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Academic Outreach and Distance LearningFaculty Distance Learning GuidelinesPrintable version of this document in PDF format. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader now. Download the Text-Only Acrobat Reader
INSTRUCTIONAL GUIDELINESFollowing is the general information that applies to any course in either the Interactive Video or Off-campus Programs. The admission standards for students taking off-campus courses are the same as for students taking on-campus courses. (See appropriate pages in the undergraduate or graduate catalogs). The instructional time per credit hour earned should be the same as for other courses (750 minutes per credit hour). Although faculty may change the published meeting hours to meet the needs and interests of the class, the required instructional time should be met, and in the case of distance learning classes, the interactive video rooms must be available. In general, these classes follow the same schedule as those on the Missouri State University campus. Classes begin the first week of the semester and continue through the last week of the semester. Off-campus classes should meet during the final exam period. General ITV Guide Please review the Academic Calendar so students will understand the class schedule and special dates that affect class sessions. A policy statement for each class should be issued to each student at the beginning of the class. The policy statement should set forth the objectives of the class and the expectations of the teacher in regard to such matters as class attendance, examinations, course requirements, grading policy, etc. Please send a copy of the policy statement with your class schedule to all remote site facilitators for your course. If the class demands special library resources, please contact the library to set up arrangements for these needs. Electronic Reserves are now available at the Missouri State University libraries. (See information about off-site libraries on the various Distance Learning Location links to this document). If the classroom facilities for the course are inadequate (lack of proper furniture, size, equipment, lighting, etc.) contact Academic Outreach (417) 836-4128. We will work through the local administration to see that necessary requirements are met. Special Advising and Counseling If the students in the class have special advising and counseling needs that you cannot provide, contact Academic Outreach. Arrangements will be made for these services to be provided. In many cases, graduate students who enroll in classes' off-campus may have decided to do so, based on a newspaper article, flyer, or some other type of publicity. They may have little idea about the requirements for the degree program they wish to pursue or the procedures to follow in order to complete their program. If you need a supply of materials (undergraduate catalogs, graduate catalogs, class schedules, Evening College handbooks, Extended University catalogs, etc.) to take to your class, please contact us and we will provide these materials for advisement purposes. For additional information regarding the Graduate College, please contact the Graduate College (836-5335) or view the Graduate College Web Page. Each semester new issues of the Extended University Catalog are published. This catalog will list the upcoming course offerings for locations throughout southwest Missouri. Encourage your students to become familiar with this publication so that they may register in the courses of their choice. The Course Enrollment Form is printed in each of these publications. All questions regarding registration should be referred to Karen Copeland 877-678-2005. In addition, the University has implemented a Deferred Payment Plan whereby students may pay $60 at the time of registration and then pay the balance in monthly payments. See the Extended University Catalog fee payment section for details. Both Academic Outreach (836-4128 or toll-free 1-877-678-2005) and the Graduate College (836-5335) will be happy to assist you and the off-campus graduate students in anyway. GENERAL INFORMATIONDuring the first few class meetings, it is helpful for the students if the Academic Calendar for the current semester is discussed so students understand the class schedule and special dates that will affect class sessions. The Baker Bookstore is located on the Springfield campus on Madison Street one block east of National Avenue. The telephone number for the Baker Bookstore is (417) 836-5403. Class Lists - Class Lists Delivery Notification of "No Shows" and Non-registered Students.
