Classroom Policies

Directed Study Courses

Students may be permitted to complete coursework through Directed Study, monitored by a faculty member. No more than 6 students can be registered for a Directed Study course at a physical campus as it will then constitute a regular class. No more than 4 students can be registered for a Directed Study course through the Virtual Campus. For physical campus courses: such permission will be granted only when there is no possibility for completing the regular coursework within a reasonable period of time under the regular class schedule. Special course completion arrangements require pre-approval by the academic program administrator and must be documented in writing. For the Virtual Campus courses: these will be converted to a Directed Study for courses that have 4 students or fewer registered. All pre-requisites for the regular course must be met. Tuition for a course completed in this manner is charged at the current rate for regular courses. Grades are earned in the same manner as traditional courses. The standard course codes are used; timing, assignments, and all course materials and syllabi are consistent. There is no notation of the special arrangement on the student’s transcript. Directed study cannot be used in lieu of a Leave of Absence.

Student Religious Observance Accommodation

In support of the University mission to serve a diverse population, any student who, as a result of religious holidays or observances, is unable to attend class or submit assignments on a particular day(s) may be granted an accommodation to submit assignments at an alternate time.

Students must notify the faculty member a minimum of at least one week before the religious holiday or observance allowing the faculty member sufficient time to arrange for an appropriate reasonable accommodation. Students are responsible for completing assignments (without penalty) given during their absence, but faculty should grant the opportunity to make up work missed because of religious observance

Accommodations involving extensions beyond the last day of class must adhere to the Incomplete Grade policy.

Add/ Drop Policy

The add/drop scheduling period is held during the first week of a student's session. Students desiring to drop or add a course within this period need to contact their Academic Advisor/Prior Learning Assessment Team for guidance in making this schedule change. Any schedule changes may extend the length of a program of study.

Attendance Policy

The University recognizes that regular attendance has a positive impact on a student’s success in his or her degree program of study. Students are expected to be in class for all regularly scheduled class periods and to report to class on time. The University posts attendance for each course every week to support academic success and properly administer financial aid. Attendance is only recorded based on the activities in the table below.

 

If the class is delivered:	"Attendance" means
Online	Student posting to a graded Discussion Board, uploading a file in the submissions area of the Virtual Classroom, submitting an assignment via the Virtual Classroom, attempting or completing an Intellipath node, or attending an in-progress Zoom-based Live Chat for five or more consecutive minutes.
On Campus	Student participating in the scheduled face-to-face class meeting. If a student arrives late or leaves class early, then he or she will be reported as "present" only for the time physically in the classroom.
Blended	Student participating in the scheduled face-to-face class meeting, posting to a Discussion Board, uploading a file in the submissions area of the classroom, submitting an assignment via the MyCampus portal, attempting or completing an Intellipath node, or attending an in-progress Zoom-based Live Chat for five or more consecutive minutes.

 

Students may choose to work ahead in their courses, but it is the responsibility of the student to meet the University's attendance requirements, regardless of the course delivery mode.  Refer to the Administrative (Automatic) Withdrawals and University Withdrawal areas of the catalog for more information regarding attendance requirements. 

For more information regarding attendance at the doctoral symposium event, refer to the Doctoral Symposium and Attendance area of the catalog.

 

Academic Honesty and Integrity

All students are expected to conform to the accepted standards of academic honesty. Any work submitted by a student must represent original work produced by that student, and any source used by a student must be documented through normal scholarly references and citations. Any clear violations of these standards, such as cheating, violating copyright laws, falsification of data, plagiarism, or submitting the same work in more than one course without obtaining advance approval will not be tolerated by the University and may be grounds for dismissal. Such violations are to be processed promptly, firmly, privately, and fairly by the instructor and may result in sanctions up to and including dismissal from the University. The instructor will promptly notify the University of the discovery of the incident. All instances are cumulative, permanently recorded, and tracked across a student’s tenure at all CTU campuses. The final determination of academic dishonesty will be decided by the appropriate academic official for the particular program or campus.

