Online courses provide the same rigor as in-person courses but offer more flexibility and convenience.
Types of Courses
MSU Denver offers multiple types of fully and partially online courses.
Fully Online Courses
- Asynchronous online courses are completely online. They have no required meeting times.
- Self-paced online courses are asynchronous courses without any due dates (until the end of the semester). Students can work at their own pace.
- Synchronous online courses are fully online, but they have required virtual meetings at set times. For example, you might meet with your professor and classmates over a Microsoft Teams call every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 am to 11 am.
- Hybrid online courses include asynchronous and synchronous components.
- Dual mode courses offer in-person and online versions of the same class section. If you enroll in a dual mode online version of a course, it will be fully online. You will not be able to switch to the in-person option during the semester.
Courses with Online Options
- HyFlex courses offer in-person, asynchronous online, and synchronous online versions of the instruction. You have the flexibility to switch between learning environments throughout the course.
- Similarly, SyncFlex courses offer in-person and synchronous online versions of the instruction. You have the flexibility to switch between learning environments throughout the course.
Partially Online Courses
- Hybrid courses include some in-person and some online activities. You will sometimes need to attend hybrid courses in-person.
Finding Online Programs
To find majors, minors, and certificates that are offered entirely online, refer to the list of Online Undergraduate Programs.
Finding Online Courses
Many programs offer some, but not all, of their classes online. To search for online courses in a given semester:
- Open the Browse Classes tool.
- Select the correct semester from the drop-down menu.
- Click Continue.
- Optional: Type in the Subject and/or Class Number of the course(s) you’re interested in.
- In the Delivery Method field, enter at least one of the online class types listed at the top of this page.
- Click Search.
Look in the “Meeting Times” column to see the specific course type. If the course is listed as “Online” and does not provide specific meeting times, it is asynchronous.
Online Course Fees
The Online Education Program Fee is charged exclusively for online classes at $20 per credit hour. It supports online education and digital learning tools. This means that a 3 credit online course will include an additional $60 fee.
However, if you are registered only for online classes, you will be charged significantly fewer mandatory fees. See Mandatory Fees for details.
Succeeding in the Online Environment
The Tips for Online Students page contains excellent advice for being successful in your online courses.