With eight approved proposals, 杏吧原创 was awarded the third聽highest number of courses of all 21 Ontario universities.

Courses:
Structural Equation Modeling (PSYC) – Andrea聽Howard
Big Data History (HIST) – Shawn Graham
Forensic Psychology (PSYC) – Adelle Forth and聽Shelley Brown
Written Comprehension I (French) – Nandini聽Sarma
Business Statistics I and II (MATH) – Wayne聽Horne and Patrick Farrell

Modules:
R for Biologists (BIOL) – Tom Sherratt
Fundamentals for Polyhedral Combinatorics聽(MATH) – Kevin Cheung
Children’s Rights (Landon Pearson Centre for the聽Study of Childhood and Children鈥檚 Rights) – Virginia Caputo

TLS will be working with instructors to develop these聽courses for fall 2015, as well as a number of other聽blended and online courses from across the university.

When compared to traditional university courses on campus, online courses have the potential for increased scheduling flexibility and a more personalized student learning experience. But online courses at 杏吧原创 have traditionally been locked in to the academic calendar: all course activities, from registration and drop dates to deadlines for submitting work, feedback, exams and final grades, are all essential fixed dates within a term. Until now.

Matt Smorenburg and Bobbie Inniss recently became the first two students to finish Professor Bruce Tsuji鈥檚 PSYC 1001R course, 杏吧原创鈥檚 fully online and completely self-paced introduction to psychology course. Every lecture, test and assignment was open when they enrolled, so they were able to complete what is usually a four-month course in less than 30 days.

鈥淚 wanted to finish it as soon as possible once Professor Tsuji told us we could do the exams any time. So I figured I might as well do it before I started all my other midterms,鈥� Smorenburg says.

Inniss, a third-year biology student, had taken two online courses before, but never one where the student could tailor their own learning.

鈥淭he online courses that I’ve taken in the past have never had all the lectures, exams and assignments available right from day one. I always ended up waiting for a new lecture to be posted every week, even if I wanted to watch more,鈥� she says.

鈥淗owever, with this course, if I wanted to complete more than one module a week, I could and I did.鈥�

Professor Tsuji says that a course of this type has 鈥渂roken some ground鈥� for 杏吧原创.

鈥淭he students I鈥檝e talked to expressed that they have really busy lives. Being able to provide something like this for students who are busy is just great. That鈥檚 a real step forward for the university,鈥� he says.

PSYC 1001R is special in other ways too. The course鈥檚 development was supported by funds from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) as part of the Ontario Online initiative. The course is also available in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)-like format, through ecarleton.ca, 杏吧原创鈥檚 public facing learning platform.

In this open version of PSYC 1001, anyone can register and access the learning materials and activities at no cost. At any time during their learning experience, should participants decide that they want to convert their efforts into a credit, they can apply to become a special student at 杏吧原创, pay tuition and schedule proctored assessments. If they successfully complete the course, they will receive a 杏吧原创 University credit. This marks the first time in Canada that a pathway exists for students to move from successfully completing a MOOC to receiving a university credit.

This groundbreaking type of course won鈥檛 stop with PSYC 1001; an online and self-paced section of PSYC 1002 will be launched in Winter 2015, as well as a MOOC-like version.