Building Best Practices In Online Courses Summer Institute 2003

The Quest for Quality/Best Practices

“A Web page could be both relevant to your topic and accurate, but may not be useful by the target audience you want to use it with. If it is pure text with no interactivity, you may not want to use it.” Source:”Project Merlot: Bring Peer Review to Web-based Educational Resources,” Ralph Cafolla, Ed.D. A Question of Effectiveness

Why Develop/Study Quality Standards in Online Learning? Measuring and improving online instruction Ensuring well-designed sites Learning effectiveness Accreditation purposes Recognize excellence in teaching Faculty development/continuous improvement Student satisfaction rates Graduation and retention rates

1. Good practice encourages student-faculty contact 2. Good practice encourages cooperation among students 3. Good practice encourages active learning 4. Good practice gives prompt feedback 5. Good practice emphasizes time on task 6. Good practice communicates high expectations 7. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning “ Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education” Chickering and Gamson, 1987 What is the lesson for online instruction in each of these?

Best Practice Frameworks WebCT Exemplary Course Project Florida Gulf Coast University Michigan Virtual University Standards for Quality in Online Classes UT Telecampus Principles of Good Practice For a more complete listing and comparison of different frameworks, visit (Evaluation of Quality in Online Learning

Evaluating Quality in Your Online Course: A Course Review Rubric Metropolitan State University, Keinath and Blicker, 2003 Intended to guide review of the course site, not the content on the course Primarily used to date to assess course readiness on newly developed courses Focus on structure of the site, usability and pedagogical practices Although developed independently, rubric is highly congruent with other models for assessing quality For a more complete listing and comparison of different frameworks, visit (Evaluation of Quality in Online Learning

1. Course Design 2. Assessment of Student Performance 3. Learner Support/Feedback 4. Learning Community 5. Pedagogical Practices 6. Use of Technology The Practice Elements in the Metropolitan State University Rubric

1. Course Design The Practice Elements in the Metropolitan State University Rubric Sub-Elements: Course Information and Objectives Context for Course Content Appearance and Presentation of Material Navigation Accessibility (ADA compliance)

2. Assessment of Student Performance The Practice Elements in the Metropolitan State University Rubric Sub-Elements: Type and Variety of Assessments Used Assignments Quizzes and Exams

3. Student Support/Feedback The Practice Elements in the Metropolitan State University Rubric Sub-Elements: Feedback Methods Student Grades Learning Support/Resources

4. Learning Community The Practice Elements in the Metropolitan State University Rubric Sub-Elements: Interaction and Participation

5. Pedagogical Practices The Practice Elements in the Metropolitan State University Rubric Sub-Elements: Instructional Design/Activities

6. Use of Technology The Practice Elements in the Metropolitan State University Rubric Sub-Elements: Use of inherent web course tools Use of Instructional Media

What’s different for the student? Lesley Blicker, IMS Faculty Expert Office of Instructional Technology