Instructional Design: Policies & Protocols

What is In-Flight Support?

When an online or hybrid course (developed by AT) goes “live” or runs for the designated semester, we call it “in-flight”. Academic Technology will support the course throughout that in-flight period (the duration of the course semester).

If I develop specific content for the course (like a video), do I get to use the content outside the online course?

In keeping with the University’s Statement of Policy on Intellectual Property, all right, title, and interest in only the Course and any Derivative Work are assigned by the faculty member to the University. The faculty member shall retain the right to use all or part of the material, for instruction or scholarly publication and presentation, as long as they remain employees of ZenU. Further, the faculty member may use any video produced using their likeness in the event they are no longer employed by the University. The faculty member cannot use the produced content, in whole or in part, to enter into a separate commercial agreement to distribute the material for commercial or non-commercial purposes without the written consent of the University.

What if I want to conduct a major change (media development, assignment creation, etc.) throughout the semester?

AT will not assist with major content or curriculum changes while the course is mid-flight. We don’t do this for several reasons, but the main two reasons being: 1) we likely don’t have the support staff to create any content or do major editing, and 2) we need to maintain the course site’s integrity and editing the site while it is live could potentially break certain functionalities. We will always support a course when it is in-flight but for maintenance requests only. We reserve the right to accept or reject these requests on a case-by-case basis.

What is a Course Refresh?

Before a course needs to run again (say the next year or the next term), several things need to happen. First, we need to roll over the site from the Master copy to the official course site which is linked to Albert. Second, we need to run through a checklist of updates (open/close assignment dates, gradebook set up, reorganize the toolbar, reactivate forums, etc.). The whole refresh process takes about 3 weeks and we need to be alerted of the refresh about 2 months in advance since we regularly have to do up to 15-course refreshes scheduled at one time.

Does the teaching Faculty participate in the refresh?

Yes- we can’t do it without them! While we will do much of the technical work, we rely on the faculty to help us with due dates, opening/closing dates of the course modules, arranging student groups, etc. Much of the refresh is contingent on faculty participation and responsiveness. In many situations, the course will be rolled over into its new semesterly site, and the instructor will be notified and responsible for updating content (dates, assignments etc.). 

What are the Status Updates? Who do they go to?

At the end of every two weeks (usually), your AT partner will complete a Status Report. The report will indicate a color that tells the stakeholders the status of the project.

• Green means that the project is On-Track and On Schedule.
• Yellow means that a milestone has been missed, but the Eight Dates are still intact - we call this color, “At Risk”.
• Orange means that the project is now labeled as “High Risk” with a high risk of going off track.
• Red means that the project is “Off Track” and one of the Eight Dates will be missed if action is not taken.

Are deadlines flexible?

Sometimes deadlines can be stretched to accommodate travel or unforeseen events. However, deadlines are generally hard due dates for deliverables. If a deadline is missed, your AT partner will update stakeholders as to the new status color and/or the due date of the project.