General Information
Designed to assist students with studying online, maintaining full-time status, staying on track for graduation or completing their degree, these courses have seen a significant interest and demand from students. The online course offerings also offer students with a complex course schedule the opportunity to complete the required credits without impacting an entire class time block in the schedule.
Faculty are provided the opportunity to be innovative with developing new curriculum in a structured and high demand setting of online asynchronous coursework. In the past, some faculty have used the content to test out the interest in the topic for a future three credit course.
Initially, these courses were offered in Summer and Winter Sessions as students often discovered a credit shortage for their degree or Excelsior Scholarship requirements well into the Fall and Spring semesters. Upon offering the courses in Fall and Spring, the interest and demand for these courses grew exponentially as it is cost-effective for students to enroll with full time tuition rates. Currently, approximately 350 seats in various courses are offered each year, with nearly every seat filling and some courses over-enrolling.
Proposal Process
Courses are developed for the university and are offered in collaboration with the Extended Learning Office. Faculty are strongly encouraged to develop courses that are open any student, regardless of their major. Proposals start out as a special topics course offering (129, 229, 329 or 429), with most courses being offered at an introductory level (129 or 229) to be inviting to any student.
Faculty or staff interested in teaching a one credit online course must complete the Course Development Proposal form, which requires course information, description, student learning outcomes and other related information for potential course building. This form can be obtained through the Extended Learning Office by e-mail at elo@cortland.edu or phone at 607-753-5643.
Faculty should provide a draft of the proposal form to the Director of Extended Learning to review prior to chair and dean approval. All new course proposals require the department chair and school dean to review and approve the course content. Approval from both will allow the Extended Learning Office to begin scheduling the course (acceptance of the proposal).
Scheduling
Once a new course proposal is accepted, the Extended Learning Office will contact faculty based on need for courses and interest of faculty members. To provide faculty with sufficient time to develop the course, the earliest that any new course will be offered is one full quarter after the proposal has been accepted by the Extended Learning Office.
Faculty who have previously taught a one credit course will also be contacted by the Extended Learning Office.
The Extended Learning Office will process all course builds for the schedule. Departments should not request these courses as part of the routine course building process as courses are subject to funding availability provided through the Extended Learning Office and may be offered on a rotating basis.
Term Options
Courses are offered in a quarter term during the fall or spring semesters, with flexibility to accommodate faculty workloads.
Courses are offered in the 2-week terms during Winter or Summer Sessions - Winter Session II or Terms A, B, C or D in Summer.
Scheduling Limitations
Due to limited funds and a growing interest in course development, faculty will be limited to one course per academic year (fall and spring terms). If sections and funding are available and all other options are exhausted, faculty may be granted a second section based on the following priority: 1.) offering a second, different topic and 2.) significant demand for a previously offered course (rotating through the most popular courses). There is no guarantee that a course will be offered each year.
Courses may be offered a maximum of 3 times as a special topic offering. The Extended Learning Office will notify faculty upon scheduling the course for the third time with directions to propose the course through Curriculog if they wish to continue offering the course in future terms.
Course Capacity and Compensation
For the 2025-2026 academic year, the standard cap for courses will be 25. Faculty willing to enroll a larger number may do so at their discretion and can request the cap to be increased through the Extended Learning Office.
Compensation for faculty teaching a one credit course in fall and spring will be paid at the existing $1,333 rate for full-time faculty/staff and $1,500 for part time. Any faculty teaching a one credit course in Winter or Summer Sessions will receive $1,333. The Extended Learning Office will process all compensation paperwork for the faculty when these courses are coordinated through this program. Departments do not need to complete any paperwork for extra service.
Marketing
The Extended Learning Office will announce the schedule of one credit online courses for the upcoming term in late April (for fall) or late November (for spring) at the earliest. Courses are intentionally announced after pre-registration so that any student is eligible to enroll in courses and not restricted by their time ticket. Some courses are announced just prior to the semester beginning, which also supports new incoming students with the opportunity to enroll.
Due to high demand, courses are only marketed to SUNY Cortland students and are not sent to SUNY Online. Courses are published on the public course schedule and the one credit courses website, as well as announced via campus messaging and social media channels. Any marketing information provided in the course proposals will be incorporated into the marketing campaign.
Information for Administrative Assistants and Chairs
All course builds and extra service paperwork will be processed through the Extended Learning Office when courses are offered through this program. Chairs and administrative assistants will be included in communications regarding courses offered by faculty within your department. If a faculty member proposes a course through the standard course building process, please only submit the course to the Registrar's Office if this being paid through other temporary service funds. Otherwise, please refer the faculty member to the Extended Learning Office.
