We're in an Online Course Quality Revolution!



Just last year, we began the hard work of making some changes and improvements to a course quality model and training sequence that was being used on campus to assess online courses & support our online faculty. It was a great model--one of the better models, in fact, that I've seen in quite some time. I wanted to really tie together the assessment and training pieces in a way that had an impact. I strove to find a way to really dig into the core concepts of what research said was "quality online teaching". (If you're interested, these are the 5 topics we arrived at after much work & rework: Course Organization & Design; Accessibility & Usability; Student Assessment; Communication & Community Building; and Interactivity) 
By nature each has some cross-over, and when our first iteration of an online, self-paced workshop rolled out with these modules, I found that #1 We'd hit the nail on the head, and #2 our faculty learn FAST and generalize FASTER. Let me explain.
Much like factor analysis conceptually, I started with a large number of high level as well as granular concepts in online learning that were critical to success, and worked from this large # to a smaller number to make a workable, bite-sized set of content that I hoped fervently our faculty would not just "get" but would WANT to implement. They did...and then some. What we've seen happen in the span of the 17 months I've been at my new campus is astounding. I'm talking transformation at the most incredible level in each of the 5 elements listed above. I'm truly blown away. But you know what else I am? Astounded. Excited. And yes, so much more than proud of these faculty. This week (and the last 2) have been major reviewing weeks for myself and one of my team members, where we've been assessing and providing feedback on many courses across the academic disciplines. I am truly blown away with where we are now, barely more than a year into our work under our new program. They've taken the core we presented them with and have done exactly what I had hoped-made it their own. They picked up the concepts and immediately applied them outside of their online courses under review, and now, we're in an online course quality revolution, so-to-speak! I'm anti-cookie cutter versions of online courses, as being a tremendous proponent of academic freedom I truly see and assert (read: work to protect) individual faculty expression. I certainly expect to be able to do so in my own courses. What I do see with the development of standardized guidelines and provision of exemplary course models (we call these "templates"), though, is this incredible transformation and leaps forward in utilizing the tools available that have moved our courses, our programs, our faculty, and our campus into a whole new league. 18 years in online learning and this may be one of the most exciting changes I've witnessed at one of my own campuses. Our faculty are truly incredible and we're on this incredible path that I'm excited to be here for. Can't wait to see what happens next.

~Sherri

#higher education #teachingonline #onlinelearning #coastalonline

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