Distance Education FAQs

To change program modality, current undergraduates must follow the program/department’s change of major request process. At present, Online Academic Credit is assisting with this process for these specific programs: Online Political Science, B.A., Online Professional Studies, B.S., and Online Sociology, B.A.

• Current graduate students complete an “Other Non-Course Related” Academic Petition explaining the desire to change from on campus to online (or vice versa).
• New students, those who have been admitted but have not yet begun classes, can simply send an email to the appropriate admissions office (admissions@uncc.edu for undergraduate; gradcounselor@uncc.edu for graduate students; readmission@uncc.edu for readmitted students) stating the desire to change modalities.
  • Please note: It is important that the staffer who makes the change receives the correct program and campus codes for the student’s new program. If the student is moving to a distance education program (either online or at an off-campus site), the program code will end in “-DE” and the campus will be “D.” If the student is moving to an on-campus program, the program code will not end in “-DE” and the campus code will be “M.”

The UNC Board of Governors has determined that students in distance education programs “will be assessed [only] certain mandatory fees.” These per-semester fees include “the campus security, educational and technology, and association of student government fees” (UNC Policy Manual 1000.1.2[IV][A]) as well as the 49er ID Card fee. These fees are fewer in number and lower in cost when compared with the fees charged to students in non-distance education programs. Because students in distance education programs are not required to pay fees for such services as transportation, health, and food services facilities, they are not entitled to make use of these services. When a student changes from an on-campus version of a program to an online program and has already paid fees for the semester, the student will receive a refund for the following fees: Transportation Misc., Health Services, Food Service Facilities Misc., University Fees, and Health Insurance Premium. When a student changes from an online version of a program to an on-campus version of the same program, the following fees will be added to the student’s bill for the semester: Transportation Misc., Health Services, Food Service Facilities Misc., University Fees, and Health Insurance Premium. For a description of the above fees, review the Explanation of Fees.

Change of programs–if approved–may be completed the same day or can take up to 3 weeks. The student may check their Unofficial Transcript through Banner Self Service or DegreeWorks to see if the change is complete.

Yes, as long as you are willing and able to come to campus and participate according to the class requirements. When UNC Charlotte advertises a program as “online,” it means you can complete the program without having to take a face-to-face course on campus. It does not mean that you have to take every course online. In fact, many Charlotte courses are only offered face-to-face, on-campus.

The answer to this question depends on what one means by “on-campus.”

• Online courses labeled with a campus of “M” are sometimes called “on-campus online;” but don’t let that name fool you. If the course is online; for DE, it’s fine. Regardless of whether an online course is labeled with a campus of “M” (representing Main or Dubois campuses) or a “D” (representing distance education), students in distance education (aka “DE” or “D-campus”) programs are allowed to take it. There is no overarching reason for distance education students to be limited solely to online courses that bear the D campus label.
• If, on the other hand, “on-campus” really refers to “a face-to-face or hybrid course that takes place (at least some of the time) in a campus classroom,” there are some limitations. Distance education programs are planned in such a way that less than 20% of the program’s total credits need to be taken in person on campus. In other words, students in a 30-hour master’s program could take up to 5 credits face to face on campus while students in a bachelor’s degree program (120 hours) could take up to 23 credits. Distance education students who think they may exceed these limits should discuss exceptions with their advisor.

In the student information system (Banner) all courses are coded with a campus of either M (Main Campus or Dubois Campus) or D (Distance Education). This code signifies the intent of the department offering the course. D-campus courses were created with the intention of being used to fulfill requirements of D-campus programs (online and off-campus, site-based programs, also known as “distance education” or “DE” programs). Similarly, courses with a campus of M were created primarily for on-campus programs. While any given section may have special restrictions that limit who can register for that specific section, the association of a course with a campus (M or D) does not generally mean that only students from programs with the same campus designation may take them. Main campus students can register for D-campus courses, and vice versa, although some restrictions on the course may require a student to have authorization to register.

Yes, the opposite is also true: students in on-campus programs are not, as a rule, barred from courses coded with a campus of “D”. This is because the student’s bill is based on the campus associated with the student’s primary program, not the campus associated with the individual course section the student is taking. Please note: Students in D-campus programs may sometimes be given first priority in D-campus course registration.

The UNC Board of Governors has determined that students in distance education programs “will be assessed [only] certain mandatory fees.” These per-semester fees include “the campus security, educational and technology, and association of student government fees” (UNC Policy Manual 1000.1.2[IV][A]) as well as the 49er ID Card fee. These fees are fewer in number and lower in cost when compared with the fees charged to students in non-distance education programs. Because students in distance education programs are not required to pay fees for such things as athletics, recreation, student organizations, transportation, health services, and food services facilities, they are not entitled to make use of these services.

Students in online and off-campus, site-based programs have access to all of the support services and resources. However, students whose primary program is a distance education program are generally not charged the following fees: Transportation Misc., Health Services, Food Service Facilities Misc., and University Fees. The Explanation of Fees FAQ lists the “services and activities” funded by those and other fees. According to the UNC Policy Manual (1000.1.2[IV][A]), students “will not have access to … services and activities supported by” the fees they did not pay.

Yes, for a fee. Contact University Recreation (u_rec@uncc.edu or 704-687-1385) for more information.

Yes, for a fee. Contact the Student Health Center (studenthealth@uncc.edu or 704-687-7400) for more information.

Niner Transit bus service is fare-free for all; no UNC Charlotte ID is required to ride. Visit Parking and Transportation for more information on routes and hours of operation. Students and members of the public who have not purchased a meal plan pay the door rate at SoVi and Crown Commons. Additional retail dining options are scattered across campus. Check Dine On Campus to see what is open right now.

