About the Author
Geoffrey Ream is assistant professor of the School of Social Work.
Boundaries and Policies in Distance Learning
Geoffrey Ream
ream@adelphi.edu
Syllabus language about course policies hasn’t changed much since my own undergraduate days, when online courses weren’t even featured in Starfleet Academy. Teaching online required me to rearticulate that language for a new, online environment. My master’s-level research and doctoral statistics courses have substantial distance learning components, and in the summer of 2008, I pioneered a significantly updated version of our online one-credit statistics course.
I’ve found the following policies and additional instructions helpful, although the wording below is not necessarily the same as I use on the syllabus.
- Students must upload homework through Moodle. They can check the status of their submission via the “Assignments” link from the Activities block in the far-right column on the course’s front page. This is better than e-mail submission because they can be sure I received their file without having to ask me for a receipt.
- When students ask me for help with basic computer proficiency or Adelphi-supported software, I refer them to Customer Services. Through resources like phone consulting and Peer to Peer Training, they are better prepared to help than I am.
- In some courses, like statistics, learning certain procedures with the software is a course objective. Customer Services can only help to a limited degree. Students must be ready to do what they’re supposed to do on their own, independently.
- Independent learning and problem solving are endemic to online courses. Rather than asking the professor right away, students should try to solve technical issues using course resources in Moodle or searching the Web for answers. In maintaining a policy like this, of course, I implicitly commit to “play-test” all of my technology and collect information on problems and workarounds.
- When assignments are late or at variance with requirements, problems accessing or using technology are not generally acceptable excuses.
- Everyone is graded in the same way. Automatically-graded quizzes and activities cannot be hand-graded. On homework “handed back” electronically with comments (usually via Moodle’s QuickMail feature), handwritten feedback on paper is unavailable.
- Students must read all material relevant to them in the syllabus and linked on Moodle. As long as I make sure complete course policies, assignment instructions, and information about technical problems is on Moodle, I can refer students to relevant links when they have questions.
Having these policies and boundaries in place helps students know what to expect, ensures that they receive (or at least are responsible for having received) every communication, and helps them focus on the material, rather than the medium.
Other practices serving these purposes: In fully-online courses, send a snail-mail letter to students a month before class starts telling them how to access Moodle. In classroom courses, periodically assess needs and sometimes demonstrate procedures via the LCD projector. Students are willing to take responsibility for the fact that many of the technical difficulties that they report are actually, so to speak, proficiency difficulties, if those conversations are approached in a spirit of mutual respect and empathy. For students who are really struggling, I sometimes even apply case management and advocacy, going out of my way for them because of my faith that these proficiencies will help them in their careers. 
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