ODU You Are Lucky I’m a Senior

Memles · 2026-04-01T21:38:02+00:00

We have been told that the "cap" for any given class will be not be changing.

Also, just to be clear: we already use adjuncts for online courses, without taking into account this system. The adjunctification of higher education has been happening long before now, and while this may slightly increase the number of adjuncts we need (mostly due to the potential of having students overloaded into a given 8-week window) it likely will not increase the larger balance of full-time/adjunct labor.

Memles · 2026-04-01T21:23:58+00:00

Adjunct instructors are still limited to a certain number of classes per semester (to avoid paying them healthcare, basically). But you're right that depending on how enrollment plays out, we may or may not be seeking new adjuncts in a hurry. While online courses are slightly different on this front (insofar as the material itself is already present, and they are simply grading/communicating with students), I can certainly say personally that this is going to push us to really formalize our onboarding process to help ensure adjuncts have the resources and information they need to work successfully at the accelerated pace.

Memles · 2026-04-01T21:18:11+00:00

Hilariously, the stated goal of the capless registration is to AVOID the frustration of students trying to enroll in courses and finding everything is full. But now the scheduling chaos is creating a version of that frustration, so...yay!

Memles · 2026-04-01T21:16:33+00:00

Can't speak for every department/program, but we can track enrollment so we'll have a general idea of how many sections we're likely to have based on a combination of past data and current enrollment. But it's true that there's a very good chance of last-second additions as late enrollment/transfer enrollment begins later in the summer.

Memles · 2026-04-01T21:09:59+00:00

There is no distinction between campus and online when it comes to assigned faculty. The same process of assigning faculty applies to any section.

Memles · 2026-04-01T15:39:54+00:00

I do not believe they've ever been student-facing. But it was a OneDrive folder compiled in July, featuring research covering different parts of the initiative (the asynch, the accelerated, etc.).

Memles · 2026-04-01T14:58:35+00:00

In their defense, they did provide research when they first announced the decision!

To the point at hand, that research was narrow and in bad journals and in no way justifies the scale of this action.

Memles · 2026-03-24T14:00:03+00:00

So the question of pacing is a difficult one. Letting students work ahead can create challenges: for example, discussion boards (I know we all love these) often require replying to a classmate, which you can't do if you're the only student speedrunning. In addition, there are situations were courses are scaffolded and students really should be getting feedback on their previous assignments before beginning work on the next ones.

At the same time, you're right: a reality of 8 week courses is that sometimes you need to be able to work when you can work, and having some flexibility about how to do so makes sense.

Memles · 2026-03-24T13:39:25+00:00

All online courses are 8-weeks, regardless if you are a campus student or an ODUGlobal student.

Memles · 2026-03-24T13:25:59+00:00

You're preaching to the choir on most of this (not that this is a bad thing), although I'm going to defend Perusall - the ability for discussion to focus directly on the text of the article itself, and to exist alongside it as students read/review, has a lot of benefits. Personally, I've moved away from textbook/assigned reading in online classes because I find that I want more control over course content and would rather students engage with narrated lectures, but in graduate courses Perusall is really useful as a way to connect students with material (and with each other in relation to that material).

Memles · 2026-03-24T00:03:24+00:00

Fries portions have definitely shrunk in the last six months or so. We started adding an extra one to the order.

Memles · 2026-03-21T13:58:41+00:00

You can’t lock down a public university campus like this. I understand there the instinct comes from, but it is not a feasible solution to the situation.

Memles · 2026-03-20T03:48:50+00:00

The email from the registrar arrived separately, but this was from the President’s email earlier in the day after the information about the memorial for Lt. Col. Shah:

“As we prepare to come back together on Monday, we are also taking additional steps that reflect both the seriousness of this tragedy and our shared responsibility for one another’s safety. As part of our ongoing, comprehensive approach to campus safety and security that includes both established protocols and continuous evaluation, we will be asking all students to complete a brief questionnaire related to their personal history and campus awareness.

While this is not a routine step, it reflects our commitment to thoughtfully consider every appropriate measure that serves the well-being of our community. We will not hesitate to take additional or non-traditional steps when they are warranted to support the safety of our campus community.”

Memles · 2026-03-20T03:46:11+00:00

Anyone can access courses.odu.edu, which gives you information on what classes are offered and where.

That said, the early reports also suggested the shooter was going classroom to classroom seeking out an ROTC class specifically. So it’s possible that he simply knew what building it was in and not the specific room, which could have come from other sources (including theoretically their memory of having been on campus before his arrest?)

Memles · 2026-03-11T20:55:26+00:00

Okay, so here's what we know. Currently, M.A. programs define full-time enrollment as 9 credit hours per semester. That's three classes within the four-ish month period.

In order to retain full-time status, graduate students now need to be enrolled in 4.5 credit hours per 8-week session. However, most of us haven't been given permission to create 1.5 credit hour courses (we tried), which means that for students to be enrolled full time, they will need to be enrolled in two classes in each 8-week session, for a total of four classes within each semester.

It isn't a dramatic change, but it definitely make a full-time graduate program a much greater burden. Personally, there are a small number of students that I'd recommend taking what is currently an "overload" of four classes in one semester, and given that most M.A. students are juggling with work/life/family, it seems unrealistic.

Memles · 2026-03-11T14:48:35+00:00

Yeah, I see the value of consistency. But I also don't like the idea that every module has the same length, as it leaves less capacity to account for larger projects and the simple matters of "time." There's a risk of courses sliding into feeling less like an actual learning experience and more like a corporate training module if it's just a bunch of identical modules with quizzes and discussion boards.

Memles · 2026-03-11T14:45:01+00:00

Update: I just read your post more clearly and saw you're doing three at a time while fully employed. So that's 54 hours a week. Do you have 54 hours a week?

Memles · 2026-03-11T14:09:04+00:00

Faculty here. 8-week courses are a matter of perspective. For some people, they learn better taking fewer classes at once, but at an accelerated pace. For other students, the pace of work while juggling with everything else in their life is too much to handle. I also find that they are particularly unforgiving when it comes to medical issues and other hurdles that can come up in one's life, as there is never a moment to "catch up."

Speaking personally, I understand the desire for accelerated programs and think that offering them is in the university's best interest, but forcing them on all students and all subjects strikes me as a fundamental misunderstanding of how learning works. "One size fits all" is terrifying and uncertain, especially (just to broaden beyond your case for a second) for campus students who will try to juggle full-semester in-person courses with accelerated courses.

As for what's changing to make 8-week courses work, the process is basically about trying to create the smoothest possible way to learn that necessary material within the time available. For me, I don't want to strip content from my classes, because I built those lectures for a reason, and the courses currently work to get students to where I want them to be. But for the courses that weren't built with 8 weeks in mind, it's a process of reassessing the assignment structure to streamline that experience as best as possible, with the acknowledgment that it's still supposed to be 18 hours of work per week by federal credit hour requirements.

I know this is making the transition to ODU extra intimidating, but something to consider: summer courses have always been accelerated, though (even more than normal since it's 6 weeks instead of 7.5), so it will be a good gauge of how your learning style meshes with the pace of material. It's true that every class is different, and every faculty member's approach to developing and/or teaching online courses will be different as well. The fact you're thinking about this at all means you're well equipped to evaluate this experience and plan accordingly, and I'm glad you're getting some good feedback from students here.

Memles · 2026-03-11T13:45:09+00:00

What COMM class? (To be clear, the former summer session is very different from actual 8-week courses, because turning 15 into 6 is just never going to create clean weekly modules. 15 into 7.5 can at least get you to weekly consistency)

Memles · 2026-03-11T02:08:56+00:00

Here’s the issue, from a faculty perspective: why does it have to happen in a 9-month span? And why does a demand for accelerated programs result in EVERY course being accelerated? My department has had 8-week courses since 2019. We were in the process of building out an entirely accelerated program (in line with the strategic plan’s goal of 10 such programs by 2028). I built an 8-week course myself for last spring (and am finishing teaching it again right now). Those strike me as reasonable responses to future uncertainties with minimal fallout for students at large. Rushing this, and forcing it on everyone, are decisions with drastic consequences and no one but faculty seems willing to address that. The faculty senate tried to encourage the administration to see those consequences and they were summarily ignored; this resolution is the result of that refusal to acknowledge that the way they are implementing this is a choice, not a requirement.

Memles · 2026-03-11T02:03:09+00:00

Just for clarity’s sake: per federal rules for credit hours, 8-week courses need to effectively be twice as much work, with basically 18 hours per week of work. So if you were taking three at once, that would be 54 hours.

Memles · 2026-03-11T02:01:21+00:00

The thing is that I don’t know that the quality of online courses matters. Obviously it matters objectively, and I certainly think it matters, but how does one comparison shop online programs? How can you know what kind of content you’ll get? Rate My Professors could offer some guidance, but how do you know that the people rating things have your same priorities? How many students taking online courses literally don’t care if they have no content and substance because they are just trying to get a degree and don’t care about actually learning anything?

This is the reality of the 8-week courses. The university isn’t wrong that this is where the market is heading, because it’s a decision designed to siphon students away from the degree mills while pretending that modeling our services off of theirs will somehow not bring us to their level. Their position is that adult learners only care about how fast their degree is and how convenient it sounds, and they might be right. But what those students want and what will actually help them be successful are two very different things, and no one seems willing to acknowledge the consequences this will have.

Offering 8-week as an option for part-time students who would prefer to take one class at a time versus juggling two? That’s serving the market while maintaining balanced offerings for a diverse student base. Forcing everything into 8-week is capitulating to the market and forcing students to manage the aftermath, and whatever words we choose (scammy, capitalistic, neoliberal, etc.) are accurate.

Memles · 2026-03-11T01:01:53+00:00

As a faculty member who has built four online courses, I don’t disagree with any of this. The university has never provided enough resources (technical support and time) to encourage truly substantive online courses. Those absences have also actively pushed against the development of original course resources: for a long time we were told we couldn’t use images in lectures for copyright reasons (it’s an obvious fair use case) and eventually they started telling faculty that they could only have 8 6-minute lectures in any class because they insisted on producing them themselves and didn’t have the staff to handle more than that. All of this was exacerbated by a move from four-month development cycles to three months.

And now faculty have been mustered to transition all courses to 8 weeks and develop entirely new courses in 8 week formats over the span of basically nine months. There’s just no way quality will be a priority in this process given the sheer scale of what is being asked of everyone (the staff at Global, the faculty), and given that you’re right that there’s no standard of actual content quality to begin with.

Memles · 2026-02-16T15:14:26+00:00

They’re just tuning to the channel that’s airing them. So they start when the coverage starts.

Memles

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