Student fees are based on the student’s primary program. So, if a student’s primary program is a distance education program, the student is charged “distance education” fees which are fewer in number and lower in cost than those fees charged to “on-campus” programs. However, if a student is in multiple programs and one of those programs is an on-campus program, the on-campus program is usually the primary program, and the student is charged the full set of mandatory fees (UNC Policy Manual 1000.1.2[IV][A]).

• If your primary program is a “distance education” program but you were charged “on-campus” fees, contact Niner Central to have your bill reviewed.
• If you are in multiple programs and you believe the wrong one has been labeled primary, use the table below to determine the appropriate office to contact.

Program priority is usually set or updated as part of admissions and graduation processes and requires no manual adjustment. When students are in multiple programs, the following guidelines generally determine which program is labeled as primary:

• For undergraduates, the first program to which a student is admitted is usually primary.
• For graduate students, the program level usually determines primacy. For example, if a student is in a doctoral program and a graduate certificate, the doctoral program is the primary. Undergraduates who have received early admission to a graduate program are the exception to this rule. For these “early entry” students, the undergraduate program remains primary until the student graduates from that program at which time the graduate level program becomes primary.
• For students in both an on-campus program and an online or off-campus, site-based program, the on-campus program is primary.

To look up a student’s primary program, refer to the priority field by the program name on the SGASTDN screen (Learner tab) in Banner. The program with the lowest priority number (usually 1) is the student’s primary.

Program priority is set/updated as part of admissions and graduation processes and does not normally need manual review. Use the table below to determine the appropriate contact when a review is nevertheless warranted.

Online program and on-campus program students can be differentiated by the campus and program codes. Online and site-based programs have a campus code of “D” (for Distance Education) while all other programs are assigned a campus code of “M” (for Main Campus or Dubois Campus). In addition, the program codes themselves differ by campus. (At present, the codes for all programs with a campus of “D” end with “-DE”.)

• Some reports and Banner screens only display the campus of the student’s primary program, so it is important to understand exactly what data one is viewing. If a student is in multiple programs, each program will have an associated campus code, and the campus code may differ across programs. But, if the campus of the primary program is being displayed, the campus will be the same regardless of the program displayed.
• When a single major is offered both as an on-campus program and as a DE program, the program codes will differ (e.g., EMGT-MS vs. EMGT-MS-DE), but the name associated with those programs will be the same in Banner (e.g., Engineering Management-MS).

The process varies depending on the student’s circumstances.
An undergraduate who is currently enrolled follows the department’s change of major request process which is outlined here. At present, Online Academic Credit is assisting with this process for these specific programs: Online Political Science, B.A., Online Professional Studies, B.S., and Online Sociology, B.A..

• Continuing graduate students complete an “Other Non-Course Related” Academic Petition explaining the desire to change from on campus to online (or vice versa).
• New students (those who have been admitted but have not yet begun classes) can simply send an email to the appropriate admissions office (admissions@uncc.edu for undergraduate; gradcounselor@uncc.edu for graduate students; readmission@uncc.edu for readmitted students) stating the desire to change modalities.
  • Please note: It is important that the staffer who makes the change receives the correct program and campus codes for the student’s new program. If the student is moving to a distance education program (either online or at an off-campus site), the program code will end in “-DE” and the campus will be “D.” If the student is moving to an on-campus program, the program code will not end in “-DE” and the campus code will be “M.”

“DE” stands for “distance education,” a term commonly used to describe educational situations in which the student(s) and the instructor(s) are separated by space and/or time. Often the term is used to describe online courses and programs, delivered either synchronously or asynchronously.

• At UNC Charlotte and in the UNC System in general, courses and programs offered at off-campus sites are also often included under this umbrella term.
• Programs designated as a distance education at UNC Charlotte meet the criteria set by the UNC Board of Governors for being able to charge “distance education fees,” a subset of the fees normally charged by on-campus programs (UNC Policy Manual 1000.1.2[IV][A]).
• While these programs may sometimes include on-campus, face-to-face instruction, 80% or more of the program’s total credits must come from online or site-based courses.

A site code is a three-letter designation that is assigned to a student’s Banner record indicating the off-campus location where the student’s cohort will receive at least some of the program’s courses in a face-to-face format. The Master’s in School Administration and its counterpart post-Master’s certificate, for example, are offered using these off-campus sites with cohorts running at multiple sites in the same semester. The site code makes it possible to determine which students are at which location. The site code is set at admission.

• Prior to Fall 2022, the presence of a site code was intended to have a secondary purpose: to indicate that the student was in a “distance education” program. Under this scheme, students in online programs were assigned a site code of ONL.
• This scheme, however, had numerous flaws, was unreliable, and has now been abandoned. While automated processes may continue to copy the ONL site code forward in student records, the code is no longer relevant and should be ignored.

No. Departmental course builders can now create a single course. If the online section is anticipated to be primarily used by students in a D-campus (i.e., online or site-based) program, then the section should be associated with a campus of D. Otherwise, the section’s campus can be set to M.
If there is a need to give a particular population of students priority in registration (i.e., to prevent students who are not in that special group from filling the section before those who need it most have had a chance to register), Banner provides a number of ways of achieving this goal including the ability to reserve a set number of seats for multiple populations and/or restricting the population(s) that can register for the section. The School of Professional Studies recommends departmental course builders choose the method(s) that

• Minimize the steps students must take to register for the section
• Maximizes overall student enrollment in the section without turning away the students who need it most (i.e., students whose curriculum requires the course for graduation and students who must use the section’s particular modality)
• Achieves programmatic and departmental goals with the least monitoring and intervention possible once registration begins

D-campus programs can contact DistanceEd@uncc.edu in the School of Professional Studies for advice on how to achieve this. For general course-building and registration guidance and support, contact the Office of the Registrar.