When the LDT online programs first launched, we aimed to deliver and complete our courses in one continuous run. This method was first chosen because most of our online students do not have a full week off from work and their daily lives, and we did not want to interrupt our students’ learning for a vacation period that was a vestige of a traditional residential college setting. However, as time, students, and attitudes changed, we across the University heard the demand for our online students to also have the benefit of a weeklong Spring Break or Thanksgiving Break. Beginning with the Fall 2017 term and continuing forward every fall and spring there is now a one-week break period in March and in November included within all online courses.
Each online course instructor establishes their own expectations for the use of the time during the weeklong break. In general there are no submissions due and no active components of the course running. But there may be assignments that stretch over the break and become due shortly after the break ends. This variety in approaches is the same as what happens in the on-campus setting for Penn State’s courses.
For online courses, the fall and spring terms are each 16 weeks long, with one of those weeks being the break week. Courses, then, are usually 15 weeks of content.
Questions about how the spring or fall break weeks impact your course schedule should be directed to your course instructor.