Online learning at Nazareth should offer the same personalized, supportive, and rigorous educational experience which can be found in any physical classroom on the Nazareth College campus.
Faculty have multiple opportunities to learn about excellence in online and hybrid course design with the Teaching & Learning Technologies instructional design team. Our office follows a consultative instructional design model in addition to offering courses and workshops.
The most important pieces of information faculty should consider when preparing to teach online or hybrid courses is understanding what an online or hybrid course looks like. Review our guide to course formats at Nazareth College for more information.
Then, faculty should:
Want to start course design on your own? Here are some basic resources for those who have limited time.
Make a Plan
Engage your Students
Assess Student Learning
Hybrid course development can often be more challenging than creating a fully online experience. Finding the perfect balance between onsite, synchronous sessions and asynchronous work takes time. These resources provide a good starting point as you begin to plan for hybrid learning.
Think that online learning means the end of active, collaborative student learning? Think again. Many of the resources below include strategies that faculty should already be familiar with, including taking steps to build a virtual community, making sure to plan instruction that includes collaborative opportunities, and leveraging active learning strategies in a virtual space.
Online learning can feel isolating. In addition to instructor presence, another way to improve the virtual learning experience is to intentionally create a virtual community in your online classroom.
One strategy is to get to know your students personally, whether through scheduled 1 to 1 meetings or an introductory assignment which provides students with an opportunity to share personal information.
Below are some resources which may help faculty to create a learning community in their online and hybrid courses:
Select campus classrooms have been setup to live-stream classes held on our physical campus to virtual students. Zoom-enabled classrooms have Zoom installed on the presenter computer and a connected webcam on a tripod to capture the classroom presentation.
Technology Support
Please contact the Technology and Media Services Desk at 389-2111 or usl@naz.edu with hardware questions about specific classrooms, or to request a temporary Zoom kit for a classroom where live-streaming is not currently available. The TMSD is the contact for on-demand technical support during class sessions.
Pedagogical Support
Trying to effectively teach students who are located in two locations - in a classroom and virtual - simultaneously is an incredible challenge. How can instructors ensure that the virtual students are engaged and feel like a part of the in-person learning community?
Reference these resources for strategies that may help.
The Teaching & Learning Technologies offers three professional development courses for Nazareth faculty focused on online and hybrid course development. The courses support faculty at various skill and experience levels and are offered as fully asynchronous delivery to allow flexibility.
Interested in taking a course? Sign up here.
Virtual Learning Boot Camp
This course will focus on ways to enhance virtual learning and move towards a more traditional online or hybrid course structure.
Essentials of Online & Hybrid Instruction
This 6-week online intensive supports Nazareth College faculty who are developing an online or hybrid course for the first time. We walk you through course development from start to finish, weaving online learning pedagogy and course design theory with technical skill development.
Beyond Essentials: Instructional Strategies in the Virtual Classroom
This course supports faculty who have taught--or currently teach--online by exploring more advanced skills and techniques that can positively impact student learning in an online or hybrid environment.
All three courses are currently offered in a fully asynchronous delivery option with required consultations with the Instructional Design team at various points.
Interactions in online courses can be easily misinterpreted due to the lack of visual and auditory cues. Students and faculty can benefit from having clear expectations for conduct outlined at the start of each online course. Traditionally, netiquette guidelines usually cover these expectations for behavior.
Faculty can use the Core Rules of Netiquette developed by Virginia Shea (2004) or develop their own guidelines.
With the plethora of technologies available to support online instruction, it is necessary to use one consistent system as the base of virtual learning. Using one system offers learners a clear structure, IT support, and consistency in their online experience.
Nazareth College requires the use of our designated learning management system (Moodle) for the delivery of online and hybrid courses. Please see the Faculty Senate approved course delivery formats document for detailed information about course types.
Ensuring the identity of students who complete courses online at Nazareth College is a requirement of our accrediting bodies and the Higher Education Opportunity Act. We must prove that the student participating in an online course is indeed the student who we have on record as earning credit for the course.
Our current policy is to authenticate student identity through the use of an individual, secure login and password issued for each student by the College. MyNaz account users must abide by the Information Technology Services Computing Code of Conduct. A MyNaz account is required to access online coursework through our learning management system.
Respondus Monitor was implemented in 2019 as one method for re-verifying student identification when an online test is conducted. As tools become more sophisticated, Nazareth will expand our abilities to verify student identity.
Onsite test proctoring is not available for students unless they have an approved academic accommodation on file with our Student Accessibility Services office. An alternative for online test proctoring is the Respondus Monitor academic integrity solution.
By using Respondus Monitor, a faculty member can require students to show their student ID and record their online test session via webcam. This allows the student to complete their test online from home, and provides the instructor flexibility to review the recording to ensure the student followed testing directions. If you are interested in hearing more about Respondus Monitor, contact the Teaching and Learning Technologies team or visit our support site.
Students are expected to attend all scheduled meetings of courses for which they are registered beginning with the first day of the semester or class. Departments or individual faculty may set attendance requirements for their courses. Attendance expectations apply regardless of course delivery (online, hybrid, or face-to-face).
According to the New York State Education Department, credits refer to the number of semester hours applicable toward the total required for graduation. Expectations for contact time are met through online interactions with the instructor and engagement in structured online activities with other students (e.g., discussions, assignments, group projects). Online courses must meet the total instructional and student work time required as onsite course equivalents.
For more information, see our Attendance and Credits and Hours information pages.
Nazareth College is a member of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). When students participate in distance learning, it is Nazareth College policy that the address submitted on their application/program approval form will be presumed to be the same as the location of the student when completing online coursework. For more information, please visit our Student Right to Know site.
Nazareth College holds membership in the New American Colleges & Universities consortium. Undergraduate students are eligible to complete selected online courses as part of this partnership. Visit the NAC&U section of the Nazareth website for a list of partner schools and more information about the cross-registration agreement.
Visit our support site for written technical guides. Additional online video training can be accessed 24/7 with a MyNaz account.
The Teaching Integration and Innovation Lab digital learning fellow works with us on special projects related to educational technology and virtual learning.
New Fellow Project: The Immersive Technology and Applications for Education resource explores this emerging technology and current options for instruction.
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