As you are aware, the University is required to report enrollment information to CBHE and the Department of Education that reflects enrollments as of the census date, which is the fourth week of school (or the end of the second week of classes for the summer session.) Please follow the procedures that we have outlined so that the information we provide regarding off-campus, off-sequence courses is accurate. Thank you for assistance with this administrative matter. Drop Refund Dates, Drop No-Penalty Dates
and Drop with Penalty Dates Students who officially withdraw from the University or drop a course may receive a partial refund of the Required Student Fees (or a change in their fee assessment if all fees have not been paid) provided they complete the formal withdrawal or drop process prior to the deadlines listed in the refund schedule. For students who are recipients of Federal Title IV student aid, refunds will be made in accordance with all applicable federal regulations. Students who are enrolled in the Deferred Payment Plan are responsible for any unpaid amount of the fees after the refund or reassessment. Sixty dollars ($60) of each student’s Required Student Fees is designated as a non refundable administrative fee. The administrative fee is retained by the University if the student withdraws from all courses, but not for students who drop only some of their courses. The date used in determining the refund of fees shall be the date the student submits an official withdrawal or drop form at the Registration Center, CARR 320, or the postmark date of withdrawal requests submitted by mail. If a student withdraws from the University or drops a class, refunds shall be made according to the the established University Refund Schedule. NO CREDITS WILL BE ISSUED AFTER DEADLINES LISTED IN THE REFUND SCHEDULE. All credits for drops/withdrawals of short courses and workshops are administered by the Extended Campus. Class Cancellations and Inclement
Weather Arrangements Each off-campus location has a contact person that Academic Outreach notifies in the event of class cancellation. Please notify Academic Outreach, (417) 836-4233, if you need to cancel class for any reason. After 5pm you may call the Extended Campus office in Carrington 422 at (417) 836-4126; someone is available until 6:30pm Monday through Thursday. Off-campus and BearNet Interactive Video Courses. If Missouri State University classes are canceled at the remote site by an official at that location, we will make every attempt to contact you before you leave for class. The faculty member is responsible for contacting their students in the event of a cancellation. At the first or second class meeting, please establish some type of communication plan with the students in case of bad weather or other situations that could cause cancellation of a class. A telephone tree arrangement, where the faculty member calls only two or three students and they in turn call others, works very well. Discuss and establish what time is best for cancellation calls to be made in order to reach students before they start to class. Should an equipment failure occur before your class meeting, Academic Outreach will notify the faculty member, the remote distance learning site, and the facilitator. The facilitator will be responsible for contacting students at the remote site. Please keep in mind that only the location with the problem will be canceled. Springfield and all other remote sites will attend class as normal. Semester Schedule. In order to better serve your class and the remote site locations, a copy of your semester schedule showing any dates you will not be holding class needs to be forwarded to Academic Outreach. This may be updated throughout the semester if the need to cancel class arises. If we know your class will not be meeting, then technical staff can be reassigned. Notification may be given by telephoning the Academic Outreach and Distance Learning office, (417) 836-4128 or through e-mail at ce@missouristate.edu. Except for special situations, each regular faculty member teaching at an off-campus location will be eligible for en-route compensation at the end of the semester. This additional salary is based on a policy that allows payment for time spent traveling to and from the remote location. This is in addition to travel expense reimbursement. At the end of each semester Academic Outreach will initiate the payment process for en-route compensation by sending you a memo and a Trip Certification Form for you to complete and return. By completing this form you are verifying the number of trips you made to remote locations. Per course faculty do not qualify for en-route compensation. En-Route Compensation is considered an additional salary and is taxed accordingly. The En-route Compensation rate per trip are as follows: Less than 60 miles: $27.50 Please review the activities associated with your course offerings and determine if a liability release is needed for your course. The Liability Release may be printed from this link. Complete the form with your course information, then photo copy the form and have each student in your class complete his/her information. This form should be used if there is any possibility of potential injuries resulting from activities while participating in your course. The forms may be maintained with your records or forwarded to Academic Outreach where we will keep them on file. Library hours are subject to change. Please check the Library web page or call ahead for holidays and vacation schedules. The Duane G. Meyer Library hours for the regular hours are: Monday - Thursday 7am-midnight Friday - 7am-6pm Sunday - Noon-midnight Electronic Reserves are now available through the Duane G. Meyer Library. Students may need to access materials using adobe acrobat which may be downloaded free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. Contact Dwayne Swigert at DSwigert@missouristate.edu or extension 6-6164 for questions regarding the electronic reserve process. Meyer Library telephone numbers: Main library 836-8383, circulation 836-4700 and reference 836-4535. If an off-campus class is taught on an "overload" basis (i.e. in addition to their normal teaching load), Academic