Quality Courses

Content, Presence, Engagement

What is a quality course?

A quality online course utilizes a variety of instructional strategies to guide learners as a cohort toward a sophisticated and enduring understanding of a subject and its applications. The instructor provides in-course mechanisms for student reflection on course content and learning experience, for situating the learning in a personalized context responsive to individuals and cultures, and for monitoring  progress. The instructor also works in real-time with students, providing timely feedback, moderating student communications, problem-solving, and collaborative work. Instructors are involved and responsive facilitators of understanding throughout the learning experience.

If this sounds too esoteric or abstract, that's OK! CTL exists to fuse pedagogy into course design and delivery. The checklist is a good place to start your exploration.

How can I create a quality course?

As the instructor of an online course, you are designing the curriculum and (virtual) classroom as well as delivering course materials and facilitating student understanding through interaction and feedback. While this is no different from your leadership in a face-to-face class, the online environment may break the various components of teaching -- for example, design and delivery of a course -- into somewhat distinct pieces. In a quality online course, you are attentive to the various pieces as well as their relationships to one another, i.e. the student's experience of a cohesive, facilitated learning experience.

As the creator of an online course, you will want to consider:

Course Planning Basics

In accordance with 有料盒子视频 Faculty Senate policy, every online course provides a syllabus that includes all Faculty Senate requirements. Other elements expected in an online course can be found in the checklist, including:

  1. Welcome letter or equivalent and a Getting Started Area;
  2. Making contact and first assignment assignments;
  3. Clear unit objectives;
  4. Clear assignments in terms of content or submission process;
  5. Explicit methods for specific, detailed feedback on assignments and activities;
  6. Assignment and/or unit due dates or at least a suggested schedule;
  7. A process for documented submission of lessons (email does not meet this requirement);
  8. A grading mechanism that allows students to verify their progress;
  9. Clear policy regarding response time and individual provisos;
  10. Instructor insight/presence in a course in the form of notes, original multimedia materials, or other forms as identified by an Instructional Designer;
  11. Opportunities for student reflection;
  12. Assessments matching unit objectives and course outcomes;
  13. Material meeting requirements of copyright law and Fair Use doctrine.

Planning for Quality

High quality courses often look different from one another, valuing internal consistency over uniformity. That said, the second section of the document outlines, with links to further resources and explanations, feature commonly found in courses that facilitate rich learning experiences, including things like:

  1. Instructor introduction and opportunity for students to introduce themselves;
  2. Active learning opportunities;
  3. Support for learner-to-learner engagement and collaboration;
  4. Integration of student experience through context- and place-based learning;
  5. Objectives and assessments that are aligned with each other...and the content and activities of the course.
  6. Design for accessibility and according to principles of Universal Design

See more in the  checklist.

Engagement, Collaboration, & Feedback

Instructional strategies may vary but effective online classes feature learner interaction with the instructor, with other learners, and ideally, with the larger community of interest in the field. Student collaboration on such things as project-based assignments and place-based, contextual activities is highly encouraged. At the very least, quality online courses must provide some way that students are visible to one another in order that they may form their own connections. A mechanism for this is automatically provided in the classroom of any in-person class but must be purposefully constructed in an online course.

Reflection

Student reflection is an important part of academic success. Reflection may take one of many forums, such as:

  • reflection on their own learning and learning experience,
  • reflection on the real-world relevance and application of what they are learning,
  • meta-reflection on the learning materials, strategies, and structure employed in the course itself.

Read more about facilitating learner reflection.

 

Situated Learning

Learning at all levels is most productive when it is situated in the student's current and/or future context. Quality online courses should help students understand how the concepts in this course are applicable in and to the following, as appropriate:

  • the real world,
  • the academic sequence,
  • the discipline, and
  • the profession

Progress Awareness

Students taking online courses benefit when they can track their progress through the course. The most common strategy that instructors use for student-tracking is to provide access to their grades in an online gradebook. In this case, assignment submission, evaluation, and feedback are made visible and retraceable online, rather than through private emails.

Questions and Considerations

The instructor-as-leader does not have to -- and should not -- go it alone.  有料盒子视频 CTL provides faculty support at every step of the teaching process, from design and delivery through appraisal and revision. Check our Event Calendar for opportunities to get help with your course, or simply contact us.

Research Foundations

SYLLABUS REQUIREMENTS
有料盒子视频 Faculty Senate Requirements. (2013). Retrieved from 有料盒子视频 Governance website.

INSTRUCTOR PRESENCE
Lehman, R. M. & Concei脙搂脙拢o, S. C. O. (2010). . 26th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. Madison, WI. (note: search for distance OR CTL course + 鈥渨elcome letter')

WELCOME MESSAGES
Mensch, S. and Ali, A. (2007). . Issues in Information Systems, 8(2), 224-228.

PLATFORM/PROTOCOL/PEDAGOGY
Gibson, J. and Blackwell, C. (2005). . Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 2(10), 7-12. (See Figure 1: Suggested Protocols for Faculty)

Paechter, M., Maier, B., & Macher, D. (2010). Computers & Education, 54(1), 222-229.

Cavanaugh, T., Lamkin, M. L., & Hu, H. (2012). . Journal Of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(4), 39-44.

Further Resources