Students can register for DE courses whenever like. But they’ll receive an official announcement about this towards the end of their last on-campus block.
Students are required to satisfactorily complete on-campus MSCS studies before starting practical training. These may include participation in the Science of Creative Intelligence, FPP, MPP, and four 4-unit computer science courses.
Each DE term of 4-unit courses lasts 15 weeks, and there are 3 terms in each academic year with 1-4 weeks break between each term. The course content for each DE course is the same as that of an on-campus course, and the DE materials are recordings of on-campus presentations. In addition to the usual course textbook or other printed material, DE materials include videos and Sakai course sites including forums. All course components are mandatory to successfully complete a DE course. The Sakai course sites present the syllabus, course schedule, assignments, and helpful references; policies on grading, mandatory course participation, academic honesty, and student evaluations; and key contact information. The course forum is the primary mode of communication with DE instructors, and participation is mandatory. Regarding assignment submittals and quizzes, your professor will set the schedules. You must submit by the specified date and time in order for the system to allow your action. With regard to your questions and comments, you need to plan ahead, since there will always be a delay between question asked and question answered. Though the exam format and process are similar to on-campus tests, each student is required to take the exam in proctored environment.
If a student is required to take more DE courses than the number covered by the original tuition, then he or she will pay for each additional course at the current rate of tuition. Additional course fees must be before course participation is permitted.
a. Practical Preparations: Students will require access to the internet and e-mail in order to participate in the DE classes. Each student is required to have an @miu.edu email account.
b. DE Course Scheduling: DE computer science courses generally begin a few weeks after you have begun your Practicum working full time. The DE schedule is paced so that students need to watch, on average, 3 lessons every 2 weeks to stay current, though this can vary from course to course and is governed by the individual course syllabus. Each lesson is about 1½ to 2 hours in duration.
c. DE Enrollment: The DE course schedule is included in InfoSys (https://infosys.cs.miu.edu/infosys/index.jsp) for the next 2 – 3 years. Because the DE course schedule can sometimes change due to fluctuating student enrollments and faculty availability, the DE office will always send you an email with any change in the DE course offering in which you are enrolled. If you feel that this is not correct for some reason, contact the DE coordinator office immediately,csde@miu.edu to make any changes. As above, any changes are your responsibility; otherwise you will be enrolled in, graded for, and billed for the DE course as per your notification. The enrollment deadline for each term is 4 weeks before the start of class. If you wish to change to a different DE course, then you must notify the DE office by that announced date. Any student who does not enroll, withdraw, or change his or her course by that date will be charged a $50 late enrollment fee. The DE office will notify all in current student status of their next course enrollments in sufficient time to make the required changes, usually about 3 to 4 weeks before the deadline. You may not change your DE course after the second Friday following course start. If you are notified that you have a course pre-pay requirement, (generally because you are repeating a course), you must make that payment in advance of the course. The DE office will notify you each term with your amount due and the final date on which you may make that payment. If you do not pay in advance for specified course, you will not be sent the course materials until payment is received. If you continue to fail making that payment and, therefore, have not received the course materials, you may lose your registration (be dropped from the course). If that occurs, you may go out of your student status.
d. Video Links: Students in the Computer Professionals Program who are placed in practicum internships before completion of the program coursework, may receive instruction in their final courses via distance education (DE). Your pre-recorded course lectures are currently being streamed through Sakai. Please report any streaming problem to the DE office. When you enrolled in a current DE course you will see an active link on your Sakai account named “Course Videos”. Please note that all MIU course materials including these videos are protected by international copyright laws. They are accessible online only for students registered in these courses. Copying them for other purposes and distributing them is not allowed and copyright laws apply. If you have any question regarding this matter, please contact the DE Coordinator: csde@miu.edu, or phone 641-472-7000, ext. 5120.
e. DE Exam Policies and Guidelines: For each course, students will receive a welcome letter by the first day of the term. Each letter includes the internet link required to access the course website and news forum. The website includes the current course syllabus and all-important dates for viewing and completing each lesson. The website also includes the dates for your midterm and final exams, due dates for projects and homework, and addresses for faculty, teaching assistant, if applicable, the technical support group, and DE staff. If you do not hear from the professor by the course start date, notify the DE coordinator immediately, csde@miu.edu.All students must take exams on the day specified in the syllabus. The DE office notifies you of these dates at the beginning of each term in order for you to coordinate potential conflicts. Exams are always on a Saturday and are begun punctually at the time pre-announced for your time zone.
