The following are random notes on the current practices for online language course coordination at ML.

• Only online Japanese, Korean and Russian courses [synchronous courses] are currently accepting non-GT students. These students are non-GT transient/special students, high school students, professionals, and college graduates. The definition of terminology is here. The discussion on SOUP students is excluded here.
  
  
  • Non-GT transient students are one-term only, non-degree-seeking college students who enroll through GT Admission Office. When enrolled, they are assigned to Section U.
    
    
  • Non-GT special students are multiple-term, non-degree-seeking college students who enroll through GT Admission Office. When enrolled, they are assigned to Section U.
    
    
  • Since the number of non-GT transient/special students are so small to non-existent, Section U is not included in the initial semester course schedule. These sections are added later as needed basis. However, online instructors must be notified about the need to add Section U after they sign off on the permit form (sample form). This form is sent by Undergraduate Admission Office (UAO).
    
    
  • All others (high school students, professionals, college graduates) enroll through GTPE, but their numbers are also small if any.
    
    
  • The first-year ACJKR courses of (XXXX 1001 and XXXX 1002) are 4-credit hour courses. The second-year ACJKR courses (XXXX 2001 and XXXX 2002) are 3-credit courses. ACJKR stands for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian. The first-year Arabic courses do not offer online courses at this time.
    
    
• Online Chinese courses used to accept non-GT students, but they stopped accepting them due to technical issues the instructors cannot handle easily. We need to check if they would like to continue this practice in the future.
  
  
• The largest number of inquiries are about online Russian courses followed by online Japanese courses. Online Korean courses have started to accept non-GT students through GTPE, but lately Korean Education Center (non-GT entity) is also involved in teaching Korean courses of their own to non-GT students in Georgia using the materials developed by the GT Korean program. Please ask the Korean faculty members for further information.
  
  
• If other online languages would like to open their courses to non-GT students in the future, they can be offered through GTPE as well.
  
  
• Online courses offered through GTPE do not provide academic credits. (They can provide a letter stating the completion of course to the home institution upon request from students. Such a letter is not an academic transcript.)
  
  
• For questions on enrollment procedures and tuition through GTPE can be redirected to GTPE. Currently Laura McMahon of GTPE is handling these questions. GTPE will create a GT user account and GT email for these students and notify the instructor. The instructor must add them to the respective Canvas course manually using their GT email addresses.
  
  
• Replying to student (or his/her parent) inquiries about online language courses at ML. Typically, prospective students will ask course availability (time and dates), enrollment procedures, cost, placement issues if any. (How to get this information is written on the ML Website, but they still ask.) Please note:
  
  
  • More than half of the inquires come from high school students (or their parents). Here is a sample email response to such an inquiry.
    
    
  • HS students and professionals enroll in our online language courses through GTPE.
    
    
  • The dropout rate of HS students is very high. The instructors need to make sure HS students can keep up with the course schedule before they decide to take the course. If they have to miss many synchronous class periods and miss homework deadlines, it does not work for them.
    
    
  • Non-GT college students are typically looking for academic credits transferable to their home institutions. These students need to apply to Undergraduate Admission Office (UAO) first. If they don't need academic credit, they can apply through GTPE for less cost.
    
    
  • Most college student inquiries come after the application deadlines stated in the ML Website (April 1, July 1, Nov. 15). They request late application exceptions, but UAO has not approved any late exceptions (to my knowledge).
    
    
  • If the applications are made in time, the course instructor will receive a permit form from UAO to approve the applicant. After the instructor signs off on the permit, he/she must notify these students to enroll in Section U. These students will receive their GT account and email address. When students successfully registers for Section U, they will show up on Canvas course under the "People" tool.
    
    
  • Why the number of enrollment is so low for non-GT transient/special students: Academic credit seeking non-GT students will be required to pay regular tuition (instate tuition for instate students, out-of-state tuition for out-of-state students). Most out-of-state applicants realize the tuition is too high for taking just one course per semester. In fall and spring, GT charges a minimum of 6-credit hour tuition even if one takes one 3 or 4-credit online course. For example, on the Bursar Office tuition page, the out-of-state tuition up to 6-credit hours is $9308 in Fall, 2019. Almost no one would like to pay this much money to take a single course. In summer, the out-of-state tuition rate is $1,020.14/hr in 2019.
    
    
• The best information to answer the time and dates question is provided on OSCAR (Click on "Schedule of Classes").
  
  
• The minimum enrollment for an online course is currently set to 5. This number was arrived at based on the accumulated tuition retrieval record. In general, if there are more out-of-state students in the course, the greater the amount of tuition retrieved by ML. If financial situation changes, this number needs to be revisited.
  
  
• Answering occasional instructor questions on "How to do things in Canvas" for online courses. I have tried to answer some of them elsewhere on this site.
  
  
• Please read "How to launch a synchronous online course" section written elsewhere on this Website before reading the following.
  
  
  • Most common technical issues for the synchronous virtual classrooms are "audio" issues ("You can hear me, but I can't hear you.") and disconnections. If this occurs frequently and the instructor cannot handle the problems expertly during the drop-add period, half of the students will likely drop the synchronous online course. (FYI: Most of these issues can be avoided if students select a stable, quiet WiFi environment, use a reliable headset, and restart the computer before launching the virtual classroom software.)
    
    
  • Other less frequent, but observed problems are related to software updates (e.g., running or pending Windows updates, virtual classroom updates, etc.), network slowdowns, and running security checks disrupting the virtual classroom operations. IAC-based system updates are scheduled to run in the evenings, but since online courses are often scheduled during evening hours, this has occasionally interfered with virtual classrooms. The best advice here is this: To avoid IAC-based interferences during the evening hours, it is better for evening online course instructors to run it from home (assuming it has broadband Internet connection), not in the office. (I had more problems conducting evening online courses in my office compared to doing it from home.)
    
    
  • Coordination of room reservations for Instructional Studio (Savant 310e). If there are time conflicts among the instructors who need to use Instructional Studio to conduct their synchronous virtual classrooms, it is best to avoid overlapping online course hours before the course schedules are finalized before each semester.