LEARN
the
LINGO
The New Student’s Guide to
College of DuPage
Terminology
Getting started at a new school can be overwhelming, but especially so when you’re not
quite sure what the materials that are supposed
to guide you are trying to say.
If you take a first 8 week course do you need
to take a second 8 week course? What’s “The
Portal” and what does it do? What in the world
is a chapparal?
It’s not always easy to find answers to these
questions, but this guide aims to make you into
a quick study for COD terms, so you’ll be able
to talk like you’re an expert even if it’s your first
week of class.
Understanding
Session Lengths
If you find all of the different session lengths at COD a bit confusing, you’re not alone, but it’s not
nearly as complicated as you might think to sort them out so you know what you’re signing up for
when you register.
16 Week Session
12 week session
8 week session
10 week session
5 week session
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Courses that are offered for a full semester in the spring and fall are
16 weeks long. Students will find a wide variety of courses offered for
the full 16 week session.
In the spring and fall, COD offers courses in a 12 week session. These
courses are accelerated and can help students to speed up earning the
credits they need to graduate.
In spring and fall, two 8 week sessions are offered per semester and
in summer one 8 week session is offered. It is common for students to
think that an 8 week session only counts towards completing half of
course, but this is not the case—each 8 week course is a complete,
but accelerated, course.
If you see a course for a 10 week session that means that it is a summer course. The summer term at COD is only 10 weeks long, so these
courses span the full semester, though they are still accelerated.
For those who want to get through their coursework as quickly as
possible, there are two 5 week sessions offered during the summer.
Because these sessions are so compressed, students can expect to put
in a lot more work per week than they would for the average college
course.
Did you know?
College of DuPage divides up its academic year into three terms. Spring and fall terms are both 16 weeks
long, while the summer term is 10 weeks long.
Getting to Know COD
As an online student you may rarely, if ever, come to campus but that doesn’t mean you have to be disconnected from the school entirely. Learn more about some of the places and names that get used on
campus that can help enrich your experience as a COD student.
Campus Central: Planning to visit COD’s campus? You’ll likely
come across this central kiosk. This circular desk is where you can
ask and get answers to any of your questions about attending COD,
whether you plan to study on campus or off.
Chapparal: The chapparal (sometimes affectionately called Chappie) is the official mascot of COD. Never heard of a chapparal?
They’re more often called roadrunners.
The mascot was adopted in the early years of the college when there
wasn’t a central campus and students had to drive from location to
location to complete their courses.
The Courier: The Courier is the student newspaper at the College
of DuPage. It’s available online as well.
The Learning Commons: You may hear one of your professors or
counselors tell you to go to the Learning Commons for help. That’s
because it is where students, online and off, can get free tutoring, test
prep, and a wide range of other kinds of academic assistance.
COD Tech Terms
If you’re new to COD, you’re also new to the technology used at
the college, at least in name. Here are some of the most common
sites you’ll be directed to and what they do.
myACCESS
Blackboard
The Portal
This site is where you’ll do
almost everything related
to registration, paying
your tuition, applying for
financial aid, and a whole
myriad of other things
including ordering transcripts, learning about
prerequisites, and accessing your test scores, class
schedule, exam schedule,
and transfer information.
Blackboard is the learning management system
(LMS) used by the College.
Blackboard will be where
you can look for your
syllabus, find assignments,
take quizzes, talk with your
professor and classmates,
and complete most of the
other work required by
your online courses.
The InsideCOD Portal
makes it easy to see what’s
going on in your courses
and for you as a student in
one easy-to-use place. You
can access your email,
calendar, Blackboard
courses, myACCESS, and
a variety of other useful
information about the College on this single page.
Defining Yourself and Your Courses
Do you know the difference between full time
and part time enrollment? What is a credit
hour? Not sure exactly
what an associate’s degree is? Here, you’ll find
some answers that can
help you better understand yourself and your
courses.
Associate’s Degree
Associate’s degrees are two-year
degrees that require a minimum
of 60 credit hours to complete.
All of the online degree programs
at COD are associate’s degrees.
These programs are designed to
give students the basic technical
and academic knowledge and
transferable skills they need to go
on to employment or further study
in their chosen field.
Certificate
Certificate programs represent
recognition and acceptance that
you are a qualified professional in
a specific field. To become certified, you will need to successfully
complete training, a set number
of credit hours at COD, and in
many cases have passed some
kind of assessment, often a test
or evaluation from a professional
organization outside of COD.
