Welcome to Criswell College’s Teaching Institution webpage. Below, please find information on relevant resources and policies established at Criswell College.
Criswell College enters into course-sharing agreements with other institutions primarily to provide Criswell College students with opportunities to increase the pace at which they are completing degree programs and to broaden the exposure of students to topics in their academic disciplines (see Course Sharing: Home Institution policy on the website under Academic Policies). These course-sharing agreements also allow Criswell College to expand its influence on and engagement with the academic community by providing opportunities for students enrolled at other institutions to take courses offered by Criswell College faculty. In this case, students remain enrolled as degree-seeking students at their Home Institution, while taking a course offered by Criswell College as the Teaching Institution.
Computer Information and FAQs
For the best online experience, Criswell College recommends that students have the following technology to take the courses.
High-Speed Internet Connection (e.g., DSL or Cable): Online students are encouraged to have a stable, high-speed internet connection, especially for online meetings, exams, and assignment submissions. The recommendation is to use a computer five years old or newer with at least 16 GB of RAM along with a minimum internet speed of 512 kbps.
Personal Computer Specifications: Criswell College recommends that students have access to a personal computer that meets the following specifications:
| PROCESSOR | Intel i7 or equivalent |
| MINIMUM RAM | 16 gb |
| PREFERRED RAM | 32 gb |
| HD CAPACITY | 1 tb |
| MINIMUM HD | 7200 rpm |
| PREFERRED HD | SSD |
| VIDEO | Nvidia or AMD |
| OPERATING SYSTEMS | Windows: 9 or later
Mac: MacOS 10.11 or higher
|
| SUPPORTED WEB BROWSERS |
The most recent versions of:
Chrome Firefox 120 Extended Releases are not supported*) Edge 122 Safari 16 | 17 (Macintosh only) |
| WEB CAMERA AND MICROPHONE | These must be on for the entirety of video conferencing meetings. |
Criswell Resources and Support
Student Services: The Student Services Office exists to foster and encourage success in the courses provided at Criswell College. Students are encouraged to reach out for assistance by contacting the office at 214.821.5433 or studentservices@criswell.edu. Please identify yourself as an Acadeum student.
Tutoring Center: Students are encouraged to consult with tutors to improve and enhance their skills. For more information and to schedule an appointment, please email tutoringcenter@criswell.edu or call 214.818.1373.
Criswell College’s Policies
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) ACCOMMODATIONS:
Criswell College strives to meet the needs of all students. Any student who has disabilities that require accommodations for the course should have their Home Institution contact Criswell’s Acadeum Student Contact at acadeum@criswell.edu.
PARTICIPATION, ATTENDANCE, AND IDENTIFICATION POLICY
Participation:
Students are responsible for participating in academically related activities as identified in online-course schedules, including “live” (synchronous) class sessions conducted remotely by video. Academically related activity is defined as any course-related activity used as evidence of attendance. Examples include:
- participation in a “live” (synchronous) remote video class session with the instructor present;
- submission of an academic assignment, quiz, or exam;
- participation in an interactive tutorial or computer-assisted instruction;
- participation in an online study group or discussion board that is assigned by the instructor;
- documentation showing that the student and a faculty member corresponded about the academic subject of the course.
NOTE: Logging into a Canvas course alone or logging into a Synchronous Online class session without active participation or with the camera off is not considered attendance.
Attendance:
- Criswell College must demonstrate that students begin their courses to comply with external agencies’ attendance requirements. Accordingly, students must participate in academically related activities during the first two weeks of spring and fall semesters, or during the first week of summer terms. Failure to meet this requirement will result in students being administratively dropped from courses.
- Students receiving grants, loans, or scholarships must contact the appropriate departments at their Home Institution to determine any specific course participation requirements and consequences of not meeting such requirements. Failure to do so could result in the forfeiture of these funds.
