Correspondence Course vs. Online Course
Over the past five years or so, the US Department of Education has been conducting audits of schools (yes, this includes California Community Colleges) to determine whether students at the colleges have been receiving financial aid for online courses when those courses are actually correspondence courses.
This is something that many faculty do not consider. If you are using some publisher's materials as the sole basis of your course, then your course might be considered to be a correspondence course for which students are not entitled to financial aid under Section 102(a)(3)(B) of the Higher Education Opportunity Act. If students are receiving financial aid for a course that the Department of Education auditors consider to be a correspondence course, then the college is responsible for refunding the money.
Both types of courses have essentially the same definition with one glaring exception: In a correspondence course, interaction between the instructor and student is limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student. Take a look at the following article posted by the WCET: Is Your Distance Education Course Actually a Correspondence Course?
Links to an external site. Note the following criteria defining a telecommunications course from the Code of Federal Regulations (Title 34 §600.2
Links to an external site.) that were put into effect July 1, 201
The following definitions are taken from the WCET article:
Correspondence course: (1) A course provided by an institution under which the institution provides instructional materials, by mail or electronic transmission, including examinations on the materials, to students who are separated from the instructor. Interaction between the instructor and student is limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student. Correspondence courses are typically self-paced.
(2) If a course is part correspondence and part residential training, the Secretary considers the course to be a correspondence course.
(3) A correspondence course is not distance education.
Distance education means education that uses one or more of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (4) of this definition to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. The technologies may include—
(1) The internet;
(2) One-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
(3) Audio conferencing; or
(4) Video cassettes, DVDs, and CD–ROMs, if the cassettes, DVDs, or CD–ROMs are used in a course in conjunction with any of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (3) of this definition.
The key is "regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor". If you simply provide the materials but do not make regular and substantive interaction with your students, then your course is a correspondence course--NOT a distance education course.
Now, what is considered to be "regular and substantive interaction"? This has not been clearly defined but at least weekly interaction between the instructor and student has been considered by most DE Coordinators to be regular interaction. "Substantive" is the problem. The interaction must be more than merely an announcement posting by the instructor. Some feel there needs to be proof of comments by the instructor to student work in forums and in comments to assignments/quizzes, etc.
Take a look at the excerpt from a document from the US Department of Education's Federal Student Financial Aid (School Eligibility and Operations) Handbook Links to an external site.. This document further defines correspondence courses and distance education courses.