How Self-paced Courses Work
Correspondence Courses
When you enroll in a correspondence course, you will receive a printed course manual that contains all of your lessons, assignments, and instructions. Your enrollment begins on the day we receive your payment. We recommend that you order the textbooks and materials required for the course from Friday Center Books & Gifts (see Textbooks).
Once you receive your textbooks, you can begin submitting assignments. Your work will be routed through our office, where Credit Programs for Part-time Students staff will record receipt of your assignments and forward your work to your instructor. Your instructor will return your graded assignments to our office, and we will forward them to you. When you have submitted all assignments, you may schedule the supervised final exam (see Final Examinations).
Note: The number of assignments you may submit at one time is limited (see Restrictions, Time Limits, Expirations).
E-mailing Assignments in Correspondence Courses
The assignments for a limited number of correspondence courses can be sent and received via e-mail. If you wish to use e-mail to send assignments and receive them back from your instructor, contact ceadvising@unc.edu to determine if this option is available for your course. If so, complete information will be sent to you with your enrollment materials.
Online Courses
When you enroll in an online course, you will receive information on how to access the Web pages that contain all of your lessons, assignments, and instructions. Once you order and receive your textbooks, you can begin work. In most cases, you will e-mail your assignments to your instructor and to Credit Programs for Part-time Students at the same time. In some cases you must submit assignments via US mail.
To enroll in an online course, you must have a computer, e-mail, access to the World Wide Web, and a Web browser the equivalent of Netscape 4.61 or higher, or Internet Explorer Version 5 or higher.
For visually impaired students: The course pages are developed to be accessible to JAWS 3.7 or similar screen readers. We encourage you to self-identify so that we can make reasonable accommodations for your needs.
We recommend that your equipment have at least the following specifications:
- computer: 486 IBM-compatible or equivalent Macintosh
- memory: 8 megabytes RAM
- modem: 33,600 baud.
Your Instructor
Your instructor will guide you through the course and will be your primary contact as you complete your work. If you have questions about any of the course assignments, you will contact your instructor.
At certain times of the year, instructors may not be available for rapid grading of assignments and exams. This is particularly true during winter holidays, near the end of terms, and in the summer months (see Restrictions, Time Limits, and Expirations).