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L&S Policy on Offering Undergraduate Class Sections with Online or Hybrid Modality
This page provides information about the L&S policy on offering online or hybrid undergraduate courses in the fall or spring semesters and the required approval process. This policy was updated January 2021, to include hybrid courses and clarify review procedures.
Policy Overview
Scope and Purpose
Procedure (How to Request to Teach a course as online or hybrid)
List of approved courses
More information
Policy Overview
L&S departments must request approval to schedule hybrid or online undergraduate class sections, in fall or spring semesters. Approval is not required for graduate-only courses or summer courses.
Scope and Purpose
Each class section (lecture, discussion, lab) is assigned an instructional mode in SIS. Please see the campus definitions for the three types of modalities: in-person (P), hybrid (WC), and online (WO)
L&S departments must request permission to teach class sections in the online or hybrid format when they meet all of the following conditions:
- the course is designed for undergraduates
- the course is offered in fall or spring semester
- one or more sections of the course are hybrid or online
- the course has not yet been approved (or provisionally approved) by L&S to be offered in these modes
Rationale (Purpose)
The College of Letters & Science is the largest undergraduate college at UW-Madison and teaches over 80% of freshman and sophomore credits across the university. Given our strong teaching mission and the number of students we serve, L&S must actively support and enhance UW-Madison’s excellence as primarily a residential institution that offers a high-quality in-person experience for all undergraduates. This includes making sure that during the fall/spring semesters:
- the vast majority of the undergraduate courses we teach have substantive and significant regular 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 class sections with substantial face-to-face meeting times
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. However, given UW-Madison’s identity as a residential experience, we must be strategic about offering courses that substitute a majority or more of in-person interactions with online activities. 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 a face-to-face model.
- their design aligns with current practices in online education. L&S Foundational Criteria for Online & Hybrid Instruction provides a starting place for course design. they have been assigned by a department process an instructor who is qualified to teach online or hybrid courses
Summer offerings are exempt from this policy; there are no summer residential expectations and summer term enrollment is optional for most undergraduates.
Procedure (How to request to teach a course online/hybrid)
Departments wishing to offer an undergraduate online or hybrid class sections in a fall or spring semesters must submit a Request to offer an online or hybrid undergraduate course during the academic year
More information:
- Contact Kimbrin Cornelius at kimbrin.cornelius@wisc.edu with questions
- List of courses approved to be taught online or in person
- Request to offer an online or hybrid undergraduate course during the academic year