SCHEDULING
The Office of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education schedules the courses in cooperation with a local representative, either of which may initiate the contact. Principals, teachers, or district coordinators may take the initiative for scheduling a course, placing the request (location, courses, and dates) with the MLC Office of Continuing Education. Although the majority of courses are held in the summer, they may also be scheduled during the academic year.
ADMINISTRATION
MLC and the course instructor are responsible for all major administrative tasks such as scheduling, advertising, enrolling, collecting payments, paying expenses, and providing credit and clock hours. The instructors will make their own arrangements for meals, lodging, and transportation.
The local host is responsible for providing an adequate facility, some advertising, refreshments, name tags, and other participants’ on-site needs. The local representative will receive an honorarium of $200 per credit as a thank you for the time and expenses of hosting the event. The instructor appreciates a room that comfortably accommodates those enrolled, seating them around tables or in some other arrangement that facilitates discussion. The instructor may have specific requests for arrangements. If so, the instructor will notify the host.
COURSES FOR CREDIT AND/OR NON-CREDIT
Martin Luther College offers face-to-face courses designed for in-service teachers. Face-to-face courses are often scheduled at off-campus locations for the convenience of the participants. This catalog provides a complete list of available courses. Each course can be taken for credit or non-credit, depending on the wishes of the participant.
Courses for credit
Courses for credit follow the commonly-accepted practices in higher education for awarding credit. Each credit represents an equivalent amount of instruction and student work as on campus courses, or 37.5 hours per credit, of which at least 12.5 hours must be face-to-face.
This could be 2.5 hours a day for five days; 5 hours for two days and 2.5 hours for one day; 6.25 hours for two days; etc. In general, one-credit courses for K-8 Elementary should not be scheduled for a period of less than two and a half days unless the instructor approves a two-day format. Courses specifically for early childhood, principals, and directors may be run in a two-day format. Out-of-class time requirements include pre-course readings and follow-up assignments or applications.
Courses for non-credit
Alternatively, courses may be taken without credit. A non-credit course includes the same face-to-face instruction as its for-credit course equivalent, but will have little or no outside work. Non-credit courses are awarded clock hours only.
COST
The cost to participants will vary depending on whether they elect to attend the face-to-face course for credit or non-credit. Courses for credit follow the established MLC undergraduate tuition charges per credit and application fee. The cost for non-credit participants will vary depending on the college’s estimated expenses to offer the course in the local area and the minimum number of participants required for viability. In general, non-credit courses are half the cost of a for-credit course. The college’s expenses to offer an off-campus course include administrative costs and instructor reimbursement for compensation, lodging, travel, per diem, and other costs (copying, etc.).
ENROLLING
All scheduled courses will be posted under the corresponding semester at Course Offerings. We ask for a minimum enrollment for each course to ensure covering costs. Course status will be listed as Go if the course enrollment is high enough to run the course, or Cancelled if the enrollment was too low and the course has been cancelled. Some courses also list a maximum enrollment. MLC Continuing Education will promote the course through email and printed publications. All course information and current enrollment numbers under the appropriate semester at MLC Portal.
Register for courses on the MLC website.
Each participant will enroll using the online registration at Online Registration. After students register they will receive an online invoice payable to MLC. All participants will be responsible for the remittance of their course fees.
The registration deadline will be 5 weeks before the course, as there may be pre-course reading requirements and instructors need to arrange their travel plans.
At times there may be participants who arrive for the course without prior registration. If this happens, please give them access to a computer to register online.
DAILY SCHEDULE
Typically, on-location courses will begin at 8:30 or 9:00 am, have short morning and afternoon breaks and an hour break for lunch, then conclude at 3:30 or 4:00 pm. Courses may also be conducted in the evenings. The Office of Continuing Education will work with the host and instructor to set the schedule. However, upon the start of the course, the starting and ending times can be changed as mutually agreed upon by the participants and the instructor, provided the minimum required seat time is ensured. The host may choose to provide coffee, juice, and snacks for the morning and afternoon breaks.
QUESTIONS
Please contact the Office of Continuing Education with any questions. For particular questions about the course itself, please contact the instructor. Instructor email addresses are available on the MLC Directory. Although the first goal of this program is to provide Christian courses for our inservice teachers, the States of Minnesota and Wisconsin have also accepted some of these courses as applying to the renewal of a Wisconsin State Teaching Certificate.
THANK YOU
The Martin Luther College Office of Continuing Education could not operate this program without the cooperation and assistance of our principals, teachers, and district coordinators. We greatly appreciate their hard work in hosting these courses. It is our prayer that this program will serve our teachers in their ministry and in furthering their commitment to Christian education.
