Topics Map > Teaching, Learning & Academic Administration > Courses: Create or Change
Topics Map > Teaching, Learning & Academic Administration > Teaching or Instructional Policies

L&S Policy: Online and Hybrid Classes

Departments must request approval to schedule undergraduate course section in an online or hybrid format, the procedure is below.

Policy

Offering a course as online or hybrid courses requires approval if:
  • Undergraduate students may enroll
  • and it is offered Fall or Spring
No approval needed for summer or graduate-only classes.

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

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.



    Keywords:
    form, approval, review, online, course, teach, fall, spring, instruction, instructor, permission 
    Doc ID:
    95005
    Owned by:
    Kimbrin C. in L&S KB
    Created:
    2019-10-15
    Updated:
    2025-05-15
    Sites:
    L&S KB