Getting Ready for Intersession

NECC is offering its largest selection of online, hybrid and traditional courses during the 2019 winter intersession. Intersession is the time between semesters when students and faculty can concentrate on one class in an accelerated period of time. Accelerated courses are popular among students who want to achieve the necessary skills and credentials at a faster pace. CIT gathered helpful tips and information from various sources and institutions to assist you with ideas and practical implementation tips to help design your course in an intensive format and give your students a smoother learning experience.

• Provide the required reading for the few first days of the course while students wait for their assigned books or course packs if these are not available (check copyright).
• Post a daily or weekly checklist with deadlines to help students stay on track.
• Provide a time-management activity to help students plan their time to complete the course activities and assignments.
• Eliminate “nice to know” content to focus on a few topics in depth.
• Prepare the entire course in advance to avoid “wasted” time there during the course.
• Include frequent, short assignments to help students stay on track with frequent practice and feedback.
• Reduce required reading to just the most necessary.
• Assign some reading to individuals or groups who summarize the content for the rest of the class to help students manage the reading load.
• Help students maintain focus and energy by varying the pace and frequently changing classroom activities (10-minute micro-lecture, 15-minute think-pair-share, 5-minute group report out, 15-minute individual exercise).
• Be accessible outside of class time so students don’t have to wait a few hours or a day to meet with you or receive an e-mail response.
• Provide study aids like practice tests, lecture notes, and/or study guides, since students will have less time to prepare for tests.​

Adapted from RIT Designing Accelerated Courses | References and Resources.

• Study Guides and Strategies
• Faculty eCommons
• Teaching Compressed Courses Well (Dr. Linda Nilson, OTEI Director Clemson University)
• University of Idaho DEE Course Design
• Student Experiences and Learning Approach in Accelerated Online Courses (Anastasia M. Trekles Ph.D. Purdue University)
• A Survival Guide for Accelerated Online Courses