Develop Summer Classes
Summer Session an important time of the academic year for both students and faculty.
Students are increasingly concerned with completing their degree in less time, and summer is the perfect time to catch up, keep up, and get ahead.
Here are essential resources, strategies, and data to assist you in planning a successful Summer Session that offers unique opportunities with measurable results:
- Understand best practices for online course development
- Find customizable marketing templates for you to promote your summer offerings
- Make note of important dates related to Summer Session
- See campus trends in enrollment and satisfaction
Important Dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Sept. 22, 2023 | TCF deadline |
| Oct. 30, 2023 | Summer registration begins |
| May 4, 2024 | May Session begins |
| May 24, 2024 | May Session ends |
| May 29, 2024 | 1st Summer Session begins |
| June 26, 2024 | 1st Summer Session ends |
| July 1, 2024 | 2nd Summer Session begins |
| July 31, 2024 | 2nd Summer Session ends |
| Aug. 5, 2024 | Summer Grades are due by 12pm |
Course Planning
A successful Summer Session begins with advanced planning, starting as early as the beginning of fall semester. While your previous summer outcomes are fresh in your mind, fall is a great time to assess what went well and what could be improved for the next session.
Reviewing data to help you plan for the next Summer Session is a great place to start.
Planning Tools
- Maximum course and credit load for Summer Session (PDF)
- WSU Academic calendars
- Summer funding share model (PDF)
- HLC Policy: Assignment of credits, program length & tuition (PDF)
- Summer Session Course Scheduling Information (PDF)
Marketing Summer Courses
Getting students excited about your summer offerings will go a long way in generating enrollment. Remember that taking the time to talk to students about Summer Session during advising for Spring and Fall Semesters is one of your best (and simplest) promotional strategies.
In addition to creating your own word-of-mouth, ACE will provide support and opportunities for you to access.
Use our ready-to-use poster template (DOCX) to customize a poster with your course offerings.
Ask for promotional support. If you feel you have some amazing opportunities that students would jump at if they knew of them, contact us using the information below. We can help promote your messaging and increase your exposure to current and visiting students.
ACE has been monitoring and reporting Summer Session data for years. While the initial intent was to measure general results and trends, our data gathering efforts have evolved to a sophisticated set of real-time reports that can be filtered to make our realities evident.
We collect quantitative data by reporting on credit generation and headcount from a variety of views, and we collect qualitative data from students on their priorities and satisfaction with Summer Session. We primarily collect this qualitative data through the University Assessment Day survey.
- Assessment Day 2019 Comprehensive Results (PDF)
- Assessment Day 2019 College of Business Student Responses (PDF)
- Assessment Day 2019 College of Education Student Responses (PDF)
- Assessment Day 2019 College of Liberal Arts Student Responses (PDF)
- Assessment Day 2019 College of Nursing & Health Sciences Student Responses (PDF)
- Assessment Day 2019 College of Science & Engineering Student Responses (PDF)
It is great to see our summer offerings fill within the first couple weeks of registration. This helps indicate what our students want and need in the Summer Session.
The 80-100% full report can help departments make data-driven decisions as courses are filling.
This report gives you real-time information about which courses are full or near full so that you can decide whether to offer another section, and so that delivery preferences can be identified.