Request to offer an online or hybrid undergraduate course during the academic year; list of approved courses
Departments must request approval to schedule undergraduate course section in an online or hybrid format, the procedure is below.
Deadlines & Resources
Friday, January 7th, 2022: Deadline for L&S departments must submit requests to teach Fall 2022 undergraduate class sections as online or hybrid. Please note: no review is required to offer summer courses online, or to offer graduate courses online.
How to Submit a Request
To request permission to offer an undergraduate class section as online
or hybrid during the fall/spring semester, departments must:
(1) Gather proposal materials:
- a completed proposal to teach the course online or hybrid
- a syllabus that reflects the online/hybrid instructional mode and meets
campus syllabus guidelines
- a link to the CANVAS course if that has been created; otherwise,
documentation of the course design, digital materials, and student
experience by providing a completed course map and rhythm document.
(2) The chair/director must submit the materials and request, with their
department's recommendation for the course to be taught online or hybrid, to L&S Teaching
& Learning Administration, c/o Zach McLeod (zachary.mcleod@wisc.edu)
Special Notes:
- Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) online courses
shared with BTAA institutions will receive expedited review; contact
Zach McLeod for additional information.
- Given the variable nature of topics courses, they cannot
be permanently approved to be offered online. However, departments may
request permission to teach any individual topic title online through
this process. Approval will be specific to the term and topic title.
- Summer online courses and graduate online courses don't need approval, per the L&S Policy on Offering Undergraduate Class Sections with Online or Hybrid Modality.
Review of proposals
**UPDATE for Spring 2022 requests: Given the need for a very short review
turnaround, L&S Curriculum Committee review will not
be required. Requests will be administratively reviewed and approved by
L&S Teaching & Learning.
As is practice for current course proposals, requests to offer courses
online will be administratively reviewed before they are forwarded to
the L&S Curriculum Committee. In this case, administrative review
will include LSS staff and have the additional focus of:
- Whether the student enrollments are likely to include first and second
year students
- If students are required to take the online version to complete a
requirement
- Review of the instructional design of the course, to ensure it is
aligned with current practices in online education
The L&S Curriculum Committee will review proposals as they would any
other course change or new course proposal, with the additional
consideration of the quality of the online instructional design,
justification for offering an online version during the academic year,
and potential impact on the freshman/sophomore student experience.
Generally speaking, an approval to offer a course online rolls forward
automatically each semester. However, if a course’s content, design,
enrollment or audience changes substantially, or if an issue is
identified through regular L&S Admin monitoring, the L&S
Curriculum Committee may require another review.
For additional questions, please contact Shirin Malekpour, Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning (L&S) at shirin.malekpour@wisc.edu.