RODP Master Courses

The Regents Online Campus Collaborative works from a Master Course model in which a single course is developed and then taught by multiple instructors from multiple institutions. A Course is approved for development by the ROCC Curriculum Committee, developed, and then sent to through the ROCC Quality Review process for final approval. Once approved, the developed course becomes the Master Course Copy of that specific course. The Master Course Copy is never taught from, nor does it ever have students enrolled into it. It is used simply as an original version of the course which is kept updated as the most recent and relevent copy of the course.

Any changes/modifications to the course are to be made by the ROCC approved course developer in the Master copy of the course.

Prior to the beginning of each semester, the ROCC staff creates empty shells for the upcoming sections of a course to be taught. For instance, at the beginning of the semester if there are going to be three sections of a course to be taught, empty shells are created for sections R50, R51 and R52. Once these shells are created, the content from Mastery Course Copy is copied (cloned) into each of the three sections to be taught. It is for this reason that the Master Course Copy must be kept current, and why Course Developers must be prompt in preparing the Master Course Copy for the upcoming semester.

If a Master Course Copy is prepared for the upcoming semester with current dates for that semester, when it is copied (cloned), the dates for the upcoming semester are also copied and (in the example used above) all three of the semester copies will have the correct dates in them for the semester. However, if a Course Developer fails to update the Master Course Copy, then the dates from the previous semester wil be copied (cloned) into the three sections for the upcoming semester - and the Course Developer will be left with having to go into all three of the now copied sections and update all the dates for the upcoming semeter.

Sectional faculty are expected to teach their course from copy of the Master Copy course which has been provided to them and are not to be modifying their sectional copies other than what is allowed. Any changes/modifications to the course are to be made by the ROCC approved course developer in the Master copy of the course.

Sectional instructors of RODP Courses are not to make any changes to the courses they teach other than to personalize the course with their name and contact information, correction of typos, correction of grammatical errors and clarification of any instructions which might be unclear. Any changes involving typos, grammatical errors and instructions that need clarification should also be brought to the attention of the course developer.

Course Developers are not the sole owners of any specific course in which they have developed.  The Regents Online Campus Collaborative is a collaborative program, and as such, course developers should be open to improving the quality, content, instructions, etc in their courses based on suggestions and observations of other faculty who are teaching the course and even the students who are taking the course.

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