The student may appeal any decision to the appropriate Appeals Board. The Appeals Board will render a final decision after appropriate investigation, which may include factors such as prior academic honesty violations, previous correspondence and warnings, and academic history. Decisions from the Appeals Board may have stipulations attached to outcomes.
Cheating shall be defined as:

• copying to any extent the work of another;

• intentionally assisting another student during an examination;

• having unauthorized access to material related to an examination during the examination;

• possessing or having access to unauthorized copies of an examination;

• departing from any stated examination conditions.

Plagiarism:

The New International Dictionary of the English Language (Funk & Wagnalls, 2000) defines plagiarize as “to appropriate and pass off as one’s own (the writings, ideas, etc., of another)” (p. 965).

Plagiarism involves:

• Submitting another person’s work as one’s own;

• Submitting work from any source that is not properly acknowledged by footnote, bibliography, or reference within a paper;

• Submitting work pieced together from phrases and/or sentences from various sources without acknowledgment;

• Submitting work that uses any phrase(s), sentence, or stylistic mannerism rearranged or otherwise without acknowledgment;

• Omitting quotation marks from any directly quoted material;

• Failure to use ellipsis (…) to indicate omission of one or more words;

• Submitting an assignment that is an exact copy of work completed for a course at another University;

• Submitting an assignment(s), or any part of an assignment, for more than one class without enhancing and refining the assignment, and without first receiving instructor permission. In cases where revision of previous assignments is permitted by the instructor, the student should be prepared to submit the original assignment for comparison purposes;

• Any other actions deemed to be plagiarism by the faculty.

Resubmission:
At Colorado Technical University, students are given the opportunity to resubmit work that was previously submitted to past courses if the instructor has given his/her approval to the student to do so and if the submission complies with the Academic Honesty & Integrity guidelines outlined above. The resubmission policy applies to all assignment types except for intellipath and introductory discussion board assignment.

Student Responsibilities

• It is a student’s responsibility prior to assignment submission to submit a written request to the instructor that details for which course and term the work was originally submitted along with justification for the resubmission request.

• It is a student’s responsibility to wait to submit resubmitted work until after receiving written approval from the instructor.

• If a student is resubmitting an individual project:

o Once the request to resubmit has been approved by the instructor, it is the student's responsibility to document that the work is his/her own by including the following verbiage at the beginning of the document: "This assignment was originally submitted during the [previous session] in [previous course & section] with [previous instructor name]. Approval to resubmit this assignment was obtained from [current instructor name] on [MM/DD/YY]."

• If a student is resubmitting a non-introductory discussion board assignment:

o Once the request to resubmit has been approved by the instructor, the student can submit the assignment. The student does not need to include a statement in the assignment that it is resubmitted work.

• It is a student’s responsibility to ensure alignment with expectations of the current course assignment, and so the student should update his/her assignments to meet new or modified assignment requirements within the new course or updated version of a course.

• It is a student’s responsibility to review his/her work, making necessary changes to enhance the quality based on the resources provided in the current course, current instructor feedback and guidelines, and previous instructor feedback.

• It is a student’s responsibility to keep pace with assignment due dates and to participate fully in every course; therefore, if there are multiple assignments being resubmitted, students should submit tasks during the unit in which it is due.

Instructor Guidelines

• Instructors will make determinations of approvals or denials of the use of resubmitted work in consultation with their lead faculty member (as deemed necessary) and will provide a written approval or denial of the resubmission request to the student.

o If the request is denied, the instructor will provide justification for that denial.

• If an instructor is not made aware of work being resubmitted, the instructor will treat the assignment as plagiarized and reserves the right to post an F (0) grade and submit it for review until proof of originality is provided, at which point the instructor will make a grade change determination.

