Page Overview

This page seeks to guide instructors through the specific details they should know about their course in order to facilitate learning most effectively. Bringing to the forefront course details, editing guidelines, and classroom management strategies is the focus of what’s being communicated on this page.

About This Guide

Purpose of This Guide

This guide has been created to assist faculty mentor student in independent studies in the OU Online MA in Arts Management. This guide will go over what is expected of the instructor and the student.

Editing Permissions

Instructors should not edit freely the content of the Independent Study course without first consulting with the program Director and Course Designer. However, additional resources may be added. For guidance on editing in Canvas, review how to edit with the Rich Content Editor.

Getting Help

For questions regarding the layout and purpose of assignments, feel free to contact Sephra, the Instructional Designer (sephras@ou.edu)
For questions about content choices, please contact Dr. Stan Renard (stan.renard@ou.edu)
For technical questions about Canvas or other technologies, please contact OU IT or use the 24/7 Canvas Help tool on the bottom left side of Canvas (question mark icon). You can even schedule one-on-one consultations with OU IT if desired.

Faculty Orientation Resources

Review the OU Online Faculty Orientation course for information on administrative processes and faculty support, technology how-to's (Canvas, Outlook, Zoom, Kaltura MyMedia, etc.), and teaching online.

Course Overview

Program Fit

This course is a practicum option for students in the OU Online MA in Arts Management. Students in this program are required to take 2 practicum courses, which may consist of a combination of Independent Study courses, Internships, and Study Abroad experiences.

About Your Learners

Students should have already taken at least AMGT 5013, Overview of Arts Management & Entrepreneurship. Students should have some project ideas before they begin the course, so you may want to discuss this with them before approving them to take this course with you.

Key Things to Know

This course is very unique to each learner, but don't worry - you aren't expected to create materials for this. Instead, students are asked to gather their own materials throughout the course with your guidance. For example, if a student is planning a certain type of event, they might need to provide websites showing examples of how others have done similar things, articles explaining steps in planning these types of events, etc. However, they might need your help in finding some good places to look for these (certain organizations with helpful resources, etc.).

Some examples of possible projects students might do are market research, an article, a technical report, a creative project, and so forth.

Remember: The value you bring to this course is your expert guidance as students complete self-directed projects, not content delivery.

Lessons Learned

Students should come with two to three ideas of projects they wish to undertake under your mentorship. It is your responsibility to assist the student focus their idea and manage the work accordingly. Keep in mind that students should complete a deliverable within the time restriction of a semester (16 weeks in Fall and Spring and 14 weeks during the summer). You are not expected to create a curriculum for each student, not should you.

Meetings can be schedule ad hoc on a bi-weekly basis, and they do not need to be two hours long. If the student's expectations have been set clearly right from the beginning a short check in should be sufficient to answer any pressing questions the student may have and offer feedback on the work that has been produced in the prior two weeks. Alternatively, you could also offer a Live Session time every other week of an hour for students to come in and chat about their projects if they like, but it cannot be required. The project updates should help to keep you aware of their current project status if they are not able to attend.

If the independent expectations between you and the student are clear and well-defined, the work should go very smoothly. What we wish to avoid is for the student not to complete a high-quality deliverable at the end of the term and moving into the limbo of an incomplete grade.

Course Assessments

This course was structured to help keep students on track. Students may not realize what level of achievement the instructor expects in an independent study course, so they may put off starting it until quite late in the semester if they don't have submission deadlines. To help with this, there are Live Sessions and assignment submissions due throughout the course to help hold students accountable for making progress.

General Structure

The first two weeks of the course are devoted to students defining and refining general career goals as well as their project goals and timeline. Defining career goals is often a good place to start if students are unsure which project idea might serve them best. Then, the course takes on a cadence of resource collection and project progress updates. There is a midterm check-in, and in the final week, the final project is submitted in Canvas and uploaded to the ePortfolio.

For project updates, it is advised that you provide one time slot every other week in which you are available to students but they are not required to attend, similar to a Live Session, rather than expecting that you must meet with every student individually. This keeps things doable for you and for your students. However, you may instead choose to schedule meetings one-on-one on an ad-hoc bi-weekly basis if that works best for you. You can learn more about the course structure in the Start Here module pages that are designed for students.

Technology Requirements

There is currently some built-in guidance in this course for the use of Notion for project management. Students are not required to use this, nor are you expected to be able to act as tech support for this tool. Students can use any tool that works for them, as long as they are able to effectively manage their project and submit the required updates. Notion is recommended because it is free for students, fairly easy to use, and there are tons of tutorials, guides, and templates available.

Review & Edit

General Editing Guidelines

Set due dates - Follow established patterns. Courses with assignments and graded discussions should have predictable patterns. For example, setting assignments to be due 11:59 p.m. (Central) on Sunday nights typically works well.
Minor changes only while the course is running. Please do not make any significant changes at this time. The courses have already been through a thorough quality assurance process and significant changes to a live course may confuse students. For example, do not change the point values or weighted percentages of assignments on the syllabus while the course is running.
Stay consistent. Predictability helps students understand their courses. For example, if you add a new resource, always add it to the RESOURCES page along with sending an announcement if appropriate.
Accessibility is baked in. Among the many stages of the quality assurance process was ensuring course materials are accessible to students, including using best practices for page formatting, hyperlinks, etc. Too many changes often lead to inaccessible content.

Course Information

Before publishing the course:

Review the course Syllabus.
Add instructor information, bio, and contact information to the Syllabus page.
- How do I edit the Syllabus in a course?
- How do I use the Syllabus as an instructor?
Set up your Canvas user profile if you haven't previously done so.
Add Live Session day, time, and link to the Syllabus page.

Modules

Review the course content, especially the first two modules, to ensure that they make sense to you.
Review the midterm check in week and the final week to ensure that they make sense to you.
Review the typical cadence in the remaining weeks to make sure it makes sense to you.
Add Live Session day, time, and link to module Live Session pages.
Update course due dates, and if applicable, the course schedule. For more information, see:
- How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
- What is the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates?
Check that everything is visible to students, except things that are purposefully hidden (like this page!).

Publish Course - Final Step

Once you have reviewed your course and completed the above steps, you are ready to publish the course. Please complete this final step no later than two weeks before the semester start date, which you can find in the OU Online Academic Calendar. For more information, see How do I publish a course?

Class Management

Instructor Workload

You are expected to offer some feedback for the resources gathered and checking in to see that steady and sufficient progress is being made. Workload for each student may vary greatly but you should not be liable to any preparatory work beyond the feedback that you provide both during your check-ins and when work is being uploaded. A workload of about an hour per week per student on average should be expected. Some students will seek more guidance from you, while others will be more driven and self-sufficient.

Instructor Engagement

Incorporate opportunities for regular and substantive interaction (RSI) as required by the US Department of Education requirements for Digital Learning (34 C.F.R. § 600.2) and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Policy and Procedures 3.17 Distance Education/Traditional Off-Campus Courses/Programs. For interactions to be considered RSI, they must be instructor-initiated, regular, scheduled, predictable, and substantive. It is recommended to:

Grading

Review the "Assignments" section of the course to familiarize yourself with the assignment structure, settings, and how they are grouped for grading.
Review the rubrics regarding requirements for course assessments.
Use Canvas for student submission of assignments. No assignments should be accepted via email.
Use Canvas to provide feedback and comments. Feedback should be specific and highlight items that the student did well, as well as opportunities for improvement. Identify areas in which you have seen improvements from previous weeks.
Post grades in Canvas within 7 days of assignment due dates. Never send grades by email.