CourseShare Faculty FAQ

CourseShare Faculty FAQ

How do I know if my course would be a good candidate for sharing?

Successful CourseShare courses often meet the following criteria:

  • The course is a less commonly taught language or specialized cultural seminar not available at all Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions.
  • There is room to accommodate 3 or more additional enrollments from another Big Ten Academic Alliance institution.
  • The course can be delivered by technology such as live videoconference, asynchronous/online, Breeze, Skype, or other internet solutions and does not require in-person contact between students and the instructor.

If you think your course may be of interest to students at another Big Ten Academic Alliance institution, please contact the Big Ten Academic Alliance staff.

Who approves CourseShare courses? Do I need permission to share my course or for my students to receive a course from another Big Ten Academic Alliance institution?

Both the host/teaching department and the home/receiving departments must seek permission from their own department chairs prior to agreeing to participate in a CourseShare course. The department chairs are advised to also seek approval from their college deans prior to the announcement of course sharing arrangements. Big Ten Academic Alliance staff can share examples of course sharing agreements and are happy to host conference calls to bring together faculty and administrators interested in exploring new CourseShare collaborations. Some of the tools developed by the Arts & Science Deans during the CourseShare pilot may also be informative (Guiding Principles for Sharing Courses, Checklist for Participating Departments, etc.).

My specialized seminar would appeal to students at another Big Ten Academic Alliance institution, and my department chair has encouraged me to make it available through CourseShare. What do I do next?

First, you will need to determine a Department Contact. This could be you as the instructor, or an assistant in your department. The Department Contact should email the Big Ten Academic Alliance staff and share the following details for the course:

  • Course number and name of course
  • Course start and end dates
  • Course meeting times (if relevant)
  • Method of course delivery (online, videoconference, Breeze, etc.)
  • Professor name and email address
  • 1-2 paragraph course description
  • Course pre-requisites
  • Target student audience (relevant disciplines, undergraduate and/or graduate)
  • Syllabus, if available
  • Number of seats available, if known

Big Ten Academic Alliance staff will alert deans and faculty contacts at the Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions and ask them to promote the potential CourseShare course. The instructor and/or Department Contact should also send an email with these details to his/her peers at other Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions, inviting them to recruit interested students. This peer to peer promotion is the most likely to result in a course sharing partnership.

I would like to give my students access to a specialzed course offered by another Big Ten Academic Alliance institution. What do I do next?

First, you will need to confirm that the instructor is willing to share the course with your students, that the course does not duplicate courses already available at your institution, and that your department chair will approve your participation in a CourseShare arrangement.

Next, you will identify a Department Contact and inform the Big Ten Academic Alliance staff of your interest in collaboration. The Department Contact will need to assign a course number, identify classroom needs and reserve rooms (if appropriate), and recruit student enrollments. The Big Ten Academic Alliance staff can provide you the campus CourseShare Coordinator, Registrar contact, and technology contact information.

How do Big Ten Academic Alliance students find out about CourseShare courses?

CourseShare Coordinators, Big Ten Academic Alliance staff, the Instructor, and the Host Department Contact promote potential CourseShare courses via flyers and email messages to faculty at Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions. Once a home/receiving campus is identified, the Home Department Contact promotes the course to students via graduate student distribution lists, department newsletters, bulletin boards, etc. Interested students are advised to be in touch with the Department Contacts and/or the Big Ten Academic Alliance staff.

Is CourseShare limited to Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions?

CourseShare courses are shared between two or more Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions. Additional non-Big Ten Academic Alliance schools may become involved in a CourseShare course but Big Ten Academic Alliance staff are only able to provide guidance to faculty and coordinate enrollment for students at participating Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions.

I will be hosting a CourseShare course. How will students at the home institution become enrolled?

The Home/receiving Department Contacts will assign a local course number to your course. Their students will enroll in the course as they would enroll in any local course, using the online student registration system at their own institution. Prior to the start of term, the Home Registrar Contact will share the student enrollment information with the Registrar Contact at the Host Institution, where the Host Registrar Contact will manually enroll the students in your course. The Home students will show up in the Host Instructor's course roster as local students. They may be given access to the library, the online course management system, e-reserves, and other relevant course technologies and resources.

Our department is hosting a course and wishes to receive some cost recovery from the home/receiving department at another Big Ten Academic Alliance institution. Can we do this?

With CourseShare, students pay tuition only to their home institutions. The Big Ten Academic Alliance Deans of Arts & Sciences piloted a cost sharing approach, and learned the costs nearly cancelled themselves out due to campuses both receiving and hosting courses. They decided to not implement a fee for the CourseShare courses.

How are CourseShare courses evaluated?

In many cases, Host instructors administer their routine course evaluation forms (electronically or on paper) as they ordinarily would. These can also be administered to remote students, if desired. Home/receiving departments may also wish to administer their own course evaluation forms with their local students. In addition, the Big Ten Academic Alliance office routinely surveys participating CourseShare students and instructors regarding their satisfaction with the CourseShare experience and seeking feedback about improving the program and its processes.