• If resubmitted work is accepted, the instructor will include the following statement within the gradebook acknowledging that the work was accepted under the Academic Honesty Policy Resubmission Clause:

o Resubmitted work has been accepted for this assignment in accordance with the Academic Honesty Policy Resubmission Clause.

• An instructor is under no obligation to allow students to resubmit work in order to make corrections if the work does not meet the requirements of the new session.

• An instructor is under no obligation to consider the grade that was originally received in a previous course on resubmitted work. Therefore, there is no guarantee the same grade will be awarded.

o If a student is awarded a lower grade for resubmitted work, this is not considered grounds for a grade appeal.

Policy Exception: The resubmission policy does not apply to posts made in introductory discussion boards, those students who are building a body of work (example: a capstone portfolio), or to those who are revising work as a compilation for a final project (example: a dissertation). Please discuss any questions or concerns with the Student Success Coach and the instructor.

Originality Policy

We at Colorado Technical University (CTU) value integrity, honesty, and originality. In order to uphold these values in the classroom, CTU utilizes the TurnitIn® Originality Verification Tool. This tool assists faculty, students, & staff by ensuring that all student work adheres to the University’s Academic Integrity policy.

Students are encouraged to utilize this tool prior to their official submission to ensure that the work they are producing is in fact their own. While the TurnitIn® Originality Verification Tool does not detect plagiarism, it does assist in the investigation and verification of overall integrity of the material provided by the student.

The University places emphasis on the following originality guidelines:

1. Students are expected to produce work that displays proper use of the most up-to-date version of APA. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of in-text citations, quotation marks, and references to ensure proper acknowledgment is given to any external source(s) used in the creation of academic material.
2. Since academic integrity concerns come in many forms (i.e. plagiarism, cheating, purchasing of work, lack of original content, etc.), a specific similarity percentage (%) rendered by the TurnitIn® tool does not necessarily result in the same outcomes for all content. Each student assignment should be thoroughly reviewed no matter the score provided by TurnitIn® in order for the faculty to determine the most appropriate action (see Academic Integrity Policy).

Note: Exclusive use of the similarity score % as criteria for identifying possible violations of academic integrity is prohibited. All students are to be assessed based on the content and contextual use of sources.

Grading

Re-taking a Failed Course

A student who receives a failing grade (W/F/NP) in a required course must repeat the course and receive a passing grade or receive transfer credit for the course in order to graduate. Students are allowed to re-take any course a maximum numbers of times before being withdrawn from their program. At CTU the maximum number for courses receiving a W/F/NP grade is 4 repeats for a total of 5 attempts at the undergraduate level, and 3 repeats for a total of 4 attempts at the graduate level. A course for which an “F” is awarded is included in the term GPA and CGPA. When the student repeats the course with a passing grade or receives transfer credit, the CGPA will be adjusted accordingly using the highest grade. The failure will remain on the transcript. Students should note that Healthcare programs may have more rigorous academic requirements. Students should contact their Academic Advisor or Program Chair for specific program requirements regarding retakes and failed courses. The total number of attempts for a student receiving a grade of W/F/NP is five at the undergraduate level and four at the graduate level.

Application of Grades and Credits

The charts above describe the impact of each grade on a student’s academic progress. For calculating rate of academic progress, grades of F (unsatisfactory), W (withdraw), and I (incomplete) are counted as hours attempted but are not counted as hours successfully completed.

The student must repeat any required course in which the student receives a grade of F or W. A grade of W is not replaced when a student repeats the course, but remains part of the student's permanent record. If the course is no longer offered a substitute course may be used subject to approval from a Program Chair. In the case of a repeated course, the better of the two grades is calculated into the CGPA. The lower grade will be replaced by a double asterisk (**) indicating that a higher grade has been earned for a separate attempt at the course. If the same grade is obtained when a course is repeated, only the first attempt and corresponding grade will be calculated into the CGPA. Both original and repeated credits will be counted as attempted credits in rate of progress calculations.

