Purdue Global guide · Seminars

Purdue Global seminars: live, recorded, and the alternative assignment

The short answer

In Purdue Global's traditional courses, a Seminar is a live, scheduled meeting with your instructor and classmates, held once a week. Attending live lets you take part in the discussion; if you cannot make it, the seminar is recorded so you can review it anytime, but you will not participate live, and your course may ask you to complete an alternative assignment to earn the seminar's credit. So a missed seminar is not a lost week — as long as you do the make-up.

Purdue Global seminars: live, recorded, and the alternative assignment, a Purdue Global student guide, from Purdue Global Tutors
Student guide at Purdue Global, mapped by Purdue Global Tutors.

What a Seminar actually is

A Seminar is the live piece of a Purdue Global traditional course: a scheduled weekly session where the instructor works through the week's material with you and your peers in real time. It sits alongside the readings, learning activities, and graded assignments as its own part of the week.

If you miss the live session

Missing the live seminar is recoverable. The session is recorded, so you can watch it at any point in the course, but you cannot take part in the live discussion after the fact. To earn the seminar's credit when you miss it, your course will usually assign an alternative assignment, so the rule is simple: if you cannot attend live, watch the recording and complete the make-up, do not just skip it.

How ExcelTrack is different

This weekly-seminar rhythm is the traditional format. In ExcelTrack, Purdue Global's competency-based option, courses are built from one-credit modules you complete at your own pace, so the fixed weekly seminar works differently. Know which format your program uses, because the seminar rules only apply to the traditional track.

Where a tutor fits

We help you get value from the material whether or not you make every live seminar: understanding the week's concepts, turning a missed session and its alternative assignment into full credit, and keeping the graded work moving.

Sources and verification

Facts on this page come from official sources; policies change, so confirm the current version in the catalog:

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