Blended/Hybrid Course Proposal Guidelines 
 

   1. Definition.  A Blended/Hybrid course is one that is scheduled to have its faculty member meet with his or her students 50% of the time in a classroom* to do face-to-face work, with the other 50% of the time devoted to students working on class materials as well as participating in discussion within a secure website over the internet.  This applies only to the lecture/recitation portion of the science, clinical or performance-based courses that are approved to be offered as a blended/hybrid course.

 

      The campus is required to offer blended/hybrid courses in pairs.  Moreover, the campus is required to schedule the pair of sections in the same room and same times on complementary meeting days.  In this fashion, the room-days and schedule-times would be fully utilized using the campusÕ blended/hybrid courses. 

      *As a pilot blended/hybrid course project until January 2005, such courses will be required to physically meet every other class meeting (50%:50% rule)

   2. Course Management System.  The secure website, as reference above, can be developed using the SUNY CourseSpace course management system.  The SUNY Learning Network course management system is reserved for fully asynchronous courses.

 
 

   3. Proposing a Blended/Hybrid course.  The faculty member follows the same course proposal procedure as any other distance education course proposal.  For guidance through this process, refer to the ABCs - Propose a DE Course and Checklist located on the faculty help web page, linked off of the CollegeÕs Distance Education website - http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/Web/VirtualCampus/

 
 

   4. Placement of a Blended/Hybrid course on the Master Schedule.   Following the Distance Education CommitteeÕs recommendation of the Blended/Hybrid courses to the Vice President for Academic and Campus Affairs and the Vice PresidentÕs approval, the academic chair or assistant dean will enter this course onto MSOL within the departmentÕs section range.  Moreover, each Blended/Hybrid section will be assigned a HON/DEV-designation of B, together with a meeting day, meeting time, and room assignments for the purpose of the faculty member and students to meet face-to-face 50% of the time.

 
 

   5. Faculty and course development cycle.  A faculty member developing any asynchronous course for the first time (including the above defined blended/hybrid course) will receive three-credits of release-time or overload/adjunct pay for course development.  The first-time hybrid course faculty member would begin the course development cycle by attending the course management training (January or June) followed by the opportunity to work with the SCCC Media Instructional Designer (MID) in the development of the blended/hybrid course.  This SCCC MID work would also take place prior to the teaching of the course.  Finally, for the first year of offering hybrid courses, there would be no more than seven to ten (7 to 10) first-time faculty blended/hybrid course developers allotted to each cycle (fall, spring or summer). In the event that more than ten (10) faculty members apply in any given limited ÒcycleÓ for the first year of offering blended/hybrid courses, blended/hybrid course assignment selection process will be determined by the Distance Education Committee.

 

      It is understood that should a faculty member, following the development of a hybrid course, wish to develop a fully asynchronous course, he or she would be required to participate in the professional development program associated with this course development without further three-credits reassign-time/overload or adjunct assignment professional development support.   

      It is further understood that a faculty member shall only be provided course development compensation or release time for the first asynchronous (including hybrid) course he or she develops.  A faculty member who has already developed an asynchronous course and has already received three-credit release-time or overload/ adjunct pay for course development will receive no further compensation or release time to develop a hybrid course.  

   

   6. Class size.  During the pilot project effective September 1, 2003 through January 2, 2005, the class size maximums for blended/hybrid courses shall be two-thirds (2/3) of the maximum for a corresponding or similar course that is taught in a traditional format the first time that the instructor teaches a hybrid course and three-quarters (3/4) of the maximum for a corresponding or similar course that is taught in a traditional format when the instructor teaches subsequent classes but no course shall have a class limit smaller than 20 with the understanding that no blended/hybrid course class size will be higher than its traditional counterpart.

 
 

   7. Project Review.  For each semester of this pilot project (Fall 2003, Spring 2004, Summer 2004, and Fall 2004) the following information needs to be reported to the Vice President for Academic and Campus Affairs:

 

            Quantitative Information-

                  Total number of students enrolled

                  Total number of full-time/adjunct faculty teaching

                  Total number of Blended/Hybrid courses offered

                  Number of students registered Ð by course

                  Number of students who successfully completed Ð by course

                  Faculty teaching-workload measure - this measure would be determined by Institutional Research for the purpose of comparing faculty teaching-workload when teaching a blended/hybrid course vs. a non-blended/hybrid course. 
                   

            Qualitative Information -

                  Review of faculty teaching Blended/Hybrid courses (Questionnaire)

                  Review of students enrolled in Blended/Hybrid courses (Questionnaire)

                  Review by Faculty Coordinator for College Distance Education Program

                  Review by Instructional Administrator 

      The completed report, recommendations and summary due January 15, 2005. 
 

      If you have any questions about these guidelines do not hesitate to contact the Chairperson of CollegeÕs Distance Education Committee. 

      04/03/03