World Campus Courses

There is no such thing as a typical online course at Penn State. While many of the courses you will take do share similar components, each course may look different and utilize different methods of instruction and assessment. You would find this in face-to-face courses as well, but it may be less expected in an online classroom. These differences are often in response to the material that you're learning. For example, the components of a chemistry course will differ from those of a history course.

Canvas

As a World Campus student, you won't attend your classes on a brick-and-mortar campus; instead, you'll access your courses through Penn State's course management system, known as Canvas (the same system  you're using to access this course).   This makes knowing your way around inside of Canvas a very important part of your learning experience.  World Campus RSO 101 is located in Canvas for this very reason - so that you have the opportunity to become accustomed to your new online learning environment.  If you would like to access some guided instruction on the use of Canvas you can always look through the World Campus Canvas Orientation Course.

The Academic Calendar

As we mentioned before, your courses, while asynchronous, do follow a calendar. Online courses follow the same academic calendar as the rest of the University. There are 15-week fall and spring semesters as well as 6-, 7-, and 12-week summer courses. To see when each semester begins and ends, view the World Campus academic calendar Links to an external site..