All MIU ComPro DE exams will be proctored using the Proctortrack proctoring system. Proctortrack is an online proctoring system that is now integrated with Sakai. You must complete the onboarding quiz through the Proctortrack tab in the Sakai course site before you can access your exam. It is wrong to take either the exam or the onboarding quiz through Tests & Quizzes.
We will try to inform you of what other students are doing wrong for you to be vigilant when working with Proctortrack. We discovered from previous exams that most of the problems students had with Proctortrack were as a result of not reading or following the Proctortrack student manual carefully.
The following Proctortrack problems were reported to the DE office:
• Not being able to find the Proctortrack link (You must first click on the Sakai course site in order to see the Proctortrack link in the Sakai menu).
• Trying or attempted the onboarding quiz through Tests & Quizzes rather than through the Proctortrack tab. (You will receive NC if you fail to attempt the exam through the Proctortrack tab)
• Not being able to find the password. (Sometimes the access code is hidden but if you follow the steps given in the student manual you will be able to access the password. The password is provided automatically through Proctortrack)
• Not using the recommended browsers. (Chrome and Firefox are the recommended browsers) Onboarding quiz rejected because of one of the following reasons:
• Missing or insufficient ID scan.
• Name not legible in ID
• Insufficient environment lighting. Please note that the onboarding quiz is a prerequisite to any DE exam. Therefore, if you failed to complete the onboarding quiz on time; you will not be able to take any DE exam. The onboarding quiz is a simple one question test that is not part of the grading system. The onboarding quiz is a dry run that allows Proctortrack to capture the student’s biometrics and ID card information. It will also allow you to confirm that your computer system works with the Proctortrack application.
Makeup Exams:-On rare occasion, there may be a valid reason why an exam cannot be taken on the date specified. Acceptable reasons may include DOCUMENTED medical emergency or DOCUMENTED personal or family emergency. In the event of an emergency, a late appeal may be made directly to the DE office, csde@miu.edu ComPro directors and faculty will review each such appeal, and the DE office will notify the student whether the request is approved. If approved, the DE office will define the next course of action. Such an appeal does not guarantee that a makeup exam will be scheduled. In some cases, a student‘s professor may disallow the makeup exam. Such a decision has one of two possible outcomes: One, the excuse is not approved, and the student will receive a grade of No Credit for that exam. Two, the excuse is accepted, but the professor will not approve a makeup exam. In the second case, an entire grade will depend on one exam and overall student performance throughout the semester. Undocumented illnesses will not be accepted. Personal reasons such as work conflicts and personal travel will not be accepted. The exam schedules for the next four terms are specified in InfoSys, and students are expected to plan exam schedules in advance, including coordinating with work supervisors.
When a makeup exam is approved, the student is required to pay $200 in advance of the makeup exam date. The DE coordinator will provide the student with an invoice using PayPal, and payment is due immediately. The makeup exam will be scheduled within 2 weeks of the original exam date, and only one makeup exam will be scheduled. If the makeup exam is missed, a grade of No Credit will be awarded for that exam. If there is any problem, the DE coordinator must be notified immediately and in advance.
f. Withdrawing from a course: When a student enrolls in a DE course, he or she is expected to complete the course, just as with any on-campus course. Students need to complete their DE courses and graduate by the expiration date on their I-20s. Therefore, students must be continually enrolled in DE (unless for the reasons shown below).Students on Internship Search and not on CPT Students are required to do the following:
1. Students must always be enrolled in DE courses when they are not getting CPT credit.
2. Students must receive 6 units per semester (although only 3 can be from a DE course) to be legal on an F-1 visa.
Students with Internships (doing authorized CPT):
3. Each student must complete enough DE courses per year to be able to complete his or her degree before the expiration date on the I-20
4. Exceptions to this policy are as follows:
a. student has already passed all courses offered for the applicable term.
