Creation and Implementation of Policies
How do you create online program polices at your institution and who is responsible for implementing them?
Online program policies at Saint Monica's University were developed by the Office of the Chief Academic Officer with input from the faculty. The Faculty Committee on Assessment and Standards is directly responsible for evaluating the policies and suggesting upgrades, while at the same time ensuring that the policies are implemented by online faculty. As earlier stated, all of these activities are under the control of the Office of the Chief Academic Officer.
JJ Asongu
Januarius,
Thank you for your reply. Would you be willing to share the primary emphasis of the policies that govern the online program
offerings at Saint Monica University?
Dr. Robert Roehrich
We do emphasize a number of things, but one of them is student and faculty participation. Students are required to log in and post at least three times a week, while facilitators must participate at least five days of a week and can't be away for over 48 hours.
JJ
Januarius,
This is a good approach to ensuring that there is at least a minimum amount of student-faculty interaction. I'm assuming that the levels of participation are monitored to reinforce the engagement levels. Would you please describe how these interactions are monitored and recorded at the college? Do these participation levels factor into faculty evaluations and decisions to retain or dismiss your online faculty?
I'd first start by consulting existing university policies and see how they could be adapted for the online space. I would also research policies of other schools and see if I could borrow any language from them. Finally, I would engage the faculty and the appropriate departments in charge of compliance and standards in finalizing the policy and language. The initial communication about the policies would come from the school and then be reinforced and implemented by the faculty during program orientation just like they would in the classroom. Of course just as in traditional classes, the school would support the faculty in providing tools for monitoring online student activity, providing training on addressing violations of policy and intervening as needed.
Veronica,
Thank you for your detailed response. Apparently you have given quite a bit of thought to the process of establishing your online policies and procedures. Consulting policies of other university and college offering online delivery is a great starting place, but more important are the steps you will take for engaging your faculty and appropriate departments in finalizing the policy language. I would also encourage you to fully engage them in developing the companion procedures and steps for implementation. With regard to addressing policy violations, you should also have a clearly defined process in place when the policies are implemented so there is a clear understanding among students and faculty regarding enforcement and consequences.
Dr. Robert Roehrich
I agree. I think "clear" policies, prior to implementation and addressing policy violations are key. Structure and specificity keep everyone on the same page and take away the guesswork. As far as companion procedures are concerned, I believe faculty and administration and others (IT, admissions, etc.) should play around and click within the system to help with the development of the procedures. There are always unforeseen issues that need to be troubleshot before full procedures can be written.
Samuel,
Thanks for your contribution to the thread on Forum 2! Giving both administrators and faculty opportunities to "play around within the system" is a good way to engage the stakeholders who are critical to the success of your online delivery system. By actively involving them in the interactions of the delivery system they should develop a greater sense of "ownership" in the development and implementation of policies. Acknowledging that there will always be "unforeseen issues" how would you assess the impact of these "issue(s)" and determine a priority for addressing them through policy development?
Dr. Robert Roehrich
I think the first step is to understand what will be required from the governing bodies with regards to online delivery. This coupled with very clear and understandable policies and procedures can then be developed for presentation to programmatic and institutional advisory boards. Once revisions have been made then faculty should be given an opportunity to revise or tweak policies to suit their teaching styles and methodologies.
Susan,
Agreed, but there should be complete alignment between on-ground and online policies with respect to academic, financial and related policies.
I assume when you referred to "governing bodies" you meant to include accreditation as an additional consideration. Accreditation associations place many more prescriptive and restrictive requirements on online program delivery than "governing" bodies; their oversight includes policy alignment as a key element of distance education policies.
I disagree in part, with your statement that "...faculty should be given an opportunity to revise or tweak policies to suit their teaching styles and methodologies". Faculty certainly have the flexibility to adjust their pedagogical approach, but they should not have the freedom to "tweak policies", this can lead to issues with both regulatory and accreditation agencies. Policy adjustments are the responsibility of the administration, not the faculty.
Dr. Robert R. Roehrich
While clear policies are absolutely essential to delivering a structured program where all users have their expectations set accordingly, it is also sometimes worth applying established practices in support of those policies, practices not always carved in rigid stone that play a flexible role in handling "unforeseen issues" - and, of course, deferring to (and monitoring) faculty on a wide array of judgment calls that fall under their administration of general policy statements, e.g., dealing with cases of academic integrity: there's the policy, of course, but there is also guidance to faculty on an array of creative and productive responses available to them.
Kevin:
Great post! The main goal is the creation and application of online policies that are in alignment, when appropriate, to the policies applied to face-to-face campus based instruction. Accreditation standards are usually the driver for maintaining consistency in the development and application of policies to online instruction and campus-based instruction.
Dr. Roehrich
Policies should be developed by all the stakeholders. Far too often one person in his/her "ivory tower" states, "this is how it should be done. when all stakeholders are involved including instructors, administrators, and the community that benefits from the educational institution, many different perspectives are brought together to make a rich and functional policy. A better question than who is responsible for policy implementation is how many are responsible. I like to say it takes a village to be successful and this is especially true when implementing a policy on many different levels with many different influences. this concept provides reach, continuity and effectiveness.