Traditional Student
The traditional student is one who
is coming to college right out of
high school or is only a few years
out of high school. Traditional
students usually attend college
full-time.
Nontraditional/Adult Student
Nontradtional students are those
who are entering college for
the first time at age 24 or older,
though many other students may
be considered nontraditional as
well, like those who did not graduate from high school or those
who only attend part-time. These
students are usually also balancing full-time work and/or caring
for dependents (requiring attending classes only part time) and
many are veterans returning to
school after military service.
Full Time Enrollment
Full time students are those who
are taking 12 credit hours or
more per semester. For summer,
full time is usually considered 6
hours or more.
Part Time Enrollment
Those taking fewer than 12 hours
in the fall or spring, or 3 hours in
the summer, are considered part
time.
3+1 Program
This program, found at COD,
allows students to complete a
large portion of their coursework
through the College while also
working towards a bachelor’s degree at a four-year institution.
What is a credit hour?
A credit hour is a unit for measuring educational credit. This is usually
based on the number of in-class hours a course has in a given term. These
hours can either be lecture hours, lab hours or a mixture of the two.
• Lecture Hours: Lecture hours are straightforward—each hour of lec-
ture equals a unit of credit. So for a 3 credit course you can expect to
spend 3 hours in lecture each week.
• Lab Hours: For lab hours, things get a bit more complex. It takes 3
hours of time in the lab to earn one credit hour. So a 3 credit hour
course that is only lab work would require 9 hours in the lab each
week.
Most entirely online courses do not have lab hours, but some hybrid courses do, so it’s a good idea to know what each means so you can choose the
courses that best suit your schedule.
College Terms
You Should
Know
A lot of terms get thrown around on college
campuses that aren’t really used all that
much in everyday life, at least not in the
context of what they mean for students. So,
here’s a good primer on the basics of all
that academic lingo.
Accreditation Accreditation is a system designed to ensure
that the education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Learn about COD’s
accreditation here.
CLEP The College Level Examination Program allows
students to take proficiency tests in selected topics, and with
certain scores, to earn college credit. CLEP tests are a great
option for those who have a lot of experience but lack a degree in a field of study.
Prerequisite A prerequisite course is a course taken in
preparation for another course. For example, a student
might need to take Accounting I to prepare for the material
in Accounting II.
Residency Tuition is charged at different rates at colleges
depending on whether you live in-state or out-of-state, or
in-district or out-of-district. Residency does not apply to
entirely online courses, but it does apply to hybrid courses.
Syllabus A course syllabus is a basically an outline of all
of the important information about a course. This usually
includes dates, assignments, attendance requirements,
grading policies, required textbooks and readings, and
other policies and information related to a course. You can
find the syllabus for any of your courses on Blackboard.
Transcript Transcripts are permanent academic records
of the courses you’ve taken in college, credit you’ve earned,
and your grades. You may need to request transcripts to
apply to COD or to transfer your credits to another college.
Withdrawal
Sometimes students will need to drop out
of a course in a semester. This is called withdrawal. Withdrawal is usually only allowed within a set period of time.
Outside of this, students will need to appeal and may incur
fines or fees.
Who’s Teaching My Class?
instructor is usually someone who
Instructor An
does not have a Ph.D. but who has a
lot of experience working in their field. This can apply
to a wide range of fields, from automotive repair to fine
of personal interest, whether they are related a student’s major
art.
Elective Electives are courses students can elect to take out
or not. Many degree programs require that students take electives for a set number of credit hours.
General Education General education programs help to
ensure that students get a well-rounded education by requiring them to take courses in the arts and humanities, science,
and math that help to build skills in communication, problem
solving and intellectual curiosity that can be used in any field
of study.
Open-Door Admissions At schools with open-door
admissions, anyone who has a GED, high school diploma,
or who is 18 years of age or older can be admitted. It is a
non-competitive, inclusive form of admissions. Most community and junior colleges are open-door, including COD,
though there are several selective admissions programs within
the college as well.
Adjuncts are part-time employees of a
college who are paid by the courses they
teach. Because they are not benefitted or tenure-track,
adjuncts are often temporary employees and may teach
at multiple institutions.
Adjunct
Professors are full-time faculty members
of a school who have attained the
highest level of education available in their field, which
usually is a Ph.D. but can also be a Master’s. Within
this designation there are several different ranks of
professor (assistant, associate, full professor) that can
indicate how long someone has worked in the field.
Professor
© College of DuPage Online, 2015