b. A student has one remaining course to complete and is waiting for a course scheduled for the next term. EACH STUDENT MUST HAVE PRIOR APPROVAL FROM DE OFFICE TO POSTPONE YOUR LAST COURSE.
c. A student out of the country for an extended period of time.
d. A student with an H-1b visa, EAD, or Green Card. If a student holds one of these visas, he or she must be enrolled in, at a minimum, one course each academic year to stay enrolled in the program. Any student who does not comply with this requirement will be withdrawn from the program until such time as the student is willing to commit to completing the program.
When you enroll in a DE course, you will receive a confirmation email. Since all enrollments require administrative processing, faculty planning, and other expenses, charges are applied for course withdrawal. There are several categories of withdrawals, as discussed below.
To request withdrawal, you must begin by sending an email request to the CS DE coordinator at csde@miu.edu or to the DE director at csdedirector@miu.edu.
YOU MUST RECEIVE PRIOR APPROVAL FROM THE DE OFFICE FOR ALL WITHDRAWALS.
The category of withdrawal and the applicable fee depend on the date of your written request.
5. If you withdraw from a distance education course more than 4 weeks before the start of a course, there is no charge, and you will be removed from the course student roster and the university registrar’s database.
6. If you enroll or withdraw after that deadline (less than 4 weeks before the enrollment deadline) and prior to the end of the second week of classes, you will be charged a $50 fee for late enrollment, late course change, or late withdrawal. A withdrawal at this point means your name will be removed from the course student roster and the university registrar’s database. No W will be indicated on your transcript.
7. After the second week of class, you are officially enrolled in the course. If you withdraw between this point and the date of the midterm exam, you will receive a W on your transcript, indicating that you withdrew from the course. A W on your transcript means that the course from which you withdrew is counted as one of the nine CS courses included in your initial tuition costs. By the end of the third week of class, you will have submitted three deliverables as defined and required by your individual professor. If you do not meet the course participation and homework submittal requirements, you will be either placed on probation or dropped from enrollment. If you are dropped, you will receive a grade of NC on your transcript and incur the cost of the course as explained below. In order to complete your graduation requirements, you will be required to take (or repeat) a tenth course for an additional fee of $2,000. If you elect to repeat the same course from which you withdrew, you will be charged $3,000. You are required to pay for any course beyond the nine required which are covered by your student loan. You must pay these fees before the course begins. If you are dropped for nonpayment from a pre-pay course, you will be assessed a $200 fee.
8. By the end of the third week of class, you will have submitted three deliverables as defined and required by your individual professor. If you do not meet the course participation and homework submittal requirements, you will be either placed on probation or dropped from enrollment. If you are dropped, you will receive a grade of NC on your transcript and incur the cost of the course as explained below.
9. In order to complete your graduation requirements, you will be required to take (or repeat) a tenth course for an additional fee of $3,000. If you elect to repeat the same course from which you withdrew, you will be charged $3,000. You are required to pay for any course beyond the nine required which are covered by your student loan. You must pay these fees before the course begins. If you are dropped for nonpayment from a pre-pay course, you will be assessed a $200 fee. In the event of a personal emergency, a student may petition the DE office for a moderation of ComPro policies. To request such a policy waiver, the student must send a written (email) request in advance. Approval is not assured until the DE office provides a written (email) response.
g. DE Course Repeats: Occasionally, a DE student may be required to repeat a DE course to achieve acceptable academic status. To repeat a course, the student is required to make arrangements with the DE coordinator, csde@miu.edu. If approved, the student will be billed at 100% of the regular course fee for this enrollment. The fee includes access to online course materials, mailed course media and materials, and faculty support.
h. Directed Studies Course: Normally students are not allowed to take a directed studies course because of the time commitment required of the CS faculty. Prior approval is required by the faculty and ComPro board and is influenced by the current academic standing of the student. When a student is approved to take a directed study course, there is an additional charge of $250 to the regular course fee. The student would be required to pay $3,000 plus $250 = $3,250 for that directed study course. If the course is one of the required 9 CS courses, the student would only be required to pay the additional $250 charge.
