2. Building Best Practices In Online Courses Summer Institute 2003

7. The Quest for Quality/Best Practices

8. “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

9. 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

10. 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?

11. 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 www.oit.mnscu.edu/pages/resources.html (Evaluation of Quality in Online Learning www.oit.mnscu.edu/pages/resources.html

12. 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 www.oit.mnscu.edu/pages/resources.html (Evaluation of Quality in Online Learning www.oit.mnscu.edu/pages/resources.html

13. 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

14. 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)

15. 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

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

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

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

19. 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

20. What’s different for the student? Lesley Blicker, IMS Faculty Expert Office of Instructional Technology lesley.blicker@csu.mnscu.edu 651-632-5031