Students who repeat courses are encouraged to consult their Academic Advisor/Student Advising Team on how repeated courses may adversely affect their Satisfactory Academic Progress. Students should also contact the Financial Aid Department regarding repeated courses that have extended the length of a degree program and may have resulted in additional charges. Students are financially responsible for attempted courses.

Undergraduate students will be allowed to repeat courses in which they received a grade of D or below and master’s students will be allowed to repeat courses in which they received a grade of C or below.

 

Application of Withdrawal Grade

A "W" grade indicates that a student has been withdrawn from a course.  Students who withdraw from a course during the add/drop period will be unregistered from the course.  Students who withdraw from a course after the add/drop period but before the last calendar week of the class, and have a date of attendance (LDA) for the class during the last calendar week of the scheduled course, will receive the grade earned calculated as a final grade.  A Course Withdrawal Form or Withdrawal Routing Spreadsheet is completed by campus officials when awarding "W"grades.

Re-taking a Passed Course

A student receiving a passing grade who wishes to repeat a course to receive a higher grade is allowed to re-take the course one time.  Students will be ineligible for Title IV funding for additional attempts beyond the first re-take.

 

Grade Point Average (GPA)

The grade point average is computed for each academic level using course grade points. The quality points earned for each course are computed by multiplying the course's credit hours by the grade point of the final grade received. The quarterly GPA is computed by dividing the sum of the quality points earned in all courses taken during the quarter by the total number of credit hours attempted during the quarter. The Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is calculated by dividing the total earned quality points by the total credits attempted.

Grading System

Grade reports are available to students via the Virtual Campus, Mycampus portal, or the Registrar’s Office at the completion of each term/session. Grades are based on the quality of work as indicated on the course syllabus. Earned quality points are calculated for each course by multiplying the grade point value for the grade received for the course multiplied by the credit hour value of the course. For example, a 4.0 credit course with a grade of B would earn 12.0 quality points (credit value of course (4) times grade point value of B (3)). The Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is calculated by dividing the total earned quality points by the total attempted credits. The following pages provide an illustration of letter grades, description, percentage points, meaning and quality points.

Undergraduate Grade Scale

Letter Grade	Description	Percentage	Included in Credits Earned	Included in Credits Attempted	Included in CGPA	Grade Points
A	Excellent	94 - 100	Yes	Yes	Yes	4.0
A-		90 - 93				3.7
B+	Good	86 - 89	Yes	Yes	Yes	3.3
B		83 - 85				3.0
B-		80 - 82				2.7
C+	Fair	76 - 79	Yes	Yes	Yes	2.3
C		73 - 75				2.0
C-		70 - 72				1.7
D+	Poor	65 - 69	Yes	Yes	Yes	1.3
D		60 - 64				1.0
F	Unsatisfactory	0 - 59	No	Yes	Yes	0.0
NP	Non-passing	-	No	No	No	NA
P	Passing	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
I	Incomplete	-	No	Yes	No	NA
INC*	Incomplete	-	No	Yes	No	N/A
W	Withdraw	-	No	Yes	No	NA
PR	Proficiency	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
TC	Transfer	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
**	Repeat	-	No	Yes	No	NA

INC* - administrative use only

Graduate Grade Scale

LetterGrade	Description	Percentage	Included in Credits Earned	Included in Credits Attempted	Included in CGPA	Grade Points
A	Excellent	94 - 100	Yes	Yes	Yes	4.0
A-		90 - 93				3.7
B+	Good	86 - 89	Yes	Yes	Yes	3.3
B		83 - 85				3.0
B-		80 - 82				2.7
C+	Fair	76 - 79	Yes	Yes	Yes	2.3
C		73 - 75				2.0
F	Unsatisfactory	0 - 72	No	Yes	Yes	0.0
NP	Non-passing	-	No	No	No	NA
P	Passing	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
I	Incomplete	-	No	Yes	No	NA
INC*	Incomplete	-	No	Yes	No	NA
W	Withdraw	-	No	Yes	No	NA
PR	Proficiency	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
TC	Transfer	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
**	Repeat	-	No	Yes	No	NA

