Policies and Standards

Faculty teaching online courses at OSU are expected to hold office hours accessible to students at a distance at least by appointment. Office hours enable online students to ask questions about course concepts, get clarification on assignments, seek a personal connection or mentorship from instructional faculty and communicate personal or private information relating to their academic progress. Office hours are also one means of meeting federal requirements for Regular and Substantive Interaction. Learn more about office hours for online courses »

Faculty teaching Ecampus courses are expected to reply to student email messages and questions within 24 hours on business days. Ecampus recommends that faculty include a communication plan in the “Start Here” section of their courses, informing students of the preferred methods of communication (I.e., Canvas discussion board, email, etc.) along with response time standards for questions and for grading assignments.

The use of proctored exams for a course is at the discretion of the instructor and department. If proctored exams will be required, the CRN request should clearly indicate this, and the OSU required proctoring statement must be noted in the course description in the schedule of classes before registration begins for that term.

Students may choose to take their proctored exam via the university-supported online proctoring vendor, or they can work with Ecampus Testing (ecampustesting@oregonstate.edu) to identify and coordinate an approved in-person proctor. Students cannot be required to take an in-person exam, and paper exams are not supported. Ecampus Testing will assist instructors and students with questions and any special circumstances that might arise involving a proctored exam.

The College/Department(s) will:

• Indicate proctored exams on the CRN request and ensure that the course catalog includes the following comment verbatim about proctored exams being required:
  
  “This course requires online proctored testing, which may include testing fees and the use of security measures, such as a scan of your testing environment. Please carefully review online proctor test information at: https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/services/proctoring”
  in advance of open registration.
• List the instructor for proctored courses in the course catalog; no ‘Staff’ entries.

The instructor(s) will:

• Clearly list that proctored exams are required in the course syllabus. This should include a list of the proctored exams and the dates the exams will be available for students to take.
• Provide Ecampus Testing with confirmation of proctoring requirements in the course no later than the Friday of the first week of the term. All instructors using proctored exams will be emailed instructions approximately two weeks before the term begins.
• Refer students who will not be using online proctoring to Ecampus Testing to arrange an alternative proctoring option. Set up proctoring on all proctored assessments in Canvas. Ecampus Faculty Support can assist with setup questions and can help roll over any settings used previously on a course’s exams.
• Work with Ecampus Faculty Support on proctored exams for DAS students. DAS students may require a copy of the exam with different online proctoring settings to allow use of their approved assistive technology. Ecampus will make the exam copy. Exam questions should be finalized at least three business days before the exam opens to facilitate the copying and proofing of the exam for the DAS student.
• Be responsible for investigating reports of academic misconduct for proctored exams and filing any paperwork with the office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. Ecampus Testing will assist, as needed.

OSU’s Online Teaching Principles, endorsed by Quality Matters, detail guidelines for effective facilitation of online and hybrid courses at Oregon State University. Explore the principles »

All OSU Ecampus courses are expected to meet Ecampus essential standards. Partnering with Ecampus instructional designers, faculty and instructors can ensure standards are met. Explore the Ecampus Essentials »

To ensure that online courses continually improve, Ecampus recommends that online courses be redeveloped every 4-6 years.

Goals for redeveloping courses regularly include:

• Updating course content
• Improving engagement for students and faculty
• Improving and updating multimedia content
• Ensuring accessibility of course materials
• Updating assessments and proactively preventing academic integrity violations
• Meeting student expectations for quality

Course redevelopments are funded by a department-to-department transfer and include a training component. Faculty new to OSU, new to online course development and/or developing a course previously developed by a different faculty will be enrolled in the Developing an Online Course workshop. Faculty who have already completed the DOC workshop and are redeveloping a course will be enrolled in the Redeveloping an Online Course (ROC) workshop.

Several options exist for online course redevelopment. Visit the course redevelopment webpage to learn more and propose a course for redevelopment.

To help ensure high quality learning experiences for online students, to ensure that OSU meets NWCCU’s Distance Education Policy and to meet requirements of our membership in the State Authorization and Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) defined in the SARA Manual, all faculty who develop and/or teach online courses at OSU are expected to participate in training as part of the course development and redevelopment process, and to participate in ongoing training annually.

The Developing an Online Course (DOC) workshop is required for all faculty course developers who are developing a course under an individual course development MOU or a program development MOU. Faculty who have completed the DOC workshop for a previous course development are welcome to repeat the DOC workshop, but are not required to.

The Redeveloping an Online Course (ROC) workshop is a required workshop for all faculty who are redeveloping a course they have previously taught. Faculty who have completed the ROC workshop for a previous redevelopment are welcome to repeat the ROC workshop, but are not required to.

New Instructor Training (NIT) or Teaching an Online Course (TOC) is required for all instructional faculty who will be teaching online for the first time, including graduate teaching assistants.

Annual training is required for all instructional faculty who teach online. This requirement can be met through a variety of training opportunities. Faculty are encouraged to select the training opportunity most applicable to their needs and interests:

• Instructor Training Refresh (ITR)
• Teaching Online Pedagogy Seminars (TOPS)
• Actively Engaging Students in an Online Course (AESO)
• Inclusive Teaching Online (ITO)
• Qualtrics + Mid-Term Survey Workshop (QUAL)
• Faculty Forum
• Insight to Impact events

Custom and group trainings are also available by contacting Katherine McAlvage, associate director of faculty support and development.

All Ecampus courses must be developed and delivered using the University’s learning management system, Canvas. Ecampus courses must be published and available to students no later than 8 a.m. PT on the first day of the designated session or term.

Ecampus recommends that the syllabus and getting started information in online courses be published and made accessible to students a few days ahead of the term start date. This practice helps students gather course materials and plan their study time.

For additional guidance on this topic, review the Ecampus Essentials and Online Teaching Principles.

OSU faculty must ensure their online courses meet requirements for RSI in order for courses to be eligible for federal financial aid. Learn more about RSI policies »

During the online course design process, instructional designers and faculty share responsibility for digital accessibility and work together to ensure that materials developed for online courses are accessible.

Ecampus courses are designed using a universal design (UDL) approach, creating all materials in an accessible format during development so that little or no retrofitting of content is needed when students with disabilities enroll in an Ecampus course. Multimedia developed and produced at Ecampus adhere to federally required WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

Prior to April 2026, course materials only had to be made accessible when a student with a documented disability enrolled in the course. Effective April 2026, federal law requires that all digital materials be accessible at the time they are posted. This means that faculty must ensure that any materials they create independently after the formal Ecampus course design process are accessible from the start (e.g., provide captions for video, use descriptive links, create documents designed to be compatible with assistive screen readers).

Visit the OSU digital accessibility website for more information, and explore the following resources:

• For faculty: Accessibility Resources for Ecampus Courses
• For students: Getting started with Disability Access Services
• See also the OSU Policy on Information Technology Accessibility

Materials shared in an Ecampus course that are not original content created by the faculty course developer need to have been through a documented Fair Use assessment, or we must obtain copyright permissions. Ecampus assists faculty with Fair Use assessments and with requesting copyright permissions.

Fair Use assessments or copyright permissions are not necessary for links to external content, only for materials that are saved and “republished” in Canvas. Contact ecampusfacultysupport@oregonstate.edu for assistance.

Faculty retain the copyright for materials they create for use in Ecampus courses, unless other agreements assigning copyright to Oregon State University have been made. OSU has a fully paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual, non-transferable, and non-exclusive worldwide license to course materials created under this agreement, with the non-exclusive right to revise and update the course materials as desired.