Netiquette - Community College System of New Hampshire
Community College System of New Hampshire
Online Learning Policies
Online Learning Policies 1 December 6, 2011
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General
The following policies apply to 100% online courses. A fully online course is one in which all learning activities and content delivery is accomplished online without a need to meet in person.
A hybrid course is a combination of classroom based learning and use of online learning technologies. A hybrid course has at least three class meetings.
Mission
To engage students in high quality and innovative distance learning courses by supporting faculty in the use of learner centered instruction and effective educational technologies.
Distance Learning Office
The CCSNH Distance Learning office is located at 31 College Drive in Concord, and is operated by Paul Ambrose and Sharon Sabol and is open Monday – Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm.
The Web address is: http://www.ccsnh.edu/academics/online-learning-blackboard
The Distance Learning Support Center is a search-able knowledge base of questions and answers created by the CCSNH Distance Learning staff. “Request Support” tickets are responded to from 8:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.
Delivery & Management
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
CCSNH does not discriminate in the administration of their admission and educational programs, activities, or employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, handicap, veteran status, sexual orientation, or marital status. This statement is a reflection of the mission of the Community College System of New Hampshire and refers to, but is not limited to, the provision of the following laws:
Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; The Age Discrimination Act of 1967; Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; The
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; Section 402 of the Vietnam Era Veteran’s
Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974; and NH Law Against Discrimination (RSA 354-A).
Disabilities services are available at each college for students with documented disabilities.
Students with disabilities are encouraged to disclose the nature of their disability(ies) to the
Disabilities Coordinator at the college offering the online course prior to the beginning of the course. Students with disabilities who choose not to disclose their disability will not be eligible for services unless they provide documentation of their disability(ies) to the Disabilities
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Coordinator. The services available to students with disabilities vary according to students’ individual needs. Information regarding students’ disabilities is kept confidential.
Course Delivery Platforms
Online courses shall be taught with Blackboard (or the most current learning management system approved by CCSNH). Course design shall be based on the CCSNH eDesign rubric.
With the exception of Blackboard system administrator access for problem troubleshooting, problem resolution or course design assistance, access to an online course site shall be controlled by the Instructor, Department Head, Academic Vice President, or President.
To access Blackboard, go to http://ccsnh.blackboard.com
and enter your username and password.
For your specific username and password information, go to https://supportcenteronline.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4208 and scroll down to the most frequently asked questions.
Netiquette
“Netiquette” or “network etiquette” defines appropriate communication in the online environment. The online environment includes any communication that occurs via technology such as email, discussion boards, chat rooms, web sites, blogs, wikis text messages and instant messaging.
The Community Colleges encourage students, faculty and staff to use common courtesy and respect in all forms of communication to promote effective and positive interactions.
CCSNH Netiquette Policies:
1.
Avoid offensive language of any kind. Offensive or derogatory language in an email, discussion board or other form of communication technology intended to harass others in a sexual, racial or other prejudicial manner violates civil rights laws.
2.
Avoid threatening language or repeated harmful attacks on other students or faculty. It is against the law.
3.
Avoid “ outing
” which is where someone posts personal information about another student or faculty in an online environment, without their permission.
4.
Avoid “ flaming” which is the expression of extreme emotion or opinion in an email or online discussion board communication. o Misinterpretation of an email followed by an impulsive email response increases the probability your recipient will also respond emotionally making the situation worse. "Act in haste, repent at your leisure."
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o Emotionally charged email can be printed out, forwarded to many people instantly and may acquire a level of importance that was never intended.
5.
Do not forward an email message, file attachment or photo without the author's permission. Asking for permission demonstrates your integrity in personal and business communications.
6.
If you are concerned that someone is harassing, demeaning, or abusive, please follow the policy procedures outlined in the course syllabus.
7.
The use of bold fonts and the color red often convey a tone of anger to your reader. o o
Try to use dark colors in communications, lighter colors do not photocopy well and may not appear on printed documents if the color ink cartridge is old.
The colors red or light green often cannot be seen by people with color blindness.
8.
Use a clear email or discussion board posting subject line that relates directly to your message. Consider it to be the headline of a news article. o Use an inverted pyramid form of writing with the most important statements in the first paragraph. Follow up with supporting details. o Keep paragraphs short for easy reading. Use blank lines between paragraphs.
State your recommendations for resolving a problem. o Be clear, concise and considerate.
9.
Avoid acronyms or abbreviations unless the entire class is familiar with them.
10.
When communicating online or in an email, avoid instant messaging shorthand such as
“u” for you. Communicate intelligently.
11.
Use spell check and take time to proof read your communication. Electronic communication may be the only impression someone has of you.
12.
Be cautious - email and online course postings stand on their own merit, often without context, and may be instantly forwarded to many people. It is impossible to rescind a written communication when it becomes available for all to see.
