Online Study

ONLINE CLASSES

Online courses are an exceptionally accessible, flexible resource whether your goal is gaining new skills, working towards your degree, or advancing your career with a program certificate.

You can come to class whenever it’s convenient for you by choosing when and where you participate in class. Your course is conducted according to a schedule, but there are usually no “live” classes to attend. Instead, lectures, coursework, and discussions all take place at your convenience. You choose the place – at home, at school – wherever you have access to a computer, modem, and an Internet Service Provider (ISP). You’ll get the same high-quality instruction and course content that you demand, but without the day-to-day obstacles that prevent so many of us from pursuing other goals. With online learning, commuting to campus and paying for childcare are things of the past.

Online courses can be quite varied in their overall approach to the teaching and learning process, but they often have certain characteristics in common. In all online courses, students use a computer to connect to a course site on the World Wide Web. Standard classroom books and printed materials are typically used in combination with online lectures, assignments, and supplementary course materials. Some courses have formal lectures, similar in length and content to lectures given in face-to-face classes. Online lectures may be entirely text-based or consist of some combination of text, graphics, sound, and video. Other courses break the content up into smaller units or abandon the lecture entirely, instead relying on group discussion and others types of learning activities.

The course is designed so that you receive course assignments, complete them on your own time (but with a scheduled due date), and then return them as electronic documents. Your instructor will evaluate them and provide feedback. Many courses will also use, as an integral part of the course, a threaded discussion forum that you can use to share information, collaborate and interact with other members of your class. Instructors will also provide updated course materials at the beginning of each class session that is designed by our faculty to better deliver materials to students through reliable technology sources.

Depending on the course design, you probably will take your tests or exams online. The time involved in achieving the student’s degree goal will vary from individual to individual. A few courses may require that you come to a testing room on campus. Additionally, some courses and programs may require predetermined trips to campus, which you should plan for before registering. You can find out about the course requirements in the schedule of classes.   

You should expect to spend as much time for study, or perhaps more, as a classroom course since you are managing your own learning using online information and materials. This requires that you be self-disciplined, motivated, and have some skills using a networked computer and a Web browser. The content and rigor of the online courses offered by American Liberty University is equivalent to the on-campus version of the same course. In fact, in some cases, on-campus and off-campus students are combined into the same course section.

DISTANCE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS (California Code of Regulations 71715 & 71716 Disclosures)

 (a) As an institution offering a distance educational program where the instruction is not offered in real time, American Liberty University will transmit the first lesson and any materials to any student within seven days after the institution accepts the student for admission.

(b) The student shall have the right to cancel the agreement and receive a full refund pursuant to section 71750 (Withdrawals and Refunds) before the first lesson and materials are received. Cancellation is effective on the date written notice of cancellation is sent. American Liberty University will make the refund pursuant to section 71750. If American Liberty University sent the first lesson and materials before an effective cancellation notice was received, American Liberty University will make a refund within 45 days after the student’s return of the materials.

(c)(1) American Liberty University will transmit all of the lessons and other materials to the student if the student: (A) has fully paid for the educational program; and (B) after having received the first lesson and initial materials, requests in writing that all of the material be sent.

            (2) If American Liberty University transmits the balance of the material as the student requests, American Liberty University will remain obligated to provide the other educational services it agreed to provide, such as responses to student inquiries, student and faculty interaction, and evaluation and comment on lessons submitted by the student, but will not be obligated to pay any refund after all of the lessons and material are transmitted.

(d) The enrollment agreement shall disclose American Liberty University’s and student’s rights and duties under California Code of Regulations 71716.