- When unavoidable situations result in absence or tardiness, students are responsible for acquiring any missed information. Professors are not obligated to allow students to make up missed work.
- Individual professors determine how attendance affects students’ ability to meet course learning objectives and whether attendance affects course grades. Professors apprise students of such information in course syllabi.
Identity Verification:
Students enrolled in online courses must verify their identity throughout the term for each course. Identity confirmation occurs through scheduled video conference calls, scheduled submission of assignments, quizzes or exams, participation in online discussions, student/instructor communication, and a picture ID submitted in the Canvas profile. For instructions on how to upload a profile picture, click here.
CANVAS
Criswell College uses Canvas as its web-based Learning Management System (LMS). A Criswell Canvas account will be provided by the College, for which students will receive a Criswell login upon enrollment in a course. For help with Canvas access problems, contact Criswell’s IT Help Desk at ithelpdesk@criswell.edu.
In online courses at Criswell College, instructors use Canvas to:
- organize course content on a module basis using organizational tools within Canvas,
- control the timing of course requirements through module control or assignment due dates to ensure that students are engaged for the full length of the semester or term,
- accept assignments from students only inside the Canvas course (emailed assignments are not acceptable),
- provide written feedback on assignments only within Canvas, preferably through Speedgrader,
- use the Announcement or e-mail feature in Canvas to communicate with the students rather than by broadcasting to a class email listserv outside of Canvas,
- use Zoom in Canvas for all “live” (synchronous) class sessions.
To meet 25-30% of the direct faculty interaction required by the College’s Credit Hour Policy, instructors and all students enrolled in an online course meet at scheduled class times throughout a semester/term using the video-conferencing app, Zoom, found in the left-hand global menu in Canvas. Student cameras must remain on during the entirety of these video-conferencing sessions.
To be properly identified, students must have a picture ID uploaded to their Canvas Account Profile prior to the first online meeting. For instructions on how to upload a profile picture, click here.
The remaining direct faculty instruction is delivered using other means such as:
- Lectures/instruction for students to watch at their convenience but in accordance with assignment due dates
- Online content modules in which the instructor provides feedback to student work
- Tests/quizzes on which the instructor provides feedback
- Discussion boards on which the instructor provides feedback
The link to the Canvas system is https://criswell.instructure.com/.
Once you have a Criswell Canvas account, learn the basics of Canvas through the training course at https://criswell.instructure.com/courses/986.
Students needing assistance with Canvas should contact the Canvas Help Support line (844) 358-6140. Tech support is available at this number twenty-four hours a day.
When in Canvas, students can chat with a Canvas Tech representative by clicking Criswell Canvas Help at the bottom of the left-hand menu.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Academic honesty is essential to the integrity of the College’s academic programs and to the success of its students. Defining and addressing academic dishonesty helps to ensure the maintenance of academic honesty among students.
Academic honesty is the application of the principle of truth in the classroom setting. Academic honesty includes the basic premise that all work submitted by students must be their own and any ideas derived or copied from elsewhere must be carefully documented.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to:
- cheating of any kind,
- submitting, without proper approval, work originally prepared by the student for another course,
- plagiarism, which is the submitting of work prepared by someone else as if it were his own and failing to credit sources properly in written work.
FERPA POLICY
To review the privacy rights of all eligible students at Criswell College, please click here.
GRADING POLICIES
At the end of the term, your final course grade will be shared with your Home Institution to be added to your official transcript. Criswell College will post grades to the Acadeum website within 10 days after the conclusion of the course as per the Acadeum recommendations.
NOTE: No end-of-semester extensions (i.e., “Incompletes”) will be granted for students taking Criswell College courses through Acadeum.
TEXTBOOKS
The course syllabi will have the specific information you need for required books for each course. You can use your preferred retail book seller to purchase the books, including Amazon.com or Abebooks.com. Make note of the specific publication information found in the syllabus for each textbook (e.g., publishing date, edition, and version) so that you get the right version.