i. DE Finances: Students in good academic standing may take up to eight of their nine required CS courses while accruing their tuition payments and program costs on their loan. When students are placed on either academic or disciplinary probation, ComPro directors will review the student‘s loan status to determine whether the student is required to pay for further coursework or program costs. Any penalty fees for administrative reasons (e.g., makeup exams, unreturned course materials), or other additional costs are paid directly through the DE PayPal system and are not added to the student‘s loan. The DE office will notify each student when each administrative fee is applied, and the fee incurred must be paid before a student can enroll in another course or receive a grade for a course in progress. In special isolated circumstances, for example, extended unemployment, a student may petition for other consideration of the payment policy and payment arrangements. The student is responsible for providing a written request to the DE coordinator who will, in turn, provide prior written approval or disapproval. If approved, no diploma or transcript will be provided if there are unpaid fees. If disapproved, the student is subject to suspension from the course with a grade of No Credit.
When a student enrolls to take an extra course because of an academic deficiency, the student will be charged for that extra course at the current rate of tuition. Once the student has completed nine 4-unit Computer Science courses, any additional course(s) must be paid in advance of taking the course. The tuition cost will be at the current university fee structure. As with any administrative fee, this course pre-payment fee must be paid before a student can enroll in another course. Failure to send payment on time will delay receiving course materials, transcripts, and other official information from the university.
j. Curricular Practical Training (CPT) Policies: CPT students are required to report on their CPT activities once every three months. Also be aware that, if you attempt to submit your CPT report after the stated deadline, you will not be permitted. For the CPT report, you will write a description (minimum 1000 words) that shows how your CPT position activities relate to coursework that you have studied during your Master’s degree. This should include some description of how your work experience was an application of, or related to, what you have studied, and what you learned from this application. Ideally, it would reflect what you have learned from the DE course that was taken during that same time period. You would show how you have integrated that knowledge into your work, but if that particular course is not directly related to your work, then the report should discuss how knowledge from other classes in the master’s degree is now being used in your CPT experience. You should include some discussion of how the SCI knowledge from your classes and your TM practice relate to your work experience as well, including both some personal experiences, and some practical values. CPT is an academic component of your studies and is a requirement for your degree as the practical aspect of the theoretical knowledge you have gained during your studies. To receive academic credit for CPT, MIU will verify that you are integrating this employment experience with the knowledge you have gained. Your faculty advisor will review each CPT report and award you with a passing or failing grade. NP and P are the only grade options for CPT. Students will receive 3 units four times a year. If a student begins or ends an internship in the middle of the reporting period, then they will receive the number of credits shown below, based on the number of weeks that they worked during that reporting period of time.
More than 3 weeks: 1 Unit
More than 6 weeks: 2 Units
More than 10 weeks: 3 Units
Though only 8 units are required for graduation, any student on an F-1 visa is required to continue reporting CPT until the time you graduate or if you have a change to your visa status. (The Career Center office will provide you with specific CPT reporting requirements when you change to H-1b, EAD, or Green Card.) Continuing to report and receive credits will also keep your transcript correct and current, reflecting an appropriate number of credits each semester. (This will be important when your transcript is being reviewed for any reason including a change to your visa status.) You will receive a notification email when it is time to submit the report, and then again a week later. If you do not submit the report by the cut-off date listed in the email, then you will receive an NP grade (no pass) for that 4-month period.
If a student receives a grade of NP, they may be put on academic probation. If they receive a 2nd grade of NP, they will be asked to resubmit the report so that it is a Pass grade. If they don’t get the passing grade, then they will not be approved to continue in CPT at that time.
