Introduction:

What you’ll learn to do: describe college basics like different class types, course and college policies, and student resources

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes . . . and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

–Eleanor Roosevelt, politician and activist

By the end of this section, you will be able to identify differences in class delivery and compare strategies for success in each type. You’ll also identify differences in types of classes within your degree plan, such as electives and core requirements. In addition, you’ll explain how to access individual course policies and college-wide policies as well as how to identify major college resources and how to use them when needed.

Course Delivery

Formats of Courses

If college success is about anything, it’s about the choices you need to make in order to succeed. What do you want to learn? How do you want to learn it? Who do you want to learn it with and where? When do you learn best?

As part of the many choices you will make in college, you will often be able to select the course format in which your college classes are offered. The list below describes some of the main formats you may choose. Some formats are better for certain subjects. Others are based on how instructors believe the content can most effectively be delivered. Knowing more about your options can help you select your best environments for learning.

Lecture

Lecture-style courses are historically the most common course format. In lecture courses, the professor’s main goal is to share a large amount of information, ideas, principles, and resources. Lecture-style courses often include discussions and other interaction with your fellow students.

Laboratory

Laboratory courses take place in a controlled environment with specialized equipment, typically in a special facility. Students participating in labs can expect to engage fully with the material—to learn by doing. In a lab, you get first-hand experience in developing, practicing, translating, testing, and applying principles.

Seminar

Seminar-style courses are geared toward a small group of students who have achieved an advanced level of knowledge or skill in a certain area or subject. In a seminar, you will likely do a good deal of reading, writing, and discussing. You might also conduct original research. You will invariably explore a topic in great depth. The course may involve a final project such as a presentation, term paper, or demonstration.

Studio

Studio-style courses, similar to seminars, are also very active, but emphasis is placed mainly on developing concrete skills, such as fine arts or theater arts. Studio courses generally require you to use specific materials, instruments, equipment, and/or tools. Your course may culminate in a public display or performance.

Workshop

Workshop-style courses are generally short in length, but intensive in scope and interaction. Workshops generally have a lower student-to-teacher ratio than other courses. Often the goal of a workshop is the acquisition of information and skills that you can immediately apply.

Independent Study

Independent-study courses may be less common than other course formats. They allow you to pursue special interests not met in your formal curriculum and often involve working closely with a particular faculty person or adviser. Independent studies usually involve significant reading and writing and often end in a research project or paper. Your special, perhaps unique area of interest will be studied thoroughly.

Study Abroad

Study-abroad courses and programs give students opportunities to learn certain subjects in a country other than their own. For most US students, a typical time frame for studying abroad is one or two academic terms. For many students, study-abroad experiences are life changing.

The following video is one student’s account of why and how traveling abroad changed his life.

You can view the transcript for “Why YOU Should Study Abroad” here (opens in new window).

Technology-Enhanced Formats

Most, if not all, college course formats can be delivered with technology enhancements. For example, lecture-style courses are often delivered fully online, and lab courses often have web enhancements. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, online teaching and learning was commonplace at most colleges and universities. In fact, in 2018, there were 6,932,074 students enrolled in a distance education course at degree-granting institutions, at both the undergraduate and postbaccalaureate level.^[1]

Technology-enhanced delivery methods may be synchronous (meaning in real time, through some kind of live-interaction tool) as well as asynchronous (meaning in delayed time; they may include online discussion boards that students visit at different times within a certain time frame).

The following describes the attributes of four main “modes” of delivery relative to the technology enhancements involved.

Face-to-Face or Traditional: 0% Content Delivered Online

A face-to-face course is delivered fully on-site with real-time, face-to-face interaction between the instructor and student. A face-to-face course may make use of computers, the Internet, or other electronic media in the classroom, but it does not use the institution’s learning management system for instruction. A learning management system, like Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, or others, is an online teaching and learning environment that allows students and teachers to engage with one another and with course content.

