About Online Courses
The EFA provides two types of online courses: traditional and self-paced. Both types are asynchronous, meaning that students don’t need to log in at a certain time or day to attend a class session.
Participants in EFA courses do not receive grades. The EFA does not provide certificates for those who take courses. However, individual instructors may write a letter in response to a request for verification of participation in a course.
Be sure to register with the email address where you wish to receive course messages.
Traditional Courses
Traditional courses are conducted through Sakai, a learning management system (LMS). Via Sakai, enrolled students are sent an email before the course start date that provides login information for the Sakai website. The Sakai Student Quickstart Guide provides a few tips to get you started using the Sakai site. Further help is available to students within the Sakai website.
Instructors post new lessons and assignments once per week during the dates given for each course. Classes do not take place in real time, so you never need to be at your computer at any specific hour. Individual instructors often establish a general posting time for themselves (as in “by 12:00 p.m. Eastern,” and so on), but you can access course materials any time during the course, whenever it is convenient for you. Instructors provide one-on-one feedback in traditional courses, and there is also a student forum. Some also include one or multiple live Q&A sessions with the instructor, via Zoom.
Self-Paced Courses
In self-paced courses, students are given access to all the course content at once, allowing them to move through the lessons at their own pace. These courses typically provide access to the course materials for six months to one year from the start date.
Self-paced courses don’t include one-on-one instructor feedback, but they do provide in-depth lessons. Many of these courses also provide self-assessments (in the form of quizzes and/or sample edits) and at least one live Q&A session with the instructor via Zoom. They’re a low-cost way to learn editorial skills at your own pace.