Outreach will request additional salary to be paid in three monthly checks during the semester provided the departmental office has returned to Academic Outreach the signed faculty contract letter by the payment deadline. Regular parking regulations apply to all on-campus parking and local parking regulations apply at the remote sites. Regular faculty, who will be teaching in the distance learning classrooms may be issued a temporary parking permit for the reserved lot nearest to the classroom, if needed. Please be aware that the permit is only good for the specified time period when your class is in session. Academic Outreach will assist you in obtaining this permit if needed. Per Course Faculty Parking Permits Per course faculty who are teaching the entire semester may request a parking permit from this office. We will need your name, address, social security number, license plate numbers, make and color of car. We will submit this information to Parking Administration with your payment. When the permit is issued, we will send it to you. If you have received copies of any promotional materials concerning your class, please take a few minutes to READ this information carefully so you will be aware of information your students have received about the class. If you, or your academic department, send out promotional materials concerning your class, please send a copy to Academic Outreach so that we may be fully informed when a student calls. Please direct anyone in class who has not registered and/or anyone who thinks that s/he has registered but whose name does not appear on the class list to contact the Extended Campus, Karen Copeland 836-4415 or toll-free 1-877-678-2005 (1-888-879-7678), Carrington 422 before the second class meeting. Prior to the start of each semester, Academic Outreach will send a memo reminding faculty to order textbooks for their off-campus courses. Regular procedures for ordering textbooks through your academic department should be followed for interactive sections held in Springfield, Lebanon, Mountain Grove, Neosho, Nevada. West Plains students obtain their textbooks directly from the Missouri State University-West Plains Drago College Bookstore, so if you will contact the Drago College Bookstore at (417) 255-7227 and notify them of your book order if you haven't done so already, it will help prevent a textbook shortage at class time. Joplin will require a different form, which will be mailed to you by the Joplin Coordinator. After you have completed the form please return it to Academic Outreach. The Joplin form does not go to the Baker Bookstore. Please review the Distance Learning Location section for specific information on each remote site. Regular faculty using their personal vehicle to travel to remote sites for purposes of teaching a class may have their travel expense reimbursed. Faculty who are teaching via interactive video will also follow this procedure to receive reimbursement for any trips made to remote sites. The reimbursement is requested on a Travel Expense Report that may be obtained through your departmental secretary, from Academic Outreach, or through the Financial Service web site. This report can be turned in monthly, two or three times during the semester, or once at the end of the semester. It is preferred to have all Travel Expense Reports turned in before the end of the semester or within one week after the close of the semester. Please complete the "BUSINESS PURPOSE" section of the Travel Expense Report with a brief explanation. This explanation will include the course code and section number of the course you are instructing. Travel expenses include mileage (the mileage reimbursement rate is 37.5 cents per mile) and sometimes meals. It is University policy that only faculty who return to Springfield after 7pm will be eligible for reimbursement for the dinner meal. The University does not reimburse lunch expenses. Eligible faculty will be reimbursed for the evening meal to a maximum of $10 per meal. In order to receive meal reimbursement, please check the "Late Arv." Column on the Travel Expense Report and enter the actual cost of the meal (not to exceed $10). It is not necessary to submit receipts for meal reimbursement. The report requires the signature of the faculty member, their title and city of domicile. It is not necessary for your department head or college dean to sign the Travel Expense Report for travel to off-campus and interactive video course locations. Forward the completed form to Academic Outreach, Carrington 314. If a university is required, the following forms must be completed: All students who have completed registration should have a Missouri State University ZipCard. Students who register by mail will have non-photo cards and may be asked to provide another form of identification when using on-campus services. Per course faculty must come to campus to receive a ZipCard. All paperwork must be completed in Human Resources including the I-9 and W-4. The ZipCard office is located in Plaster Student Union, Room 128, and is open daily from 8am-5pm. BearNet Interactive Video Courses Being knowledgeable about the location characteristics, facilitator, and equipment will be most helpful. Specifics about each location may be found in the Distance Learning Location section that follows. Faculty teaching interactive video courses are encouraged to schedule some class meetings at the remote site if possible. When this can be arranged, it helps students at the remote site become more involved in the class. Keeping students at the remote site actively involved in the course by asking questions and conducting class discussions will enhance the student’s learning experience. Teaching through the media of interactive video is unique in many ways. Distance teaching requires a slower pace of instruction and a clear logical presentation. Overhead materials may need to be reformatted to permit easier viewing by students on classroom monitors at remote site locations. In the items that follow, we have made every effort to cover all the unique aspects of this method of instruction thereby providing the information that you will need in order to successfully conduct your interactive video course. Equipment