13.
Be considerate of mistakes. If you decide to inform someone of a mistake or correct factual information, be polite and inform them by private email rather than group email of discussion board posting.
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Quality Assurance
Online courses shall comply with all the standard practices, procedures, and criteria of the college offering the course. This includes, but it not limited to, faculty involvement at the level of course development and approval, selection of qualified faculty to teach the course, and oversight of all final course offerings by the appropriate body. It is expected that each campus will have a formal review process for the development and approval of online courses.
The Vice President of Academic Affairs or designee of the college offering the course will maintain direct oversight, decision making and quality assurance for all decisions related to their faculty, courses, cancellations of courses, and opening of new sections.
The appropriate Department Chair and the VPAA or designee of the college offering the course shall be able to access and view all online courses at any given time.
Student Authentication
The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) legislation, as it currently stands, requires institutions that offer courses or programs through distance education to have processes in place that verify or authenticate that the student who registers in such a course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the course or program and who receives the academic credit.
Some of the initial thoughts surrounding the bill suggested that institutions of higher learning may be required to adopt sophisticated and perhaps expensive technology that would serve as a bridge to verify online students as the “real” students enrolled in online courses. However, this not the case. The HEOA simply requires institutions that offer distance education to have security mechanisms in place, such as identification numbers or other pass code information to be used each time the student participates in coursework online. This includes methods such as:
A secure login and pass code/password
Proctored examinations
New or other technologies and practices which are effective in verifying student identification
CCSNH is in compliance with the HEOA because Blackboard has a secure login and pass code/ password.
In addition, the HEOA legislation makes it clear that any authentication policy must protect student privacy and it must notify students at registration or enrollment of projected additional charges for identity verification.
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Technical Assistance
CCSNH will provide:
Management of the network
College email
24/7 online support center
Internet connectivity
Distance learning department
Blackboard system administration
IT department management of SIS/Banner & Snapshot
Scheduling and facilitation of the Distance Learning Collaborative meetings
The college offering the course will provide:
Computer labs on campus
College technical support
Necessary technology to each online effectively
Blackboard system administrators shall be allowed to access and view all courses at anytime for the purpose of resolving, troubleshooting or correcting problems or system management.
Faculty
Academic Freedom
For information regarding Academic Freedom, refer to the Collective Bargaining Agreement –
Article VI – Academic Freedom & Professional Responsibility [link, if possible]
Add/Drop/Withdrawal Period
Add:
A student may add a 100% online course up to the official start date of the course. Once the course has started, a student may add a 100% online course only with the permission of the instructor.
Drop/Withdrawal:
All refunds require that the student complete an official withdrawal form. Effective Fall, 2011, students who officially withdraw from the college or an individual course by the end of the fourteenth (14 th
) calendar day of the semester will receive a 100% refund of tuition, less nonrefundable fees. This policy applies to all semester length and alternative semester formats.
Students in classes which begin after the designated start of the semester (e.g. a mid-semester start) will have fourteen (14) calendar days from the designated start of the alternative semester
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to withdraw for a full refund. Exception: students in courses that meet for two weeks or fewer must drop by the end of the first day of the class in order to get a 100% refund.
Up until 60% of the class, a student may withdraw with a grade of “W”. After 60% of the class, the instructor will assign a grade of “WP” or “WF”, depending on the student’s standing in the class at the time of the withdrawal. A “WP” will not be calculated into a student’s GPA. A
“WF” will be calculated in a student’s GPA as an “F”.
Class Size
The maximum enrollment for a 100% online course will be set at twenty students. Enrollments in excess of twenty students may be done by mutual agreement with the instructor, Department
Chair, and Vice President of Academic Affairs.
Copyright & Intellectual Property
Faculty shall also comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the
Technology, Education, Copyright and Harmonization Act (TEACH) legislation.
For more information regarding Intellectual Property, refer to the Collective Bargaining
Agreement – Article XXXIII – Intellectual Property.
Course Approval & Oversight
Under the direction of the Vice President of Academic Affairs, or designee, each college has a process to develop, review and approve the quality and content of any new 100% online or hybrid course.
The Vice President of Academic Affairs, or designee, of the college offering the course will maintain direct oversight, decision making and quality assurance for all decisions related to faculty, courses, cancellations of courses, and opening of new sections.
Course Evaluations
The CCSNH Distance Learning staff will email a confidential online course evaluation to student in each 100% online course to ensure that they have the opportunity to evaluate the course as well as the teaching performance of the faculty. All evaluations will be anonymous.
All faculty are expected to encourage student participation in the course evaluation process.
Evaluations will be reviewed by the instructor and his/her Department Chair after the instructor has submitted all grades for the course at the conclusion of the semester.
Course Content & Material
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Online courses shall have the same course description as described in the catalog of the college offering the course and follow the same course content outlines as campus-based classes at that institution.
