Distance Education Committee

DEC Purpose and Functions

UNTHSC adheres to the rules and notification procedures established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the conduct and approval of distance education. UNTHSC follows the Principles of Good Practice for Academic Degree and Certificate Programs and Credit Courses Offered Electronically. Approval of online courses uses the Quality Matters rubric and review process.

Distance education is defined as a course in which more than 50% of the contact hours are offered asynchronously or at a distance where faculty and students are not in the same location. Faculty who plan to offer distance education courses must follow the Distance Education and Course Development Policy. Once a course is approved by the college/school, the course director or instructor should contact their school’s representative to the Distance Education Committee (DEC) for guidance.

Step 1: Submit an Approval to Develop Form to the DEC at least 20 weeks prior to the first day of class. Step 2: Once approved by the DEC, the instructor should work with an instructional designer in the Division of Academic Innovation’s Department of Educational Development to develop the course. Step 3: When the course is ready to deliver to students, the course director or instructor should submit an Approval to Deliver Form to the DEC at least 4 business weeks before the first day of class.

• Faculty members are asked to allow sufficient time for reviewing and processing these requests by the DEC.
• A fully online course takes a minimum of 4 months to develop.
• The approval to deliver process could take a minimum of 30 days depending on workload and the DEC schedule of meetings.
• Questions about these approval processes should be directed to Canvas@unthsc.edu.
• The current Approval to Develop and Approval to Deliver forms are available from canvas@unthsc.edu, the school’s DEC committee representative, or by using this link to the DEC forms Sharepoint accessible by anyone with HSC login credentials.