Online at UM

Definitions

Distance Education

All courses at the University of Montevallo (UM) are web-enhanced, meaning that faculty use the learning management system (LMS), at a minimum, to provide access to course documents (e.g., syllabi) and communicate with students. Traditional or in-person (TR) classes are taught exclusively in person but may be designated as flexible (FX) if students have the option to participate in the course either in-person or virtually.

Online

The University defines an online course as a course that never meets in-person; all content is delivered online through the LMS (e.g., Canvas), email, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. Online courses may be synchronous, asynchronous, or a combination of the two. An online synchronous (OS) course requires students to log in at a scheduled time (e.g., in order to participate in a live-streamed session). In an online asynchronous (OA) course, students may be required to meet deadlines for work submissions, but they are not required to log in at a scheduled time. Online hybrid (OH) courses use a combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction.

Hybrid

A hybrid course is a course that includes at least one traditional (in-person) meeting but meets less than 50% of the time in person. Traditional hybrid (HY) courses use a combination of in-person and asynchronous online instruction. Hybrid remote (HR) uses a combination of in-person and synchronous online meetings.