Individual faculty members shall have the same responsibility for selecting and presenting materials in online courses that they have in traditionally taught classrooms of the college offering the course. For team-taught or interdisciplinary courses and programs, the faculty involved should share this responsibility.
Courses and course presentations shall not be recorded without prior knowledge and consent of the faculty. If consent is given, recordings are not to be used or revised without the written consent of the faculty member.
Email and Communication
All faculty teaching within the CCSNH will be issued a CCSNH email account. Use of this email for all course and college related communication is required. When Snapshot (the software that enables the Blackboard learning management system to communicate with Banner) runs daily, the newly created faculty email address will flow through to the Blackboard course sites associated with that faculty member.
Faculty can access CCSNH email by entering this URL owa.ccsnh.edu
into any browser window, and then entering his or her username and password. Please note, the password will expire every 90 days. Faculty will receive an email prompt with instructions on how to change the password.
For answers to other frequently asked questions about CCSNH email, visit the Distance Learning
Support Center .
Each college has its own policy related to forwarding CCSNH email to personal accounts such as
Yahoo or Gmail.
Faculty Development
All CCSNH faculty teaching a 100% online course for the first time are required to successfully complete the self-paced online course called, “Learning to Teach Online with BlackBoard” or a comparable course offered by the institution through which the course is offered.
A free online course to prepare online educators, sponsored by the National Science Foundation can be found online at www.league.org/gettingresults/web .
Proctored Exams
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If your course has proctored exams, your syllabus should explain when the exams must be taken and any other relevant information. A proctored exam is overseen by an impartial individual known as a proctor who monitors the student while he or she takes the exam. The proctor ensures the security and integrity of the exam process. Proctored exams may be done at one of the following and must be approved by you:
The CCSNH college offering the course or any other CCSNH college (at no charge)
Testing centers at two or four-year colleges and universities
Commercial learning/tutoring centers
Military education offices worldwide
Corporate education centers
County/State fire training academies
NCOIC or OIC for military students (This applies to student overseas. All stateside military students should use local education offices.)
Unacceptable proctors and locations include:
Relatives
Friends
Neighbors
Co-workers
Private residences
Places of worship
Other CCSNH students
Cohabitants
K-12 public and private schools
Note: Sometimes a testing center will charge a fee for test taking, which is the student’s expense.
Standard Syllabus
The standardized 100% online course syllabus, approved by the Vice Presidents of Academic
Affairs from all campuses, is highly recommended for use in all 100% online courses.
However, if a college or a faculty member does not use the standardized syllabus, all elements of the standardized syllabus must be included in the syllabus used in the online course.
[appendix – standardized syllabus]
Students
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Absenteeism
Although individual instructors may have different expectations for attendance and participation in an online course, CCSNH has established the following policy:
Registration for any course presupposes that the student will attend/fully participate in all online activities. Each student is responsible for meeting all course attendance/participation requirements as defined by the instructor.
In addition to academic issues relative to attendance, Veterans and students receiving financial aid from some sources are expected to regularly attend/fully participate as a condition of receiving such aid.
If a student does not participate in online course activities/assignments as defined by the instructor for two consecutive weeks, the student may be suspended from the course at the discretion of the instructor.
Such suspensions will be indicated through the issuance of an “AF” which will be calculated into the GPA as a grade of “F”.
Any student who has been suspended or dropped from a course may appeal to the Academic
Standards Committee through the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
Academic Honesty
For information regarding the Student Code of Conduct, refer to the CCSNH System Policy
730.06 – Judicial Policy: http://www.ccsnh.edu/about-ccsnh/board-policies-system-policies-andfees
Add/Drop/Withdrawal Period
Add:
A student may add a 100% online course up to the official start date of the course. Once the course has started, a student may add a 100% online course only with the permission of the instructor.
Drop/Withdrawal:
All refunds require that the student complete an official withdrawal form. Effective Fall, 2011, students who officially withdraw from the college or an individual course by the end of the fourteenth (14 th ) calendar day of the semester will receive a 100% refund of tuition, less nonrefundable fees. This policy applies to all semester length and alternative semester formats.
Students in classes which begin after the designated start of the semester (e.g. a mid-semester start) will have fourteen (14) calendar days from the designated start of the alternative semester
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to withdraw for a full refund. Exception: students in courses that meet for two weeks or fewer must drop by the end of the first day of the class in order to get a 100% refund.
Up until 60% of the class, a student may withdraw with a grade of “W”. After 60% of the class, the instructor will assign a grade of “WP” or “WF”, depending on the student’s standing in the class at the time of the withdrawal. A “WP” will not be calculated into a student’s GPA. A
“WF” will be calculated in a student’s GPA as an “F”.
