L&S Policy: Online and Hybrid Classes
Policy
- Undergraduate students may enroll
- and it is offered Fall or Spring
Request approval
1. Check the list of L&S courses approved to be offered online or hybrid
2. Attach each of the required documents below to the L&S Online/Hybrid Course Requests form
- One of: proposal to teach a section ONLINE or proposal to teach a section HYBRID (partly online, partly in person)
- A syllabus reflecting online or hybrid design
- Information about course design, digital materials, and student experience:
- Either a link to the CANVAS course if that already exists
- Or completed course map and rhythm documents.
How Proposals are Reviewed
Proposals are reviewed for the items below.
- Intended audience (in-person modality is a priority for first- and second-year students)
- Pedagogical benefits specific to the course goals
- Course role in program requirements (in-person preferred for required courses)
- Alignment with L&S Foundational Criteria for Online & Hybrid Instruction
Approved courses generally roll forward but may be reevaluated if circumstances change.
Questions? Contact: Kimbrin Cornelius, Assistant Dean of L&S Teaching and Learning (kimbrin.cornelius@wisc.edu)
Rationale for Online/Hybrid Policy
The College of Letters & Science is UW-Madison’s largest undergraduate college, teaching over 80% of freshman and sophomore credits. Given our strong teaching mission and the number of students we serve, L&S must actively support and enhance UW-Madison’s excellence as a residential institution. This includes making sure that during the fall/spring semesters:
- Most L&S undergraduate courses have regular and substantive face-to-face meeting times, both at the college and departmental level
- our undergraduates have access to in-person courses that meet their program and degree requirements
- our first and second-year students enroll primarily in face-to-face sections
Online & Hybrid Course Offerings
Online activities, materials and experiences are common in L&S courses as part of the many excellent methods our instructors use to engage and teach students, but fully online or hybrid courses must be strategically offered.When L&S departments do teach undergraduate courses with online or hybrid sections, we want to ensure:
- they are created for specific pedagogical reasons that serve students, such as to use instructional capacities or support student learning in a way not possible through face-to-face models.
- their design aligns with current practices in online education (seeL&S Foundational Criteria for Online & Hybrid Instruction)
Summer offerings are exempt from this policy; there are no summer residential expectations and summer term enrollment is optional for most undergraduates.