Online Course Delivery Options

Types of Online and Blended Courses

USC Upstate offers several types of online and hybrid courses to meet your needs. If you like a regular schedule with student interaction, courses with "synchronous" elements require scheduled meetings, which could be once a week, once a month, or just once or twice during the term. If you need complete flexibility in your schedule, courses with "asynchronous" or HyFlex elements may be a good fit for you. 

• 100% Web Asynchronous Courses: These courses are delivered entirely online. Instructors prepare and organize content, design and provide guidance for activities for engagement, interaction, and assessment of learning, and provide regular communication and feedback for growth and improvement. Students read, view, and respond to materials on their own schedule, meeting established deadlines and benchmarks, and engaging in both student-instructor, and student-student interactions throughout the term. There are no scheduled course meetings, but students may arrange to meet with the instructor and/or with student groups as needed. Course section numbers end in a W. 
• 100% Web Synchronous Courses: These courses are delivered entirely online. Instructors prepare and organize content, design and provide guidance for activities for engagement, interaction, and assessment of learning, and provide regular communication and feedback for growth and improvement. Students read textbooks and other course resources and do homework on their own schedule while meeting established deadlines. Students and the instructor meet together through Blackboard Collaborate Ultra from the location of their choice during regularly scheduled course meeting times. Course section numbers end in a V.
• 100% Web Mix Synchronous/Asynchronous Courses: These courses are also offered entirely online, but instead of scheduling online course meetings for the full 150-minutes of course time per week, the class meets online only once or twice per week, then students view video lectures and other instructional materials, complete projects, interact with assignments and quizzes, or do collaborative activities with classmates on their own schedule for the remainder of the course meeting time. Course section numbers end in VM.
• Flexible Face-to-Face or Online (HyFlex): These courses are delivered with the greatest flexibility for students, by giving students the choice to attend face-to-face, in a live virtual meeting, or asynchronously through recordings on the Web. Students choose how to attend day-to-day, while instructors teach in a face-to-face classroom with technology to host the course virtually and record it for later. Online students may register for these courses knowing that they will only participate through the online formats. Instructors prepare and organize content, design and provide guidance for activities for engagement, interaction, and assessment of learning, and provide regular communication and feedback for growth and improvement. Students read textbooks and other course resources and do homework on their own schedule while meeting established deadlines. Students choose to meet together with the instructor and classmates remotely or face-to-face during regularly scheduled course meeting times or to follow along with the recordings and other materials at the time of their choice. These courses do not have a section number indication, but you will see the FLEX instructional mode description in the course or in advanced searches by instructional mode in Self-Service Carolina.
• Palmetto College Courses: These courses are designed as entirely online, usually asynchronous, unless indicated otherwise with a V in the section number. They have all the same features as 100% Web Asynchronous or Synchronous courses and are often 7.5-week courses. They are only open to students who are part of USC Upstate's seven Palmetto College programs. Course section numbers end in PC.

Not ready for a fully online experience? Hybrid courses combine in-person meetings and online work to reduce the number of days you commute to campus while scheduling time for face-to-face connections with your instructors and peers.

• Blended 50% or more Web and Blended/Hybrid up to 49% Web Courses: These courses balance face-to-face instruction with online learning to gain the benefits of both. Courses meet in a traditional classroom once or twice a week or less. During meetings, students get real-time support, discuss projects and course content, and have an opportunity to interact with their instructors and peers. Between face-to-face meetings, students engage with online lectures and instructional materials, complete assignments and online interactions, and get feedback from the instructor. These courses increase scheduling flexibility while maintaining a regular routine of face-to-face interaction. Course section numbers end in M.