Helpful Information

As long as you have a computer and an internet connection, you are ready for class!

Courses are divided into sessions that each last approximately one week. A clear schedule is given throughout the course to help you keep on track. Sessions typically include:

• a set of objectives
• text or reading assignments
• interaction and posting requirements
• written assignments to be turned-in
• a "lecture" and content enhancement material
• a quiz or other form of assessment

You log in to get the requirements and content items, do your work off-line at your convenience, then go back online to interact and submit the results.

All the courses are asynchronous, meaning that you can accomplish the weekly requirements at your convenience. You will be required to interact with your fellow classmates but most courses have no set class or meeting times. This flexibility helps you handle schedule conflicts, as well as free time blocks for athletics, work, or activities. It helps you structure a schedule that fits your individual needs.

Summer Online Courses allow you schedule flexibility or a convenient way reduce your fall-spring load, and provides a way to get the class and maintain a normal set of summer activities. You don't have to stay on campus or choose between work and school.

Online courses by nature involve more engagement and active learning methods than you may have experienced in some face-to-face classes that are predominately lecture. It is widely held that the engagement pedagogy results in better mastery of the material. A significant body of research has shown that although students may have a personal preference for online or face-to-face courses, that properly conducted they produce equivalent results. Cedarville students often report that they work harder on some online courses but learn more.

The point: Our online courses are in most ways very similar to their face-to-face equivalents and in general are neither harder nor easier. They require the same amount of effort.

Online labs? Several of our courses, particularly Biology and Earth Science, are lab courses and thus contain labs. In some cases, you are provided a lab kit and in others, a virtual lab package with which you individually perform the lab and then submit the results. We have used this system for many years with good results.

Testing. Online course management systems such as WebCT provide the technology that makes it possible to give frequent quizzes that supply immediate feedback. In most of our courses, you will find quizzes during the week and then a summative assessment of some type at the end of the section block (normally a week).