*An NP grade in Practicum does not lower your grade point average but it does not look good on your transcript. You cannot change an NP grade to “Pass” more than 6 months after the submission of the report. An NP on your transcript could be a problem regarding visa issues (wanting to bring family, moving to H1-B, etc.), or if you plan to apply for another academic program later.
k. Email Required for Communication: Each student is responsible for maintaining regular communication with the DE office. You must read all email messages promptly! Many contain official notice of changes to the ComPro policy and procedures, reminders of scheduled events and deadlines, and cautions on avoiding potential financial penalties. All DE communication is accomplished by email. Therefore, it is vital that you are always current with your email address. Any missed event for your failure to receive our emails is your responsibility. Resulting fees and academic penalties are your responsibility. You may not contact us at a later date to declare that you did not receive the email! We urge students to use miu.edu email account to communicate with us.
The DE office will communicate in two primary ways: First, the office sends reminders to all students on all DE events, including course enrollment, proctoring , exam notice and confirmation, fee warnings and invoices with payment deadlines, course evaluations, and other administrative processes. Each notice, whether individual or to everyone, contains procedural directions, accompanying schedules, and, when applicable, late penalties. Whether the communication is to everyone or to you personally, you are responsible for its contents.
Second, the DE office will communicate directly with you on issues requiring your immediate attention. These emails may contain cautions that you have not responded to an earlier direction or may specify a decision or an action required of you to address an immediate issue. In either of these instances, an immediate response is required or within 2 business days. Again, it is your responsibility to ensure you receive such communications. You are responsible for the following actions:
1. If the DE office sends you an email that requires important information from you, respond as soon as you receive it.
2. The DE office requires a daytime phone number for you. If it changes, you are required to notify MIU immediately,
3. If you are going to move to a new place, tell us immediately, even before you know your new address. Once your address is known, you must notify MIU immediately
l. DE and Visas: All students who are in internship search are required to be continuously enrolled in a DE course, and be successfully completing each course, in order to stay in status on their F-1 visa. If a student withdraws from a course without written approval from the DE office and as overseen by the MIU visa officer, Maryam Naraghi, that student is no longer eligible for a student visa. In that event, that student will be immediately dismissed from the program, and this will be updated on the USCIS SEVIS database. This approval will only be given is if the student has already taken all DE courses offered at that time and satisfies the requirements addressed in section 7f of this policy manual. It is the responsibility of the student to provide a written request to the DE office for exemption from course participation in a particular term. Contact the DE coordinator, csde@miu.edu, to request any enrollment changes. As always, any changes are your responsibility; otherwise you will be enrolled in, graded for, and billed for the DE course.
If you are employed and, therefore, enrolled in a CPT practicum, you may elect to withdraw from DE enrollment for one course. You are still required to continue with your DE courses in order to graduate by your program end date and within your CPT time limits. Again, if you desire to withdraw from a future enrollment, you must contact the DE coordinator, csde@miu.edu, immediately. The DE office will verify that you are continuing to satisfy the requirements of your visa as well as your MIU academic status. Also, if you skip a course, then MIU cannot guarantee that you will be able to schedule all required courses by your program end date. (Please see the withdrawal policy, section 7f, for details on course withdrawal.)
The ComPro program has just under 2000 students in the DE phase of their studies. Though the DE office makes every attempt to communicate with all current and pending DE students, it is not always possible to oversee and closely monitor the status of each student. Therefore, it is imperative for each student to stay informed on current policies. As an F-1 graduate student in the US, you are responsible for following these policies.
m. DE Success!: Your regular practice of Maharishi Transcendental Meditation is the most important and valuable part of your academic program and of your daily life. It will provide you with the clarity, balance, happiness, creativity, and intelligence required for progress and prosperity in your life. We all know how busy life is, and how many demands you may have on your time and schedule, especially in the highly technical internships in which you are working. It is especially in these challenging situations that your TM practice, and the resulting coherence and increased comprehensive awareness, is most important. No matter what your individual and specific goals are, Maharishi emphasized that hard work is not the way to achieve them, that this approach only leads to more work and increased fatigue and suffering. A more rested, balanced, clear, enlightened person naturally will always be more successful, whether seeking an internship , working in an internship, or engaged in any activity. Whatever you desire, whether it is an internship, money, happiness, health, success, greater consciousness is the way. Any other path will be less successful.