Grading System
For information regarding the CCSNH grading system, refer to CCSNH System Policy 670.01 –
Student Grades: http://www.ccsnh.edu/about-ccsnh/board-policies-system-policies-and-fees
Orientation & Registration
Registration for online courses opens approximately one month before the beginning of each semester and the summer term. A full list of courses may be accessed at the CCSNH Distance
Learning website ( http://www.ccsnh.edu/online-learning-blackboard/online-course-schedule ).
Before registering for an online course, students should make sure they meet all of the criteria for taking the course (prerequisites, testing, etc.). Students are urged to work with an academic advisor at the college before choosing a course.
In addition, before registering for an online course for the first time, the student should take the online orientation found on the CCSNH Distance Learning website
( http://www.ccsnh.edu/students/orientation-online-learning ) .
Students who have previously registered at the college may register and pay online through the college’s Student Information System (SIS). New students must register by downloading the registration form found on the CCSNH Distance Learning website
(http://www.ccsnh.edu/online-learning-blackboard/students) .
Proctored Exams
If your course has proctored exams, your instructor will explain when the exams must be taken and any other relevant information. A proctored exam is overseen by an impartial individual known as a proctor who monitors the student while he or she takes the exam. The proctor ensures the security and integrity of the exam process.
Proctored exams may be done at one of the following:
The CCSNH college offering the course or any other CCSNH college (at no charge)
Testing centers at two or four-year colleges and universities
Commercial learning/tutoring centers
Military education offices worldwide
Corporate education centers
County/State fire training academies
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NCOIC or OIC for military students (This applies to student overseas. All stateside military students should use local education offices.)
Other sites approved by the course instructor
Unacceptable proctors and locations include:
Relatives
Friends
Neighbors
Co-workers
Private residences
Places of worship
Other CCSNH students
Cohabitants
K-12 public and private schools
Note: Sometimes a testing center will charge a fee for test taking, which is the student’s expense.
Support Services
Libraries:
Online student may access library resources at each of the seven community colleges.
Experienced library staff are available to assist students with online research, use of the Internet and obtaining materials through Interlibrary Loan.
Students may access the CCSNH libraries online ( http://library.ccsnh.edu
)
Smarthinking:
100% online tutoring is available in 100% online courses. Access is through the Tools link in all
100% online courses.
Textbook Ordering
Textbooks can be ordered at eFollett online or in person at the college bookstore.
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Campus Offering the Course
Course Number: Course Title, Section
Course Term, Year and Dates
Instructor: Name and credentials
Instructor Email:
Syllabus Items
Blackboard Student Orientation
Instructor’s Communication Policy
Syllabus last updated: date
Course Description
Text here
Prerequisites
Text here
Blackboard Student Orientation
If this is your first online course at CCSNH, please complete the online student orientation. This orientation offers the opportunity to familiarize you with online courses. http://www.ccsnh.edu/distancelearning/student_orientation.html
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Available Technical Support
Frequently asked questions regarding online learning, Student Information System (SIS) and student email can be found at the link below by clicking “Support Center”. http://www.ccsnh.edu/distancelearning/index.htm
Required Resources
Textbooks:
Materials:
Software:
Textbooks, materials and software are available online at: http://www.efollett.com
unless specified by your instructor.
Under “Select your Bookstore”, choose “New Hampshire”
Under “Select Your Institution”, choose the campus offering the course.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
Text
Instructor’s Communication Policy
Email Response Time
For example - The instructor will respond to emails within 24 hours during the week and 48 hours on the weekend.
Online Office Hours
For example - Mondays from 3:00 pm-5:00 pm per appointment or drop ins in the Virtual office
Hours
An introduction to the instructor is available online in the course.
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Overview of Course Structure
For Example - This interactive web-based course utilizes chats, journal writing, discussion board postings, etc.
Policies
Students registered for online courses must comply with all policies and guidelines (such as civil rights, disabilities services, harassment, and plagiarism) in the student handbook and other publications of the college offering the course. For more information, refer to: http://www.ccsnh.edu/distancelearning/policies.html
.
Academic Honesty
Students registered in online courses shall abide by the academic honesty principles as defined in the Student Handbook of the college offering the course.
Netiquette
Students shall comply with CCSNH Netiquette as articulated on the system web site
( http://www.ccsnh.edu/distancelearning/documents/april08_Netiquette.html
).
Assessment
Example:
Assignment
Discussion Board Postings
Paper
Journal Entries
Mid term Exam
Final Exam
Total
Weight
20%
35%
10%
15%
20%
100%
Course Structure and Content
For example:
Module and
Dates
Module 1
Sep 1-7
Module 2
Module
Objectives
Readings Paper Progress
Assignments
Due
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Sep 8-15
Module 3
Sep 16-23
Additional Course Information
Faculty may wish to add information not covered above in this area.
© 2013 Community College System of New Hampshire
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