Expectations and Agreements

The successful planning, development, and launch of an online program through URI Online relies on the commitment and timeliness of several key team members. Outlined below are the various roles and expectations that all participants agree to by engaging in the proposal and development process.

Master Course Developers agree to

  • Complete a fully online Brightspace master course, which should be generally teachable by any instructor in the field, by an agreed upon deadline.
  • Collaborate closely with the URI Online Instructional Design team in designing the master course as part of Online Design, an 8-Week intensive professional development course that provides structure and support for completing required course design deliverables.
  • Complete two required Online Design synchronous workshops that provide additional guidance at key course design steps:
    • Program Alignment Workshop
    • Quality Matters Workshop
  • Achieve a score of 85% or higher on a formal Quality Matters review by the end of the course development process. (In the case where a course requires additional revisions to achieve 85%, the faculty member, with the ongoing support of an instructional designer, is responsible for making changes.)

The Program Coordinator agrees to

  • Act as the primary liaison between the program faculty and the URI Online Instructional Design team.
  • Participate in the Online Design pre-launch meeting and ensure that all faculty designing courses are in attendance.
  • Serve as a mentor for program faculty in the development of online master courses.
  • Provide faculty coordination for online program course development.
  • Ensure that the departmental template for online courses is followed by the program and faculty.
  • Support faculty in meeting course development timelines and expectations.
  • Ensure that program faculty produce master courses that are generally teachable by any instructor in the field.
  • Ensure that faculty courses achieve a Quality Matters review of 85% or higher.
  • Reinforce timelines for the instructional design delivery plan to faculty.
  • Communicate any faculty changes in course development.
  • Report issues or concerns related to faculty participation and production of course materials or completion to departmental administration and URI Online.

URI Online agrees to

Provide staffing support to include:

  • Assistant Director of Online Program, who meets regularly with the Program Coordinator and manages all aspects of URI Online.
  • An instructional designer assigned to each faculty to support the creation of high quality, interactive courses that contribute to students meeting the learning outcomes of the program.
  • Marketing experts to help market the program in the highly competitive online world.
  • A student support call center to work with students from point of inquiry through application, enrollment, and graduation.

Provide training and guidance to include:

  • A structured and supportive course design process that includes close coordination with an instructional designer and course design workshops.

URI provides financial support through

In addition to the staffing and services described above, URI provides:

  • Seed money to support specific costs associated with establishing a new online program. Refer to Seed Grant FAQs for details on funding requests and dispersal.
  • A revenue share model that brings a portion of tuition monies back to the department.