Operation and Failure Learning to teach via interactive video presents an exciting and challenging opportunity for instructors. It is also just as new and challenging for students to participate in this method of instruction. Please arrange an appointment with John Flanders, to acquaint yourself with the technical aspects of distance learning teaching. John may be reached at extension 66078 or 66111. You may also contact John through email at JohnFlanders@missouristate.edu. The interactive video method of instruction relies on high tech equipment at each location and at some point this equipment may fail to perform for a variety of reasons. An equipment failure could occur at one location only or affect multiple locations concurrently. When this happens at any location, the first step is to try to isolate the problem. There will be times when a power outage will affect an entire area or community, and not be a problem with the interactive system. At other times, a piece of equipment will develop operational difficulties that may be corrected by adjustments made on-site. If this occurs, please follow the procedures outlined for the various locations. There will be an Operating Procedures Manual in each room. At the first class meeting, students will also receive a BearNet brochure and will be acquainted with the equipment by the facilitator. Most rooms have a telephone and a fax machine for communicating between sites. Please use the telephone to discuss with students your specific requirements on how to proceed with class should a problem occur. As a general rule, students will be told to wait 15 minutes if a break in transmission occurs; if the problem has not been remedied and no other specific arrangements have been made with the instructor they may leave the class. If the room has a VCR you may choose to record your class, it is the instructors responsibility to provide the tape and distribute the tape as needed. If buildings/rooms are locked or if you have problems with the interactive video equipment please follow the steps outlined below. If the buildings is locked when you arrive call Security, 836-5509. If the classroom is locked during the day go to the Dean’s office and ask for assistance or call John Flanders at 6-6078 or Academic Outreach 6-4128. You may also use the campus telephone (one located on each floor) to call Security, 836-5509. If the system is either down or goes down and does not respond to your efforts to bring it up during the day call John Flanders, 836-6078. If John is not available contact the people below in the following order until you have reached someone whom can either solve the problem or make the decision regarding the next step to take. John Flanders 836-6078 Joe Strong 836-6421, pager 868-1544 (available evenings) While procedures for handling problems with the interactive video equipment or facilities at each remote site may vary, other procedures will be the same. An Operating Procedures Manual should be in each room, students will also receive a BearNet brochure, and a facilitator will be used. There will be a facilitator at each distance learning location to assist the faculty member and students in each course. When sending course materials to be distributed to class, please allow a lead time of no less than three days to ensure materials will arrive on time. This will give the facilitator adequate time to prepare and make copies if necessary. The estimated time that a facilitator will spend per course is 10 hours per semester based on the following duty/time breakdown. First class meeting - expected duties include handing out syllabus and other course materials; compile listing of student’s telephone numbers; acquainting students with room and equipment, etc. Second class meeting – expected duties include any necessary follow-up from first class meeting if required. Estimated three additional class meeting times – expected duties include proctoring exams; collecting papers, assignments, tests, etc.; preparing course materials for return to faculty. Miscellaneous contingency hours – if required. Please keep in mind the above listed times and duties are estimates only and may be adjusted to satisfy your classroom needs. Please contact Academic Outreach if you need the facilitator for additional assistance. Fax machines are located in each distance learning room or in close proximity to the room. Students and faculty members may choose to fax class materials while a class is in session. A course handout may be faxed to the facilitator who will make copies and distribute. Please keep in mind it is best to limit faxed materials to 10 pages or less. Effective preplanning is best for efficiency and practicality. Mail Procedures to Remote Sites For transporting mail between Springfield and remote sites, Academic Outreach has adopted the policy of using U.S. Priority Mail. In the past, a variety of methods have been tried but the Priority Mail has proven the most reliable and practical. It is strongly suggested that you do not have students, who normally travel between Springfield and the remote site, be responsible for transporting other students’ work. Please allow approximately three days lead time for mail delivery and receipt by the facilitator at the remote site. For your convenience Academic Outreach will have prepaid US Priority Mail envelopes available for your use. These can be dropped in any US post office box. You may contact our office when you think you may need one or we will give you a budget number to use at the campus post office. Faculty teaching distance learning courses are encouraged to schedule some class meetings at the remote site if possible. If you schedule class meetings at the remote sites, please follow the procedures regarding car reservations, using personal vehicle and expense reimbursement as outlined in the General Information section. YOU WILL FIND GENERAL SITE INFORMATION FOR EACH DISTANCE LEARNING LOCATION ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES Monett - For more information, contact the Missouri State University Educational Administration office, (417) 836-5392, or Melody Page, 235-0646 Springfield Distance Learning Rooms
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