Web Enhanced: 1% to 29% Content Delivered Online

A web-enhanced course takes place primarily in a traditional, face-to-face classroom, with some course materials being accessible online (generally in the learning management system), like digital readings to support learning objectives. All web-enhanced classes regularly meet face-to-face.

Hybrid or Blended: 30% to 79% Content Delivered Online

Hybrid courses (also called blended courses) strategically blend online and face-to-face delivery. “Flipped classrooms” are an example of hybrid delivery. In a flipped classroom, your instructor reverses the traditional order of in-class and out-of-class activity, such that you may be asked to view lectures at home before coming to class. You may then be asked to use class time for activities that enable you to engage dynamically with your instructor and fellow students. Blended courses have fewer in-person sessions than face-to-face or web-enhanced courses do.

Online: 80% or More Content Delivered Online

An online course is delivered almost entirely through the institution’s learning management system or other online means, such as synchronous conferencing. Generally, very few or no on-site, face-to-face class meetings are required.

Florida Southwestern State College offers multiple delivery platforms for their students. Provided from the college website, is a tool to help students determine which platform best suits their needs. A link to that tool can be accessed here. Below is a chart that is also provided to give students and potential students clarity in deciding which platform will help ensure their success:

Accessed from: https://www.fsw.edu/reconnect/coursedelivery

Types of Classes in Your Degree Plan

Just as you have choices about the delivery format of your courses, you also have choices about where specific courses fit academically into your chosen degree program. For example, you can choose from many different combinations of required courses and elective courses in a given term. College degree programs often include both required and elective courses.

• A core course is a course required by your institution, and every student must take it in order to obtain a degree. It’s sometimes also called a general education course. Collectively, core courses are part of a core curriculum. Core courses are always essential to an academic degree, but they are not necessarily foundational to your major.
• A course required in your major, on the other hand, is essential to your specific field of study. For example, as an accounting student, you would probably have to take classes like organizational theory and principles of marketing. Your academic adviser can help you learn which courses within your major are required.
• An elective course, in contrast to both core courses and required courses in your major, is a variable component of your curriculum. You choose your electives from a number of optional subjects. Elective courses tend to be more specialized than required courses. They may also have fewer students than required courses do.

Most educational programs prefer that students take a combination of elective and required courses during the same term. This combination is a good way to meet the demands of your program and take interesting courses outside your focus area at the same time.

Since your required courses will be clearly specified, you may not have many questions about which ones to take or when to take them. But since you get to choose which elective courses you take, some interesting questions may arise.

What are some strategies you can use to help you decide which electives are right for you?

It’s important to track and plan your required and elective courses from the outset. Take advantage of your FSW Academic Advisors to help you make sure you are on the best trajectory to graduation. You can contact them and schedule appoints through your FSW student portal. Additional forms of communication with your Academic Advisors can be found here. Remember to reassess your plan as needed.

Course Policies and College Policies

Think of your college campus as a small town—maybe even a little city. In the same way that towns and cities need laws to regulate citizen activities, colleges and universities need codes and policies to define appropriate behaviors, events, activities, operations, and much more.

College-Wide Policies

Each institution has its own unique set of codes and policies, but many commonalities can be found between the codes and policies of different institutions. You can expect to find policy and codes about academic standards, admissions, enrollment, tuition and fees, student classifications, degree types, degree requirements, transfer agreements, advising, course scheduling, majors, minors, credits, syllabi, exams, grade-point averages, academic warnings, scholarships, faculty affairs, research, rights and responsibilities, and honors and distinctions.

Here are examples of several sets of policies and rules that you may be interested in looking over:

• Public college: Pennsylvania State University Policies and Rules for Undergraduate Students
• Private college: American University Policies; Selected Listing of Student-Related Policies
• Two-year college: Cuyahoga Community College Policies and Procedures
• For-profit college: Capella University’s University Policies

Where to Access Policies

Take time to find the policies and procedures for your institution. You can find them online, in the print version of the college handbook, in the admissions office, through your guidance counselor, and/or in the main office building of your academic program.

