Many, and here is the list:

• Program Development: In collaboration with the Ellbogen Center for Teaching & Learning, OOCE supports or completes program opportunity analyses, curriculum development processes, and initial/ongoing program outcome assessment.
• Course Development: An online course design process including a faculty financial incentive is available to build strong and easy-to-teach online courses. Additionally, IT and Elbogen Center for Teaching and Learning support is available for specific needs.
• Marketing: In collaboration with Institutional Marketing, OOCE leads marketing campaign development and implementation including supplying marketing budgets for online programs.
• Student Recruitment and Retention Funnel: In collaboration with all enrollment management offices, OOCE manages interactions with online program prospects, ensures timely answers, and connects prospects with representatives across the institution.
• Financial Management: In collaboration with Academic Affairs and Budget & Institutional Planning, OOCE manages distributions of tuition and fee funds to colleges and departments to cover costs in offering online programs and courses.

Please reach out to Matt Griswold at mgriswo1@uwyo.edu for more details.

The Office of Online & Continuing Education can perform a market analysis and a brief market scan which provides an understanding of existing competitor programs, their completion trends, and trends in student demand within the program area potential student audiences. This effort can occur before a Notice of Intent to the Board of Trustees, to create the NOI, for the Request for Approval to the Board, or at each point. Contact Jayne Pearce at jpearce@uwyo.edu to begin. 

Internal departmental knowledge of the discipline, student queries, changes in licensure requirements, guidance from professional organizations, enrollments in specific classes, enrollments in lead-in programs, and market analyses as described in the previous question are early indicators as to it a program could find a sustainable student audience.

Review the Academic Affairs New Degree and Certificate Process.

Once a program is approved, a department is able to offer it through any mode of delivery they believe will attract an audience that that it can sustain over time; there are no additional university, state, or HLC obligations. However, to operationalize the new delivery option, contact the Office of Online and Continuing Education to begin the process. Please reach out to Matt Griswold at mgriswo1@uwyo.edu for more details.

The Office of Online and Continuing Education has created a rolling feed of useful articles, white papers, training opportunities, webinars, and conferences that are useful for anyone supporting online learning and online programs. Bookmark this page and come back to it regularly for updates.  

We currently have a wide range of online courses including many that are very strong but also some where the faculty member could use assistance either due to not having a background in online instruction, a lack of time, or because the skills they are using were only learned due to pandemic-related urgency. Every course contributes to the overall learning experience of UW students as well as our long-term reputation to deliver equivalent quality in our online courses as we do in our in-person courses, and we hope the cycle will provide a new support mechanism for faculty and continue us on this path.

Of course:

• Two cycles a year – Fall and Spring. For faculty, they work from beginning of term until about a month before end of term.

• The cycle supports any course that has some level of online effort (sync, async, hybrid), and we prioritize courses that are in online program plans or support online programs (USPs), have high enrollment, or that faculty share need work. Before courses are scheduled, a course development agreement will be shared and signed by the faculty member as well as their chair and dean to ensure everyone is aware of this effort and any connection to other efforts.

• In the cycle, faculty bring their preferred materials, preferred teaching style, preferred communication style. They partner with a devoted instructional designer who brings expertise in course design, instructional practices that reach students in online environments, project management/scheduling, Canvas, our design standards with a keen eye for areas for flexible design, task-oriented course building, and collaborative partnership.

• Both the faculty member and designer put in about 80 hours a term to build the course. After courses are finalized, the faculty member receives a $3000 supplement. So we don’t ever overwhelm a faculty member, we would only schedule one project per faculty member per cycle.

• The last month of the cycle entails the designer finalizing the course for a separate team member/s to review the course and confirm if it meets the standards. If so, the course is finalized. If not, the faculty member has indefinite attempts to get it over the finish line to receive payment.

• If at any point the faculty member needs to drop out, they can do so and use whatever has been created up to that point. Also, the cycle is voluntary.

UW Online Course Design Standards use Quality Matters as a guide, but not in a regimented way that locks us into some of the cumbersome administrative elements or holds us to less applicable expectations. Whether a faculty member is entering the course design cycle or building a course individually, these can be used as a guide.

Faculty will receive $3,000 (toward all costs dependent on this, including if this impacts fringe rate) for completion of the cycle. If a course isn’t finalized, a faculty member can still use everything created during the cycle, they just wouldn’t receive payment.

Faculty will be informed of the process upfront before deciding to join the cycle, then at a kickoff meeting they will set a schedule, share their preferences for work, learn of the standards, share their preferred materials, and begin planning. They will then work consistently throughout the term, completing their effort about a month prior to the end of the term. The remainder of the time will include the designer finalizing the course and a separate internal group reviewing the course. If the course meets the standards, the faculty member will receive the supplement and begin teaching the course when they are ready. If it doesn’t meet expectations on the first pass, faculty will have indefinite opportunities to resubmit the course to receive the financial benefit.

Any online course using asynchronous, synchronous, a combination of the two, or hybrid delivery are eligible to enter the cycle. If as expected demand is higher than capacity, we will prioritize 1) courses part of new online programs, 2) courses part of existing programs, 3) courses with high enrollment, 4) courses where the faculty member has shared elevated need for assistance, and 5) the other online modalities above hybrid given hybrid courses require in-person learning. For now, the cycle will not serve noncredit or in-person courses, but our goal is for this to be possible in the future.

No. While we would like to see every course come through the design cycle, this is a voluntary service that faculty can use if they prefer. Additionally, very infrequently courses may drop out of the cycle mid-design. We understand this may occur and faculty will be able to use whatever was created up to that point.

ECTL and Online and Continuing Education will bring the design expertise and the supplement. From there, while it is less common to reduce other expectations for course load/research/service, we leave consideration and adjustment of existing responsibilities to the discretion of College/Department leadership. Note we will not accept more than one course project per faculty member per cycle to ensure it does not become overwhelming.