INC* - administrative use only

Doctorate Grade Scale

Letter Grade	Description	Percentage	Included in Credits Earned	Included in Credits Attempted	Included in CGPA	Grade Points
A	Excellent	94 - 100	Yes	Yes	Yes	4.0
A-		90 - 93				3.7
B+	Good	86 - 89	Yes	Yes	Yes	3.3
B		83 - 85				3.0
B-		80 - 82				2.7
F	Failing	0 - 79	No	Yes	Yes	0.0
I	Incomplete	-	No	Yes	No	NA
INC*	Incomplete	-	No	Yes	No	NA
P	Passing	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
NP	Non-Passing	-	No	Yes	No	NA
W	Withdraw	-	No	Yes	No	NA
PR	Proficiency	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
TC	Transfer	-	Yes	Yes	No	NA
**	Repeat	-	No	Yes	No	NA

INC* - administrative use only

Incomplete Policy

An Incomplete (I) grade is a temporary extension which allows a CTU student seven (7) calendar days from the end of a term to submit unfulfilled coursework requirements. An Incomplete (I) grade is intended to support students who experience extenuating circumstances that are outside of their control or which are otherwise unforeseeable. Incomplete (I) grades are not intended for students who have fallen behind in their coursework and request an extension past the last date of the term solely to submit coursework.

To receive an Incomplete (I) grade, the student must petition the course Faculty member in writing. The period to request an Incomplete (I) grade begins on the first day of the final week and must be submitted three days before the course end date.

A student may experience certain life events or other pressing commitments that may result in the need for an Incomplete (I) grade extension. In all instances, CTU encourages the student to work closely with his/her faculty member to meet the course requirements while balancing professional and personal obligations.

At the time of the petition, the Faculty member must determine:

If the student experienced circumstances contributing to the need for an Incomplete (I) grade extension, or if there were unforeseen, extenuating, or extreme circumstance(s) experienced by the student (as stated in the student’s petition)

Examples of extenuating or extreme circumstances would be, but are not limited to:

Loss of home
Medical conditions, injuries, hospital stays, and medical emergencies
Natural disasters
Loss of family members
Family emergencies or care for a family member
Military commitments

The Faculty member must approve or deny the petition in writing to the student within three business days of receiving the student’s petition, but no later than the last day of class.

In other situations deemed appropriate by the Chief Academic Officer/Provost (or his/her designee), an Administrative Incomplete (INC) grade may be approved. The Administrative Incomplete (INC) grade is an administrative-use only indicator to note an incomplete course grade posted outside of the University’s (I) Incomplete policy. An Administrative Incomplete (INC) grade is a temporary extension which allows a CTU student a specific number of calendar days after the end of a term to submit unfulfilled coursework requirements.

Student work submitted during the approved incomplete period will be graded by the faculty member and included within the final grade the student earned in the class.

The Incomplete (I) grade will convert to the final grade the student earned in the class, inclusive of “0” points for incomplete work, should a student fail to submit the unfulfilled coursework requirements within seven (7) calendar days from the end of the course.

The Administrative Incomplete (INC) grade will convert to the final grade the student earned in the class, inclusive of “0” points for the incomplete work, should a student fail to submit the unfulfilled coursework requirements within the specific number of calendar days from the end of the course.
 

 

Grade Appeal Procedure

A student who disagrees with a grade he or she has received should contact the course Faculty member immediately to discuss the concern. If the dispute is unresolved, the student must submit a written appeal within the subsequent term after posting of final grades. The student’s appeal must include the reason for appealing the grade and must also provide documentation supporting the appeal (if applicable) with the written request. A decision regarding the appeal will be made within 30 calendar days of appeal submission. Students will be notified in writing of the decision.  Students who wish to submit a grade appeal should contact their Student Success Coach for more information regarding the procedure.