Course-Specific Policies

Be aware that your individual instructors will provide you with information about their course-specific policies and procedures. This information may include policies about grading, absences, and academic integrity. You will also find expectations for submitting work, for communicating with your teacher, and much more. Course-specific policies can affect your grades on individual assignments as well as your final grade. This information is most commonly found in your syllabus, which is the most important document to read for each and every class.

Using Major College Resources

Resources to help you reach your educational and career goals are available on most college campuses.

There are several campus resources to know about and find early in your college tenure at FSW. You may not need them right away; some you may not need at all. However, you will likely find several campus resources to be vital to your success. Become familiar with your options. Know where to find the services. Find the appropriate contact information and be prepared to access these resources for help.

Academic Advising

Most colleges and universities assign an academic adviser to each student. The adviser may be associated with your major. There may also be an office or department that provides advising. Call upon your adviser or the advising office if you have an issue with your adviser or you need other help.

Tutoring and Writing Centers

Tutoring and writing centers are established for all students, and seeking help from them is expected and to your advantage. Such services are covered by your tuition costs, and they can richly enhance performance in any area of your studies. Know where to find these centers and how to schedule appointments.

Other Academic Support Facilities

Your college may also offer academic support in various other forms: for example, computer labs with trained assistants, tutors, mentors, peer advisers, and more. You can research what kinds of special support are available and be ready to take advantage of them.

Library Reference Desk

College libraries are staffed with professionals whose main function is to assist you and the college community in finding needed resources. Don’t hesitate to find the reference desk and get to know the reference librarians. Invariably, you will learn about valuable resources—many of them online—that you didn’t know existed. Reference librarians are also educators, and they’re there to help you.

Campus Health Center

In the event that you need any health services whatsoever, the campus health center can be your first destination. Stop into the center and learn about the services offered, the hours of operation, emergency provisions, and routine health services available.

Campus Counseling

Counseling is an essential service that colleges and universities invariably provide. Services can ranges from life-saving care to assistance with minor concerns. Life stressors, such as deaths and divorces in the family, issues with friends, substance abuse, and suicide are just a few of the many issues that college students may experience or witness others struggling with. Don’t take matters into your own hands. Get help! The counseling center can help you and support you in gaining solid footing during difficult times. Don’t hesitate to take full advantage of the services and help they offer.

Career Services

One of the most important purposes of college is to prepare students for a career. All colleges and universities have a career office that can assist you with many critical aspects of finding a suitable career. It may also help you find a campus job or review options for your major, help you get an internship, draft your résumé, and practice interview skills. Visiting the career office is a must for every student, and it’s worth doing early and often (rather than waiting until you’re about to graduate).

Spiritual Life

Most college campuses have interfaith facilities to meet the spiritual-life needs of the entire college community. You may find these facilities to be a refuge in special moments of need or resources for your ongoing involvement. A healthy spiritual life can bring greater balance to your student life.

Financial Aid Office

Many students apply for and receive financial aid to pay for their education. The financial aid office is a good place to get all your questions about financial aid answered. There are people working there who are dedicated to helping you with your financial aid questions, and finding you additional information as needed.

Disabilities Office

The disabilities office may vary from campus to campus regarding what specific services they offer to students. Your campus should have information available to you regarding who you can contact for disabilities support and accommodations requests. If you’re not sure where to start, you can visit your school’s website for more information or get in contact with your advisor or other student support services so they can connect you with the right resources.

Multicultural Resource Center

Every multicultural resource center is different, but all support the success of students of different cultures during their time in school. Your multicultural center might provide a quiet study space, a space to socialize with other students, guidance for navigating campus policies and systems, academic support, leadership development, or a place that encourages exploring issues of race, ethnicity, and culture.

Campus Housing Office

If you are a residential student, you may need to access resources through your campus housing office, whether it’s regarding housing placement, payment, or other housing-related concerns.

Additional support centers include offices for student organizations, athletics, continuing education, international students, child care, and many others. Refer to your college website or other college directory for information about the many, many services that can be part of your college experience.