Any individual identified by a College/Department to create/enhance an online course is eligible to join the cycle.

In your office, ECTL offices, and virtually. While this is yet to be finalized, we are also likely able to build courses through 100% virtual collaboration.

The cycle begins this Fall with limited capacity and it is already mostly full with some slots remaining. We will monitor demand, and roles will be added over time to meet it. We will run Fall and Spring cycles but do not plan to run a Summer cycle given, through experience, very few Summer projects reach the finish line. All deans and department heads will receive an email twice a year to request what courses they would like to add to the cycle and those requests will be prioritized on a rolling basis. Individual faculty can always request slots within cycles, and these requests will be confirmed with chairs and deans. Everyone can contact Matt Griswold at mgriswo1@uwyo.edu to have a courses added for consideration.

ETCL provides myriad professional development and faculty training programs throughout the year, with the most related service being Rapid Course Design sessions. These workshops are two hours and focus on the most essential tools to stand up online sections.

First, regardless of the type of online course you decide to create, please use the UW Online Course Design Standards as your guide. Then, the choice between asynchronous and synchronous delivery is at the discretion of the faculty member, but the following may guide your approach:

• More programs nationally are leaning toward asynchronous delivery because it invites in all individuals regardless of their responsibilities; they can engage in the course when it fits their schedule instead of at set synchronous times when they may have other obligations. Note asynchronous delivery still requires active learning and includes completion of expectations within windows of time and is different than self-paced learning where a student is given a large window (a term or a year) to complete a course whenever they choose with little to no interaction with their faculty member or classmates. Another benefit of asynchronous learning is the materials created to build a strong course can be used within in-person courses as well.

• Synchronous delivery is a wonderful initial step into virtual instruction as many of the preparation and instructional practices mirror those used for in-person classes. Iteration on these foundational practices through instructional design and the design standards often enhance the learning experience for students, improve the teaching experience of the faculty member, and involve more asynchronous design practices. Also note there are multiple ways to combine the benefits of both asynchronous and synchronous delivery that allow faculty members to connect on a human level and engage students with more complex topics while also inviting in students with obligations that make attendance at synchronous sessions difficult to the point where they would seek programs from other institutions. This is true in all disciplines, but STEM-based courses often require individual and real time support to understand computational or technical concepts. Another way to evolve synchronous courses into asynchronous courses is to record live lectures and to use those videos to build an asynchronous version for future terms. To be clear, synchronous delivery is equally effective and in some situations is the best way to offer a course. That said, when live sessions are the only way to access lectures it limits the potential audience of students who would apply to a program similar to how in-person programs have built in limitations (one based on being free at specific times, the other based on being in the building).

• While individual course development is at the faculty member’s discretion, a department and related faculty may decide that a full program (and all related courses) will be offered in a certain way to attract certain audiences. In these situations, choice would be more limited.

UW programs defined as online or hybrid are marketed through the Office of Online and Continuing Education which provides the expertise to create, implement, and pay for program marketing every year the program is offered. This is done through collaboration with department representatives who best understand the program and with Institutional Marketing which sets expectations around branding and broader marketing practices acceptable across the institution.

 All marketing begins with a conversation with the department to learn about the program and what audiences the program is attempting to attract. A marketing plan along with the creative for ads are then drafted and shared with department representatives for feedback. Ads are then placed and monthly reports are provided to department heads to review marketing and recruitment data up until the term begins with adjustments implemented in real time.

No, marketing for online and hybrid programs is funded by the Office of Online and Continuing Education (which is amplified by the foundational marketing and branding accomplished by Institutional Marketing). Additional funding provided by the department or college is always welcome but not expected.

100% Online: 100% of course requirements are available online every year to ensure student progress. Fully-Online programs require no campus attendance to learn, complete processes, or access services.

Online Bachelor’s Completion: Students complete lower division courses at other institutions then attend UW where 100% of upper division courses are available online. Every UW course is available each academic year to ensure student progress and programs require no campus attendance to learn, complete processes, or access services.

Hybrid: Programs are completed through a combination of online and in-person learning, with online courses usually making up more than 50% of the learning experience.. Hybrid programs may require campus attendance or attendance at specific locations to learn, complete processes, or access services.

Synchronous Online: Instructional activities are facilitated online through live virtual meeting technology at scheduled times. There are not location-specific attendance requirements.

Asynchronous Online: Instructional activities are facilitated online with no required scheduled meeting times but will regular faculty interaction. Assignments and assessments take place on a specific schedule. There are not location-specific attendance requirements.

Hybrid In-Person: Instructional activities are facilitated through scheduled in-person sessions and either a) asynchronous online instruction, or b) scheduled meetings using live virtual meeting technology. There are location-specific attendance requirements.

Yes, the university and all its programs including online programs are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Additionally, most programs have their own discipline-specific accreditation. UW is also approved to offer online programs through the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements which ensures UW has programs of comparable quality to those offered around the nation.

Educators who have spent their lives in your field (and often, their work shapes that very field).

Classmates who are as passionate as you to make a difference.

Online courses built with simplicity in mind.

Staff Experts from all corners of the university helping you as a learner and you as a person.

Programs that fit your budget – we are the #5 most affordable university in the nationin the #5 state for higher education. 

No. All UW degrees has the same accreditation, the same plan of study, and equivalent expectations, so how a degree was completed is not included on a diploma or transcript. Course delivery is included under individual courses on a transcript.

The Office of Online and Continuing Education has created a rolling feed of useful articles, white papers, training opportunities, webinars, and conferences that are useful for anyone supporting online learning and online programs. Bookmark this page and come back to it regularly for updates.