Traditional face-to-face courses are taught in a physical classroom and on a designated time/day schedule and have an online classroom component via Wolf Den to use for grades, attendance, and additional resources such as the course syllabus, posted assignments and additional material determined by faculty.
Web-enhanced courses have reduced seat time, meaning that the course will not meet in a face-to-face equivalent of one hour a week for each credit hour or laboratory period or one half-hour for private applied music courses. To compensate for the reduced seat time, students study and respond to assignments posted on the Learning Management System (LMS) within Wolf Den. The reduced seat time is minimal, so students will do more coursework in a traditional face-to-face classroom with some work online, as designated in the course syllabus.
Blended courses have significantly reduced seat time, amounting to at least 50% and not more than 75% of the course time being virtual. As a result, students have considerable work online that may include *synchronous or **asynchronous activities. The in-class time could be minimal or fairly significant, but online instruction plays an important role in these courses. For example, a blended science class could have all lecture-related materials online with the science labs constituting the only physical face-to-face seat time.
*Synchronous: Web-based instruction in which communication is simultaneous. Examples include chat rooms, two-way interactive voice and/or video chat (SKYPE, Go-to meeting, Adobe Connect, Wimba, etc.).
**Asynchronous: Web-based instruction in which the communication does not take place at the same time, such as email, course messaging, discussion forums, archived videos, and other online classroom activities.
Online courses have all or almost all online instruction (25% or less time in a face-to-face environment). These courses can meet face-to-face during the semester, but are generally limited to only two meetings a semester, if any. Students must be self-motivated and competent in using technology in order to be successful in online courses.
Time/Session Minimum Equivalents for Traditional, Blended, and Online Courses:
| Traditional Course Format Face-to-Face (F2F) | Hours per week | Total In-Class | Total Out-of-class | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
15 week 1-cr class Semester-long |
2.33 hours | 700 min or 11.6 hours | 1400 min. or 23.3 hours | 2100 minutes or 35 hours |
|
15 week 3-cr class Semester-long |
7 hours | 2100 min or 35 hours | 4200 min. or 70 hours | 6300 minutes or 105 hours |
| Blended Course Format | Face-to-Face (F2F) | Total In-Class | Total Out-of-class | Total Time |
|
15 week 1-cr class Semester-long-Blended |
Minimum 25% | 175 min. or 3 hours | 1925 min. or 32 hours | 2100 minutes or 35 hours |
|
15 week 1-cr class Semester-long-Blended |
Minimum 50% | 350 min. or 5.83 hours | 1750 min. or 29.2 hours | 2100 minutes or 35 hours |
|
15 week 3-cr class Semester-long-Blended |
Minimum 25% |
525 minutes or 8.75 hours |
5775 minutes or 96.25 hours |
6300 minutes or 105 hours |
|
15 week 3-cr class Semester-long-Blended |
Minimum 50% |
1050 minutes or 17.5 hours |
5250 minutes or 87.5 hours |
6300 minutes or 105 hours |
| Online Course Format | Time spent in a fully online class setting | Total Time | ||
| 15 week 1-cr class online semester | 2.33 hours | In online traditional semester, a “time-on-task” measure is used. | 2100 minutes or 35 hours | |
| 15 week 3-cr class online semester | 7 hours | In online traditional semester, a “time-on-task” measure is used. | 6300 minutes or 105 hours | |
| Accelerated Course Format | Time spent in a fully online class setting | Total Time | ||
|
7.5 week 3-cr class Online Format |
14 hours | In online accelerated, a “time-on-task” measure is used. | 6300 minutes or 105 hours | |
|
7.5 week 1-cr class Online Format |
4.66 hours | In online accelerated, a “time-on-task” measure is used |
2100 minutes or 35 hours |