Digital Learning Center : Applicable DE Sections in SOCRATES

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Digital Learning Center
Distance Education & Instructional Development

Applicable DE Sections in SOCRATES

The following pages contain links to information designed to assist faculty members in adding distance education modalities to their SOCRATES curriculum proposals:

SOCRATES Information and Pointers
Applicable Sections in SOCRATES
Distance Education Subcommittee Information

Important sections in Socrates for Distance Education:

1. Course Topics (usually section 5) -- exams, assessments and the final exam/assessment are included in the distribution of the course topic hours.

2. Instruction Methods and In-class Activities (usually section 7) -- Copy and paste are appropriate for each modality, but make sure that the description is appropriate for the modality.

In the DE modalities, ”class discussion” may read as “class discussion utilizing discussion boards.”
In the Online modality, lectures may be listed as “printed lectures,” “power point presentations,” or “multimedia lectures,” for example.

3. Typical Homework Assignments (usually section 8) -- A sample assignment helps to clarify the ways in which the course remains consistent, regardless of the mode of instruction. (Please enter an actual example of an assignment, not a description of what a typical assignment might be.)

4. Evaluation Methods (usually section 9) -- The modalities should have equivalent evaluation methods.

5. Allocation of Instructional Time (usually section 10) -- In the In-person modality, all instructional time is face-to-face. Each unit of the course requires 18 hours of instruction for lecture. It can be different in the Distance Education modalities.
Assessment Activities do not include homework and projects done outside of class. Ideally, this should be the same as for the face-to-face modality. They can include quizzes, but if quiz time is not specifically allocated in the Course Topics section, it should not be specifically allocated here.
For the hybrid modality, remember to include the face-to-face scheduled hours as well. For example, if you have a 3-unit class, maybe you are teaching 1 unit of it face-to-face and 2 units online. That would be 18 hours on campus, in a regularly scheduled classroom. You can use this time for exams/assessment, lecture, discussion, presentations, etc. If you chose to do 2 units face-to-face, then that would be 36 hours of regularly scheduled classroom time.
In the all of the Distance Education modalities, be sure to include orientation time, exam/assessment time done face-to-face, and any required discussion/presentations, etc. Any components that are required by the course/department must be included in the outline. If your department requires a DE course to have face-to-face final exams, a comprehensive final project, or group discussions, for instance, a new instructor will not be contractually obligated to follow the requirement if it is not in the outline.
Make sure the TOTAL HOURS number is the same as hours in the COURSE TOPICS section.
6. Regular Instructional Contact (usually section 11) -- These are NOT hours. Be sure to include all possible contacts a student may expect. Remember, this is a minimum, not a maximum. A contact is any type of communication between a student and the instructor. This may include email, lecture, discussion boards, chat rooms, phone calls, etc.

This page was last updated: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 3:18:00 PM

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