Lorna's Annotated Bib:
Robelen, Erik W. States Revamping Policies on Virtual Schools.Education Week, 6/13/2007, Vol. 26 Issue 41, p18-22 Retrived from Academic Search Premier, April 08, 2008.
The article dicusses how State Departments of Education are becoming involved in policy for schools offering online courses. Online programs have attracted much political attention as states work to better control funding for these types of courses and schools. Specific incidents in Colorado, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Kansas are discussed.

Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Best Practices for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs
This is a 16 page PDF document in which the HLC states it's expectations for online programs. I've used it in the past as a kind of checklist to see if the library in compliance. (Let's just say we have some work to do!) One of their expectations for syllabi is that they include provisions for instructor-led and student-led interaction.

Houghton Mifflin Company. Creating an Effective Online Syllabus
This 17 page PDF document had some good suggestions, and I borrowed some of them to clarify what I realised was foggy in my syllabus. For example, in my expectations section I had said that I expected them to log on the the class regularly. After reading the article, I changed it to "I expect you to log into the course regularly (at least three times over a seven day period) to check for announcements, new discussion posts, etc. Your full participation on a weekly basis is not only a requirement, it is an essential component of the online learning process." Note from Kay: This is an excellent resource. Thanks for pointing it out to us.

MCLI, Maricopa Community Colleges Maricopa Syllabus Resource Center
Our District syllabus resource center has some examples, links to articles, District regulations ( Online Policy Manual, Regulation 3.6 ), a best practices section, and a resources page. Discusses divideing the syllabus into three different functions:

• practical
• theoretical
  
• institutional.

Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Illini Instructor Series: Preparing a course Syllabus.
Describes the three major purposes of the syllabus.

• Syllabus as contract
• Syllabus as permanent record
• Syllabus as learning tool

I was particularly interested in the Syllabus as Contract. This is what they recommend content-wise for the syllabus to serve as a course contract:

• Clear and accurate course calendar
• Grading policies: components and weights
• Attendance policy
• Late assignment policy, policies on incompletes and revisions
• Academic dishonesty and academic freedom policies
• Accommodation of disabilities policy

(Submitted by Lorna)

Waterhouse, S., Rogers R., The Importance of Policies in E-Learning Environments, Educause Quarterly, Vol. 23, Number 3, 2004.
I originally posted this article under the FERPA section of the wiki because it addressed Student Privacy Policy issues, but because it also contains other policies of importance in online teaching environments, I think it is better placed here. (Posted by Lea)

17 ELEMENTS OF GOOD ONLINE COURSES outlines what should be included in a syllabus, and the importance of the syllabus in letting students know as early as possible what to expect in a course. (Posted by Kay)

Electronic University Consortium of South Dakota, Online Course Readiness , points out that an online “syllabus should be available at the time the course is initially advertised.” This allows students to know what they are signing up for. (Posted by Kay)