Request to offer an online or hybrid undergraduate course during the academic year

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

Deadlines & Resources

Friday, October 8, 2021: Deadline for L&S departments must submit requests to teach Spring 2022 undergraduate class sections as online or hybrid. 

L&S Policy on Offering Undergraduate Class Sections with Online or Hybrid Modality
L&S undergraduate courses approved to be offered online or hybrid in Fall or Spring semesters

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 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 Note-1: Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) online courses shared with BTAA institutions will receive expedited review; contact Zach McLeod for additional information.

Special Note-2: 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.

Review of proposals

**UPDATE for Spring 2022 requests: Given the need for a very short review turnaround for Spring 2022, 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.