About IU Online Class Connect
- 1. What is IUOCC?
IU Online Class Connect is a process that allows a student enrolled at one IU campus to register for an online class offered at another IU campus without having to go through intercampus transfer. IUOCC provides a mechanism for sharing faculty resources and unique classes among participating campuses, supports the offering of classes required for collaborative academic programs among participating campuses, and increases the availability of online classes to students, thus helping them attain their educational goals.
Classes included in IUOCC are “replicated,” meaning they will be copied into the Schedule of Classes of the participating campuses where they are approved course catalog offerings. By default, IUOCC classes copy among the regional campuses (East, Kokomo, Northwest, South Bend, and Southeast). When a collaborative degree involves the Bloomington and/or IUPUI campuses, specific courses supporting that degree are copied there as well. Bloomington and IUPUI also are able to replicate courses to all other campuses in support of specific collaborative degrees.
The campus that an IUOCC class originates from is referred to as the “Campus of Instruction.” Students at a different “Campus of Enrollment” can view and register for a replicated IUOCC class in their Schedule of Classes just as they would any other class. The class notes will tell a student if the class has originated from a campus other than their home Campus of Enrollment.
- 2. Which campuses are participating in IUOCC?
While all seven campuses can place a class into IUOCC, most of the classes in IUOCC are shared among the five IU-managed regional campuses: East, Kokomo, Northwest, South Bend, and Southeast. Bloomington and IUPUI currently share classes in IUOCC in a limited way to support specific collaborative academic programs.
- 3. Are all regional campus online classes included in IUOCC?
No. To be included in IUOCC, a class must meet certain criteria, some of which are academic in nature, while others are a result of technical or business practice challenges we face when offering classes across campus boundaries.
Currently, to be eligible,
- The class must be 100% online (instruction mode = “OA”).
- The class must be offered by IU (Purdue SWT classes are excluded).
- The class cannot be a labor studies, nursing, social work, or Indiana Campus Network class, as these are already copied into each campus Schedule of Classes under different agreements.
- The class must be in a standard, regular session, 1st 8-week session, or 2nd 8-week session (in fall and spring terms) or in a common Online Session 1, Online Session 2, or Online Session Full (in summer terms), to avoid problems associated with varying dates across campuses.
- The course requisites and/or ERGs must match across all regional campuses approved to offer that course, unless the course is part of an approved collaborative academic program and the requisites are placed on the class at the schedule level.
- The class cannot require department or instructor consent, due to security/access restrictions which prevent advisors and others from granting consent for classes offered by another campus.
- The class cannot have other specific academic structure issues that can cause problems for students at other campuses, such as variable credit hours.
In the fall and spring terms, most 100% online classes offered by the regional campuses meeting these criteria will be reviewed and approved as part of the eligible class list for that term.
In summer terms, the regional campus leaders select a limited number of IUOCC classes to be offered exclusively by each campus. These courses focus on collaborative academic programs and courses that help students fulfill general education requirements.
- 4. If a class meets all of the eligibility criteria, will it be replicated to all of the other regional campuses?
Not necessarily. The course must be in the receiving campus’s list of approved course catalog offerings, unless it is part of an approved collaborative academic program, such as the Bachelor of Applied Science, or it has been specifically requested as a unique offering by the receiving campus.
- 5. Are there any rules or restrictions regarding IUOCC class sizes or the number of sections of a course that can be replicated?
Yes. In March 2018, regional campus leaders agreed that beginning with the summer 2018 term, each IUOCC class section could have a maximum enrollment capacity of up to 40 students. Prior to summer 2018 the maximum size was 50.
Each campus of instruction may initially replicate only one section of a given course per session. A campus of instruction may replicate an additional section only after its existing IUOCC sections are full.
- 6. As a faculty member, I want to allow students from other IU campuses to take my class. Why isn’t my class part of IUOCC?
Campus registrars and academic leaders work with the Office of Online Education and the Office of Collaborative Academic Programs to establish the list of eligible IUOCC classes each spring, summer, and fall. Your campus registrar can help you determine why a specific class was excluded from IUOCC. For the current list of criteria used to determine IUOCC eligibility, see FAQ #3: Are all regional campus online classes included in IUOCC?
- 7. Can I, as a faculty member, keep my online class from being put on the schedule of classes at another campus?
Yes. Faculty, in consultation with their deans, may request to have their own classes excluded from IUOCC by contacting their campus registrar. Note that some classes may be necessary to support collaborative academic programs and therefore are required to be placed into IUOCC.
- 8. How will students know that a class that shows up in our schedule of classes is taught by a faculty member from another campus?
For all online courses replicated through IUOCC, a standard class note will identify which campus is the Campus of Instruction (the campus from which the course originates). The current wording of the standard class note is as follows: This is a 100% online class taught by IU [campus name – East, Kokomo, Northwest, South Bend, Southeast]. No on-campus class meetings are required. A distance education fee will apply; check your campus bursar website for more information. Textbook purchases may be made through your home campus bookstore.
All IUOCC classes that are part of a collaborative academic program will also contain the following standard class note: This class is offered as part of a joint academic program. Please consult with your advisor to ensure this class will count toward your degree requirements.
- 9. How can I get a list of classes that are part of IUOCC?
Each campus registrar has a list of eligible IUOCC classes. This list is updated as the Schedule of Classes is modified, reviewed, and agreed upon by registrars and academic leadership at all participating campuses, and frozen just prior to the start of the class replication process. Once IUOCC replication begins, each campus will make the final determination of if and when each eligible class will be replicated based on enrollment trends.
- 10. When does IUOCC replication begin?
Each term, IUOCC classes will become available in the Schedule of Classes on the 4th day of advance registration at the regional campuses.
- 11. Can IU students still take online classes from another campus if those classes aren’t part of IUOCC?
Yes. As has always been the case, students from one IU campus may take an undergraduate online course at another IU campus by completing an intercampus transfer form. Students should contact the campus offering the course for more information. Specific intercampus transfer contacts at each campus are listed at http://www.iupui.edu/~moveiu/.
- 12. How has IUOCC changed since the first pilot in spring 2014?
A major goal of the original IUOCC pilot project was to identify technical, business practice, and policy issues that arise when online classes from one campus are replicated to the other campuses. Technical improvements to IUOCC since the pilot include:
- inclusion of 1st 8-week session classes
- inclusion of classes that are approved at only some regional campuses (classes replicate to only those campuses that have the course in their course catalog)
- development of a process to allow for the sharing of unique and unapproved classes required for joint academic programs
- class search modifications that ensure that the Schedule of Classes at a given campus lists all “home” campus classes before listing classes offered at other campuses
- the addition of waitlist functionality for IUOCC classes
- the addition of cross-listed or combined classes in IUOCC
- creation of online summer terms (OL1, OL2, and OLF) to allow for IUOCC in the summer
- development of a process to selectively replicate classes to IUPUI and Bloomington in support of collaborative degrees; this process also created a mechanism to exclude specific regional campuses from receiving classes for collaborative degrees that they are not participating in