Dodge City Community College
GUIDED STUDIES PROGRAM DESCRIPTION & POLICIES
Program Description
The primary goal of the DC3 Guided Studies program is to ensure that all students have a
successful experience and that students receive appropriate credit for successfully completed
course work. Guided Studies courses are designed and intended for highly motivated and selfdirected students. It is essential for advisors and instructors to communicate clearly the
schedule, rigor and organizational expectations to potential students before enrollment. Efficient,
regular and timely communication between students and faculty is a critical element in achieving
the program goal for student success.
The following material clarifies the process, emphasizes the critical actions, identifies deadlines
and provides additional resources for success.
Faculty Qualifications
DC3 administration and/or academic division deans will interview and approve the
instructor for Guided Studies courses based on these required criteria:
●
Demonstrate possession of a master’s degree with 18 credit hours in assigned course
content; or
●
Demonstrate possession of a bachelor’s degree, with at least 24 credit hours in assigned
course content, and utilize the same final examination as given in a representative section
of the course taught on campus or collaborate with the on-campus faculty in composition of
the final exam.
●
Faculty teaching courses in career and technical programs must hold a graduate degree
and/or possess equivalent occupational technical experience appropriate to the course.
Faculty Expectations
● General:
○ The very uniqueness of Guided Studies courses infers a significant departure from
traditional courses and will therefore require significant adjustments on the parts of
both the instructor and student.
○ Timely and thorough Instructor - Student communication (including grades) is
paramount. Instructors are required to use due diligence when responding to student
communications. Instructors are strongly encouraged to utilize MyDC3Web,
particularly to post student grade information throughout the session.
○ Instructors are required to hold at least three (3) Face-to-Face Meetings with
students each semester. These meetings must be documented, via the GS Face to
Face Meeting Log, to be submitted to the Guided Studies Coordinator at the end of
the session.
○ Instructors are required to use the same textbook/s and core learning outcomes that
have been selected for use in the section/s of the course taught on the DC3 campus.
○ If a student has failed to complete the assigned work in the prescribed time and
there are extenuating circumstances, it is advisable to give a grade of “I” or
Incomplete. The student then has up to one year to complete the coursework to
correct the Incomplete. If the coursework has not been completed within one year;
through academic completion, the “I” automatically becomes an “F” on the
student’s permanent record. Incomplete Grade Contracts are available on the
Faculty Tab in the LMS. Incomplete Contracts are to be filed in the Records Office
with, and at the same time as, an instructor’s final grades for that semester.
○ Once a student completes the coursework necessary to correct an Incomplete, the
Faculty member then needs to complete a Grade Change Form. This form can be
found on the Faculty Tab in the LMS.
○ Instructors are required to follow FERPA guidelines regarding the release of any
student information. http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html
○ Instructors CANNOT recruit students for their own classes. Guided Studies
instructors at Dodge City Community College are compensated by the number of
students in their classes. In accordance with the Higher Education Reauthorization
Act of 2011, it is a federal violation to recruit students for classes in which you are
paid according to enrollment. Please contact the DC3 Distance Education
department if you have questions. (75 FR 66872-66879)
http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/attachments/110110ProgramIntegritydated
102910.pdf
○ Instructors must design their classes in such a way that work is ample to meet
credit-hour requirements of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act of 2011.
Generally, this means that students will devote 9-10 hours/week to coursework for a
Session 1 class, 11-12 hours/week to coursework for a Session 2 class, or 19-20
hours/week to coursework for a Session 3 class (this amount varies by class and
student).
○ All final exams must be administered in a proctored environment. Students may
take final exams with their instructors, at the DC3 Testing Center, or with an
approved proctor.
○ Proctors: Proctors must be approved by the DC3 Guided Studies Coordinator and
appropriate paperwork must be filed before the first test is scheduled. Instructors are
expected to work with and support approved proctors.
● Beginning of Session:
○ Instructors are required to have all necessary materials (Syllabi, Course
Outlines/Schedules) loaded on MyDC3Web by the first day of the session.
● Certification:
○ Certification generally occurs on the 8th academic day of each session.
○ Because Guided Studies classes do not require regular, on-campus attendance, a
Certification Assignment is used to certify enrollment. Faculty members are
required to include this assignment as part of the coursework for their classes and to
describe the Certification Assignment explicitly in their syllabi.
○ Certification Rosters are used to verify the correct enrollment for the class. They are
also the basis for faculty pay in the Guided Studies program. The Guided Studies
Coordinator will e-mail all Faculty members the Instructions for Submitting
Certification Rosters and provide the deadline for doing so.
○ Instructors are expected to submit signed Certification Rosters to the Records
Office by the deadline/s provided. The Guided Studies Coordinator will obtain
copies of the Certification Rosters from the Records Office.

Early Alert & Referral:
○ If an instructor is concerned about a student for academic or personal reasons, s/he
is encouraged to use the Early Alert and Referral form.
○ Please complete the reason for referral and send the entire form to the Registrar.
The student will be contacted for resolution of their issues. Following a meeting
with the student, a recommendation and comments will be sent to the instructor and
advisor.
○ The Early Alert and Referral form can be found under Instructor Forms portlet
within the Faculty tab on MyDC3Web.
○ NOTE: Timeliness is vital; Early Alert and Referral forms are most helpful
when submitted within the 25 percent of classes.
● Mid-term:
○ The Guided Studies Coordinator will e-mail all faculty members the Instructions for
Submitting Mid-term Grades and provide the deadline for doing so.
○ Instructors are required to submit Mid-term grades to the Records Office by the
deadline provided. Incompletes cannot be issued at mid-term.
● End of Session:
○ Instructors are required to submit Final Grades by the deadline provided. These
instructions for submitting Final Grades may be found on the Faculty Tab in the
LMS, and will be emailed to instructors as well.
● Pay of Faculty:
○ Instructors are required to review their Pay Contracts for accuracy and to submit
their Contracts to the Guided Studies Coordinator by the deadline provided.
○ Instructors who fail to submit Certification Rosters or signed Pay Contracts by the
given deadline may have their pay delayed.
○ DC3 automatic deposit payments are limited to one payment during a pay period. If
there is cause for a faculty member to receive additional pay in any one period, the
subsequent payment/s will be issued by paper check.
Faculty Evaluations
●
Instructor evaluations will be administered according to DC3 Guided Studies evaluation
policy and will include a student course evaluation, the instructor’s self-evaluation and an
evaluation of deliverable materials by the Dean of Technology and Distance Education.
●
Instructors will be evaluated on a rotating basis, selected randomly.
●
The college reserves the right to limit Guided Studies offerings to an instructor if the
comprehensive evaluation of the instructor is not satisfactory.
●
The GS evaluation of any full-time faculty member will not, in any way, affect his/her
regular, full-time evaluation. The results of a Guided Studies evaluation and a full-time
faculty evaluation are two separate entities and will be treated as such.
Dodge City Community College Guided Studies Contact information:
guidedstudies@dc3.edu
Nicole M. Frank
Guided Studies Coordinator
(620) 227-9409
nfrank@dc3.edu
Thad Russell
Dean of Technology and Distance Education
(620) 227-9325
trussell@dc3.edu