Academic Q & A’s for Prospective Online Students
How do I get academic advising from a distance?
The Academic Coordinator for your program is the best person to help you develop a degree roadmap, monitor your progress, and make recommendations. He/she can provide advice on course selection, course equivalency substitutions, course prerequisites, academic requirements (university, school/college, department), and graduation checks. They will also advise you on University procedures, including registration and enrollment, transcript evaluation, fee payments, drop/add, incompletes, grade appeal, cancellation/withdrawal, and readmission.
Additionally, a professor or mentor will help you master course material in your online courses. In courses with smaller enrollments, the professor or instructor will be your immediate contact -- answering your questions about course content and course procedures through e-mail, phone, discussion boards, and other communication tools. In courses with larger enrollments, faculty members oversee mentors who will respond to all your queries and make frequent contact with you throughout the semester. Mentors are content experts who serve as learning guides and tutors, and are trained to motivate and monitor your progress.
How do I obtain my course materials?
Books and Materials required for each course will be listed on the Course Section Detail of the Course Lookup Search results on the Registrar's website once the instructor has specified the Title(s) to be used, with a link to "Buy/Rent Materials For This Course" beneath. Clicking on that link will open a window to the Florida State University Bookstore with the materials selected.
You may also visit the FSU Bookstore directly and search by Course for a list of all required materials. The options to rent or choose ebooks (digital versions of traditional textbooks) will be displayed in the course material search results when available. Students are required to pay for shipping of rented or purchased traditional textbooks. Purchased textbooks may only be returned in person at the end of the semester. If you are receiving financial aid, you will have the option to defer payment until financial aid is received during checkout during the deferment window (usually 2 weeks prior to the beginning of the start of the semester through the first week of the semester) and the cost of your materials will be deducted from your financial aid disbursement along with your tuition. The FSU Bookstore offers CafeScribe to students utilizing digital textbooks, which allows you to share notes, highlight, and bookmark text as well as easily perform content searches and create customized study guides. For more information about obtaining your course materials from the FSU Bookstore, visit their FAQs section.
FSU students may also find their course materials via searching by course schedule through Bill's Bookstore . Bill's (powered by Neebo) offers free shipping on traditional textbooks and nearly all materials are available for rental. Digital versions of textbooks will be displayed in the search results when available and may include a facilitator platform similar to CafeScribe such as Connect Plus. Bill's allows the deferral of costs due to financial aid arrangements on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Bill's Bookstore at (850) 576-9643 to request a deferral if necessary prior to purchasing your materials.
How will I get library materials and use library resources from a distance?
FSU Libraries provide distance students with a variety of online resources, including interlibrary loan and access to hundreds of databases. Many library services and resources are available online.
If you live within 50 miles of one of the state of Florida universities or community colleges, that library will be your primary research facility. Simply present your FSUCard to access resources (including interlibrary lending) and borrow material. (Lending policies at each institution may vary.)
If you live beyond 50 miles of a State University System Library, the FSU Library will be your primary lender. If your primary library does not have or cannot borrow materials you request, the FSU Library will mail materials to you (such as books, articles, newspapers, etc.) without charge.
Regardless of where you live, the FSU Library website connects you to:
- Hundreds of databases, including LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe
- Selected online journals covering various academic disciplines
- NetLibrary, which delivers selected books in electronic form
- Forms for online interlibrary loan (ILL)
- Renewal requests
- Reference librarians who will guide you through research and answer any library-related question
If I am an online student, can I take campus classes? If I am a campus student, may I take online classes?
Although some online learners can self-register for an on-campus class without any status or coding changes, most will need to contact our office. There are two types of fully online classes offered at FSU:
Online degree program classes - These classes are restricted to students officially designated as online degree program students. Students who have previously taken their classes face-to-face but find they can no longer continue for a variety of reasons (relocation, job/personal conflicts) will need to request permission to change from “main campus” status to “distance learning” status. Students wishing to switch major to an online degree completion program should contact the academic coordinator in their specific department. Be aware that online degree program classes charge an additional fee.
Miscellaneous/Elective online classes - Some academic departments offer an online class here and there that is not part of an online degree program. These classes are available to any student. These courses sometimes charge an additional fee. For a listing of online classes you should use the general “course-lookup” function from the registrar’s page. Don’t forget to select Distance Learning as an optional search.
What if I am not a degree-seeking student and want to take online courses?
What happens if I apply too late to be fully admitted as a degree-seeking student, or perhaps I just want to try a course or two to see if I like online learning? You can register for many classes as a non-degree seeking student.
The academic department may permit a non-degree seeking student to transfer up to 15 undergraduate credit hours (those classes with a C or above) or up to 12 graduate credit hours (those classes with a B or above) into a degree program at FSU. The department and academic dean must approve the transfer of these hours into the degree program, however, so we recommend that you contact the departmental advisor before taking classes if you are considering this option. Keep in mind that some courses may be restricted to majors only.
If you are interested in finding out more about non-degree student status, please contact our office for further information.
