(s) that created the materials.     
• This includes instructional content such as lectures, notes, presentations, guides, multimedia and other digital content.  The syllabus and department specific documents such as common exams (among others) belong to the University.
• Students own the copyright to their own submissions, including discussion posts and assignments.
• The University owns all rights in copyright for work produced under Sponsored Research Agreements as well as work produced by non-Faculty staff.
• Faculty, staff, students and departments are responsible for complying with System and University guidelines on the fair use of copyrighted material and for complying with the requirements of copyright law, including obtaining required permissions to use copyrighted materials, educational fair use as well as fair use exceptions for research and scholarly work.

How can I use BSU Online to support my organization or department?

Faculty and staff are encouraged to request course sites for legitimate and justifiable purposes that will benefit the community. Examples of some current non-course related sites: advising, student government, service learning, athletic teams, committees, laboratory and other work/study sites, departmental interaction, and collaborative research sites.

Student groups or organizations are encouraged to use a BSU Online community site.  A University sponsor is required for all non-instructional sites.  Committees and organizations at BSU may request a BSU Online Community by submitting a request in the form of a ticket through the Support Services Help Desk.

Abuse of USM and BSU policies for acceptable use by any member of the Organization may result in the loss of access to the Organization for all members.

What other administrative provisions are provided by these guidelines?

DIT will utilize BSU Online system data, including, but not limited to software usage and course enrollments, to complete reports for accrediting bodies, state agencies, the University and the University System of Maryland and other organizations as required by state and federal laws. Information regarding BSU Online system performance or usage is considered the property of the Bowie State University.

Information regarding specific course sites or individual accounts will be held in confidence, although data may be gathered and presented in aggregated form by university staff members (e.g., DIT, CETL, OPAA, etc.) for professional development activities, such as conference presentations and/or scholarly/industry publication, as well as for reporting on system performance or use.

BSU Online system administrators may access course sites to solve technical support tickets or in response to help queries from faculty, and may temporarily add a test account (student or other role) to help troubleshoot. BSU Online system administrators may access sites as part of system testing and maintenance with no advance permission from instructors.

BSU Online system administrators will not extract data about system usage for faculty or students, except when deemed necessary to troubleshoot a system problem. Any information or data discovered about a course site or user during the course of system testing or investigations will not be shared with any other faculty or user.

DIT may distribute a technical assessment to students to address issues relevant to distance-education courses. For example, a question that addresses technological difficulties will be included, but does not reflect positively or negatively on the faculty member's teaching because that is an institutional responsibility.

Individual files on the BSU Online server may be no larger than 100MB. Increased quotas may be granted as necessary. The BSU Online administrator provides technical assistance to instructors concerning efficient file format delivery.

It is the responsibility of the faculty to maintain a backup archive of all of their course site materials on their hard drive or network space. Assistance is available from the Support Services Help Desk.

How is BSU Online maintained?

All major system upgrades will be performed during the winter or summer semesters.  BSU Online may be offline for 1-5 days, depending on the complexity of the system upgrade.  Routine maintenance such as system patches will be performed on Fridays prior to 8am and should take no longer then 1-hour. If a longer period of time is needed, Academic Computing will notify faculty at 7 days in advance.  The BSU Online administrator will attempt to provide a 30-day notice of such upgrades and a 7-day notice of routine maintenance work.

References

1. Access Board. Section 508 standards for electronic and information technology.  Section 508.  Retrieved November 10, 2007 from http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=14
2. American Association of University Professors (1999).  Sample Distance Education Policy & Contract Language.  Retrieved April 13, 2008 from http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/DE/sampleDE.htm.
3. American Association of University Professors (1999).  Sample Intellectual Property Policy & Contract Language.  Retrieved April 13, 2008 from http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/DE/sampleIP.htm.
4. Code of Maryland Regulations (2007). COMAR 13B.02.01.21 - Instruction Delivered by Distance Education.  Retrieved November 12, 2008 from http://www.dsd.state.md.us/comar/13b/13b.02.01.21.htm
5. Euben, D.R. (2000). Faculty rights and responsibilities in distance learning.  Retrieved April 14, 2008 from http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/protect/legal/topics/dl-ip-ownership.htm.
6. Middle States Association (2002).  Interregional Guidelines for Electronically Offered Degree & Certificate Programs.
7. Quality Matters (2006). Quality Matters Rubric Standards 2008-2010 edition with Assigned Point Values. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://qminstitute.org/home/Public%20Library/About%20QM/RubricStandards2008-2010.pdf.
8. Southern Association of Colleges and School (2001).  Best practices for electronically offered degree and certificate programs.  Retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/commadap.pdf.
9. Southern Regional Education Board (2002). A compilation of executive summaries and recommendations of the seven reports and rankings of the recommendations from the national “town meeting” conference (p. 16).  Retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.ecinitiatives.org/policylab/ConferenceOutcomes/DLPL_Summaries_with_Rec_Rankings.pdf.
10. Southern Association of Colleges and School (2006). Policy Statement on Distance Education.
11. Southern Regional Education Board (2002). Distance learning policy laboratory: A compilation of executive summaries and recommendations of the seven reports and rankings of the recommendations from the national “town meeting” conference (see page 16).  Retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.ecinitiatives.org/policylab/ConferenceOutcomes/DLPL_Summaries_with_Rec_Rankings.pdf
12. Southern Regional Education Board (2006). Standards for quality online courses. Retrieved April 15, 2008 from http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/pubs/2006Pubs/06T05_Standards_quality_online_courses.pdf
13. University of Maryland University College (2004).  Expectations for Classroom Setup and Online Teaching.
14. University System of Maryland Board of Regents (1999).  Policy On Faculty Workload And Responsibilities. II-1.25.  Retrieved November 12, 2008 from http://www.usmd.edu/regents/bylaws/SectionII/II125.html.
15. University System of Maryland Board of Regents (2004).  Policy on Intellectual Property.  IV.3-20. Retrieved November 12, 2008 from http://www.usmd.edu/regents/bylaws/SectionIV/IV320.html.
16. University System of Maryland Board of Regents (2005). Policy On Alternative Means Of Earning Academic Degree Credit. III-8-01.  Retrieved November 12, 2008 from http://www.usmd.edu/regents/bylaws/SectionIII/III801.html.
17. University System of Maryland Board of Regents (2006).  Online Learning Strategic Plan.  Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www.usmd.edu/usm/onlinelearning.

Last Revised:  June 2009