Definitions
New Course Development: Development of an online course that is either new to the university course catalog or currently exists in the university catalog as a traditional face-to-face course and will be offered online for the first time.
Extensive Course Revision: Revision of an existing online course that includes either changes equal to or greater than 50% of the course learning materials, or substantial changes to course structure, course goals, and/or learning outcomes such that the essential nature of the course is changed.
Individual Initiative: Individual online courses that are not part of 100% fully online degree programs, including Kent Core.
Course Assistance Request Approval Process
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Faculty members interested in offering a course in an online format should first discuss and seek approval from their department chair/school director and/or college dean, as applicable, through the academic unit’s established curricular processes. Courses that are new to the KSU course catalog should consult the established curriculum process and curriculum deadlines located on the Curriculum Services website.
- Requests for university supported course development assistance are prioritized according to availability of university resources. Priority is given to fully online degree program courses and strategic individual initiative courses (high enrollment, high D/F/W, Kent Core, Transfer Module).
- University supported course development assistance may require a signed Agreement Letter establishing the terms and conditions of course development and expectations for faculty course developer participation.
Request for Course Development Assistance
- Faculty or administrators of academic units may submit a request for instructional design/course designer assistance with new course development or extensive revision to an existing online course via the university's online course support service catalog.
Funding for Course Assistance
- Faculty should discuss online course development compensation with their department chair/school director and/or college dean.
- Limited funding for university-supported course development may be available from Kent State Online, especially during the summer term when faculty are not on contract. Requests for funding should be submitted to Kent State Online by the department chair/school director and/or college dean.
- Priority consideration for Kent State Online funding requests will be given to fully online degree program courses, and high enrollment, high D/F/W, Kent Core, and Ohio Transfer Module courses.
Course Development Scheduling
- Course development projects are scheduled by development terms. The start and end dates of course development terms coincide with the university's fall, spring, and summer academic terms.
- Courses are developed a minimum of one academic term prior to the next scheduled delivery term. Requests for course development assistance should be submitted a minimum of one academic term prior to the development term. (See the table below for an example time line.)
| Scheduled Delivery |
Development Term |
Submit Request |
| Fall term |
Preceding summer term |
Preceding spring term |
Distance Distributed Learning Agreement
- The Distance / Distributed Learning Agreement (DDLA) is a university document that establishes the intellectual property rights of online course materials and the final resulting work and the terms of compensation for online course development and the extensive revision of online courses.
- A signed Distributed Distance Learning Agreement (DDLA) is required for all new online course development or extensive revision of an existing online course prior to the start of course development.
Note: Signing a DDLA form is not a substitute or equivalent to curricular approval to deliver a course in an online format. Curricular approval must be granted before completing a DDLA form.
Course Development
- Use of the university's official learning management system and the Kent State Online course shell template is required for all university-supported online course development.
- Course development is expected to be completed by the end of the development term in which it is scheduled.
- Course development will start with a project kick-off meeting scheduled at the start of course development term. The distance learning support staff assigned to assist with course development will contact the dept/school/program designated faculty course developer.
- At the end of course development, the course will be reviewed and evaluated for quality assurance using the KSO design standards rubric. The rubric is based on Quality Matters standards, federal requirements for online education, and university policy.
Note: If workload equivalency is provided as compensation, course development MUST be completed in the term in which the workload equivalency is given. If monetary compensation is provided, course development MUST be completed during the FY in which the monetary compensation is budgeted.
Course Support
- In instances of succeeding assignments to teach distance education courses, faculty are expected to demonstrate a level of technical competence that would enable them to prepare and teach the course.
- Online course support is available for all colleges and campuses. Faculty may request support via the university's course support service catalog or schedule an individual consultation with distance learning support staff.
- Additional resources are available to faculty on the KSU Online Teaching and Canvas web sites. Technical support and training is available for faculty assigned to teach distance education courses online.