Recommendations on Winter Session, Distance Education, and Other Nontraditional Courses

Introduction

The New Brunswick Faculty Council (NBFC) recognizes the importance of exploring new modes of instruction that may help to meet the special needs of the changing student body and to take advantage of emerging technology. The council notes, however, that there is a growing trend for new programs to be spawned by market potential rather than the traditional pathway of faculty deliberation and recommendations based upon pedagogical merits. In an effort to maintain the long tradition of academic excellence of the academy and to ensure the academic integrity of new modes of instruction, the council offers the following resolutions:

Recommendations

1. The University administration should honor the longstanding academic tradition of seeking strong faculty input, beginning at the conceptual level, for all new course and program initiatives to ensure that the programs are driven by academic integrity rather than potential financial gain.
2. The traditional principles of faculty governance shall apply to the development of all new courses, with such courses being developed only by tenure track and tenured faculty members of Rutgers University.
   • The NBFC fully supports the Rutgers University Senate’s resolutions on Winter Session courses and the FAS Curriculum Committee’s draft extensions of these resolutions.
   • Departments that offer Winter Session courses are strongly urged to develop 1- and 2-credit courses with innovative content that might not be offered in other contexts.
   • If the Winter Session program intends to offer a significant number of 3- and 4-credit courses, the Rutgers University Senate should change the overall academic calendar to permit at least four full calendar weeks of instruction during Winter Session. Further, the Senate should determine the calendar for all Winter Session and Summer Session and Weekend offerings to better coordinate with the regular semesters.
   • Both new courses and established courses that are to be offered in a nontraditional format shall undergo full review by the FAS Curriculum Committee or the comparable body in other units. Likewise, courses initially established in nontraditional format shall undergo review when changed to traditional format.
   • Departments shall continue to set the standards for approval of all courses, traditional and nontraditional, (both within Rutgers and from outside institutions) for credit toward the major and minor.
   • Students shall not be permitted to accrue credits that exceed the established limits of the maximal full-time load for any semester, including all on-campus, off-campus, and on-line courses.
   • The colleges shall continue to enforce residency requirements (currently 30 of last 42 credits must be completed at Rutgers University) and nontraditional courses, unless specifically housed by Rutgers University and created by tenure track or tenured faculty, shall not be included among these 30 required credits.
   • Rutgers University should establish a "tracking code" to indicate on transcripts whether courses were completed on campus or off-campus and through which parent institution or company, and should take a leadership role in encouraging other members of the AAU to do likewise.
   • The NBFC strongly urges the administration to commit special funds to develop methods that help to maintain academic honesty for both traditional and nontraditional courses. In particular, major exams for distance or hybrid courses shall require independent verification of student ID for evaluation (e.g., exams could be offered at local Sylvan centers or on campus with paid proctors.) For large, traditional courses on campus, the development of better technology for efficient identification of students during exams should be pursued.

Reference to Actions by the University Senate

1999-00 Educational Policy and Planning Committee: Response to Charge S-9906, Winter Session: 1999-00 Educational Policy and Planning Committee (EPPC), and current Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee Chair Natalie Borisovets presented the 99-00 EPPC report. She noted that the EPPC no longer exists under the Senate’s new committee structure, and that this is a report on a leftover, transitional charge. She summarized the report and recommendations. Senator Caprio moved to amend section 2.A to recommend that "All courses…should go through the normal curriculum-review process," rather than "must go"; the amendment failed. Senator Diner moved to amend the resolution to urge "the deans and faculties of colleges to consider implementing" the recommendations; the amendment failed. Following Senator Singer’s motion to amend section 1.B of the recommendations (which motion failed), Senator Borisovets proposed rewording, as follows: "Each special topics course must undergo a review process prior to each Winter Session in which it is offered." Senator Singer’s motion failed. Senator Hall moved to refer the report back to committee; the motion failed. Senator Fechter moved to amend section 1.B of the recommendations as proposed by Senator Borisovets; the motion carried. (The amended recommendation was removed from the "Credits" section, and became item C under "Review Process.") Senator Parikh moved to amend the resolution to urge "the administration and deans and faculty of each unit to implement its recommendations"; the motion carried. Senator Leath called the question. The call was seconded. On vote, the report’s recommendations and resolution were approved as amended, as follows:

Recommendations:

While there are serious pedagogical issues that must be addressed, it is clear from the course evaluations that many students did find the Winter Session to be a valuable educational experience. The Committee agreed that if conducted within an appropriate framework, such short-term sessions could be academically viable. Vice-President Caprio's "Wintersession Evaluation and Recommendations" [March 20, 2000] offers a number of recommendations with which the Committee can concur, namely:

• That the Winter Session be continued as a pilot for an additional two years during which time new innovative courses appropriate to such a session can be developed.
• That the development of 1.5- and 2.0-credit courses be encouraged.
• That the issue of the perceived lack of infrastructure support be addressed.
• That students not in good academic standing (lower than a 2.0 GPA) not be allowed to register for Winter Session unless they have the endorsement of an appropriate academic advisor.

However, the Committee would further recommend:

1. Credits:

A. Winter Session courses should be primarily one- to two-credit courses. Three-credit courses should be the exception, not the rule. There was consensus that it was extremely unlikely that the normal expectations for a three-credit course could be met in a 9- to 11-day session.

B. No student should be allowed to register for a total of more than three credits during a single Winter Session. In light of the commitment of time and energy required from students in Winter Session courses, many of whom are attending these classes while also working full- or part-time, attempting to complete more than three credits during this period would be both personally and educationally counterproductive.

2. Review Process:

A. All courses, including three-credit courses that are currently on the books, must go through the normal curriculum-review process (i.e., review by departmental and college curriculum-review committees) prior to being offered during the Winter Session. There was consensus that it was extremely unlikely that the exact equivalent of a previously approved three-credit course could be offered in this abbreviated time frame. Therefore, any existing course that is being modified for the Winter Session format should be considered a new course.

B. Curriculum committees should conduct their reviews within the framework of a consistent set of considerations developed for Winter Session courses.

C. Each Special Topics course must undergo a review process prior to each Winter Session in which it is offered.

3. Courses:

Emphasis should be placed on developing field or study-abroad courses (for example, "London Theater," "Renaissance Art in Florence," "Coral Reefs"). Such courses could take advantage of the Winter Session format and genuinely enrich Rutgers' course offerings.

4. Program Descriptions:

The Rutgers Winter Session is currently an intensive Two-Week/Eleven-day session and should be described as such. While official descriptions refer to the Winter Session as a "four-week" session, in reality the number of actual class days is significantly less than at institutions that refer to similar sessions as "three-week" sessions. Just as Spring Break doesn't figure into the calculation of the length of the Spring semester, the winter holiday break should not figure into the calculation of the length of the Winter Session.