St. Clair College is committed to creating opportunities for students to access course credits through a variety of instructional delivery options, including traditional face-to-face delivery, online delivery, and blended formats. 

St. Clair College recognizes that educational technology empowers students through equality of access to learning that is flexible in nature and meets the differing needs of learners and that effective use of a learning management system (LMS) enhances quality learning experiences in all course modalities.

Course Delivery Method

The method in which educational content in a particular course is conveyed from instructor to students. Subject to approval based on the course outline approval process, including same course outcomes, separate sections of the same course may be offered using different course delivery methods. Regardless of course delivery method, students are required to have access to the Internet and a device to access and engage with the course’s Blackboard components.

There are four primary course delivery methods: on-campus, online, hybrid, and hyflex.

 On-Campus Course Delivery

This is the traditional course delivery method that takes  place on-site and at a scheduled time; instructor and students meet in real time (synchronous delivery) and in the same physical location. Typically, on-campus delivery  occurs face-to-face in a classroom or lab on campus but may also include field experience  or take place in another location approved by College for in-person learning activities. Courses delivered on-campus use Blackboard to support the learning experience and students may be required to engage with or complete some course components online.

Online Course Delivery

A fully online course intentionally designed to facilitate 100% of the instructor-led learning activities online. Although students are not required to attend classes on-campus, some online courses may require off-line course activities or proctored in-person evaluation at authorized on-site assessment centres. Online courses  may be synchronous or asynchronous.

Synchronous Online Course Delivery: Instructor-led teaching and learning activities occur online in real-time, during a specific and scheduled timeframe; all students in the course interact at the same time but from different locations with real time instruction and feedback using web-based conferencing technology. Synchronous online courses have no required face-to-face learning activities.

Asynchronous Online Course Delivery: Teaching and learning activities are designed to allow students to engage in them at their own pace within a defined structure; no real-time teaching and learning activity is required. The defined structure of an asynchronous online course may establish start dates, end dates, and due dates for assessments. Asynchronous courses have no required synchronous online or face-to-face learning activities but may provide optional online synchronous sessions such as instructor office hours or feedback. Scheduled exams may be required.

 Hybrid Course Delivery

An integrated course experience also known as blended  learning. Hybrid delivery intentionally integrates on-campus delivery and online delivery such that some scheduled on-campus engagement is required but a substantial component of the course (50% to 80%) is delivered online, typically asynchronously. Synchronous evaluation methods, in-person or online, may be required in any hybrid delivery format.

Hybrid Synchronous Delivery: Students engage in both on-campus sessions and online sessions at scheduled times.

Hybrid Asynchronous Delivery: Students engage on-campus sessions at  scheduled times and engage in the online component of the course  asynchronously.

 Hybrid Program Delivery

A hybrid delivery program is a program in which 80% or more of its courses follow hybrid, online or hyflex course delivery format.

 Hyflex Course Delivery

An instructional method intentionally designed to provide students with their preferred method of participation throughout the course. Students may choose to participate by attending on-campus sessions, attending synchronous online  sessions, or choose to participate asynchronously online, or by combining these methods as they wish. Students who participate synchronously online join real-time classes via web-based conferencing technologies.

If you are thinking about developing or converting a course/program into a different modality, please refer to the policy below, which includes the Protocol for Online Course Development and Approval and the Framework for Quality Online Teaching & Learning Experiences.ST. CLAIR POLICY 9.2 (former 1.1.16) ONLINE COURSE MODALITIES & LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM