Distance Learning

Trine University prides itself on the quality of the education we provide. All curricula, whether delivered online, seated or in hybrid format, follow the same approval process involving faculty, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the President, and when appropriate the Board of Trustees. Trine courses, whether taken at one of our locations, on the main campus or online, are considered equal.

Seated courses are taught in a face-to-face classroom setting. The syllabus, course schedule, and other materials are to be posted online and students may be asked to submit some work electronically. However a number of distance learning modes are available. Distance Learning (DL) includes fully online or blended courses and is a formal educational process in which the majority of the instruction (interaction between students and instructors and among students) in a course occurs when students and instructors are not in the same place. Instruction may be synchronous or asynchronous. Interaction between the instructor and the student is regular and substantive. Distance Learning (DL) includes various delivery methods.

Delivery Mode

Delivery Mode is the primary method or technology used to deliver instructional information to the student and used for communication between the instructor and the students. At Trine University, courses are delivered in the following modes:

DL - Online courses are taught 100% online through the main use of asynchronous activities providing greater flexibility of schedule and convenience of access to students, while allowing them to meet the same learning outcomes and level of rigor achieved in seated courses. The delivery of online exams will follow university-approved processes. Some online courses also include the authentication of online test takers and the use of online proctoring tools or live local proctors.
1. Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom web browser that “locks down” the testing environment within Moodle LMS. Once inside LockDown Browser, students are prohibited by the software from printing, copying & pasting, visiting external websites, and accessing other software applications during the examination process. Any open software applications which LockDown perceives as intrusive to the exam process (i.e. Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, etc.) are required to be closed before the examination process is allowed to proceed.
DL - Hybrid courses take advantage of the best features of seated classroom instruction and online education. Students meet face-to-face for a portion of the course and complete the rest of their coursework online. A hybrid course is not simply an online course that requires in-class exams. Hybrid courses allow faculty and students both the opportunity to build strong personal relationships through face-to-face interaction and the opportunity to explore new types of learning activities that were not possible in seated courses. Dates, times and locations for face-to-face meetings will be published in the official course schedule.
DL - Video Conferencing courses are taught face-to-face (either in person or via videoconference) in classrooms specially equipped that allow live interaction between the instructor and students even though they may be in classrooms in different geographic locations or remote campuses. Dates, times, and locations for class meetings will be published in the official course schedule.