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Issue Contents Online Courses Lead the Way in Quality Assurance Ron Legon
Paradoxically, while the rapid growth of online education has generated quality concerns, online instruction has actually advanced the art of quality assurance in higher education. Of course, colleges and universities have always prided themselves on the quality of their efforts, but what has changed over time is the type of evidence that is regarded as conclusive indicators of quality. In the mid-twentieth century, the main evidence used to substantiate educational quality was the caliber of admitted students, the credentials and accomplishments of the faculty, the size of the library, the endowment and the annual budget, and the condition of the physical plant. Today, we would refer to these indicators as "inputs" and, while by no means ignored or dismissed as irrelevant, they are increasingly relegated to a supporting role in the quest for credible evidence of institutional quality. What has emerged in the past thirty years is a concern about "outcomes" and "outputs". Schools have always touted the success of their graduates, but now course completion rates, graduation rates, time to degree, and various forms of student satisfaction have become the new benchmarks of quality. This emphasis is evident, for example, in the recent report of the Spelling Commission [1]. Curiously, neither of these two approaches to quality assurance actually measures what occurs during the educational process. Instead, the "inputs" approach appears to reason that, with all these positive elements in place, students are bound to learn and have a good experience. Similarly, with "outcomes", if students are satisfied and most are graduating in reasonable time, then, what happened during the educational process must have been of high quality. In other words, both types of standards establish surrogates for the quality of the educational process itself. There should be a third component to comprehensive quality assurance: measurement of the educational process itself, what actually happens in the classroom. As a study group for the North Central Commission put it in 2002, "...the accreditation process should not be about just "inputs" and/or "outcomes". We should also be focusing on teaching and learning activities or processes as a third area for assessment and improvement, and the appropriate uses of technology are one element within this area of assessment" [2]. Here the virtual classroom has a distinct advantage over the face-to-face classroom: The electronic record of an online course lays out the entire instructional strategy and learning process of the course as it unfolds, lesson by lesson and week by week. Recognition of the abundant evidence for the assessment of online courses led to the creation of the Quality Matters™ Rubric [3] and other standards for evaluating online courses that would be far more difficult to apply to face-to-face courses. Peer reviewers of online courses are able judge how course objectives are accomplished through course materials, lessons, discussions, assignments, and assessments to a far greater extent than is possible in classroom-based courses. Furthermore, such reviews lead to specific peer-based advice on the improvement of online courses, thereby accomplishing one of the goals often used to justify assessment and quality assurance programs. When we train faculty to apply the Quality Matters Rubric to online and hybrid courses, one of the most frequent comments we receive is that these standards appear relevant to all academic courses. This is quickly followed by the question "Why don't we use the QM Rubric to evaluate face-to-face instruction?" Perhaps we will one day, but, as noted above, the collection of all the relevant data would be far more difficult. In the matter of quality assurance, as in many other ways, it appears that virtual courses are more concrete, tangible and measurable, than face-to-face ones. It is hardly surprising that scores of institutions across the U.S. are incorporating the Quality Matters Rubric in their quality assurance programs for online education. 1. "A Test of Leadership; Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," p. 25, The Spelling Commission (September, 2006).
(Join Sloan-C in our online workshop: Using the Quality Matters Rubric to Improve Your Online Course, February 21 - March 16 led by John Sener of Sener Learning Services and Christina Sax of the University of Maryland University College will host.)
Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate Series The Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate series launches this month, enabling faculty participants to acquire new skills in the design and implementation of their online courses, fine-tune their courses, receive guidance and feedback from leading online educators, and collaborate with faculty from all over the country. The series focuses on re-inventing teaching from on-ground to online education. The cornerstone of the series is the "Effective Practices Laboratory". Offered concurrently with the foundation courses "Getting Started: Online Course Development Basics" and "Using the Quality Matters Rubric to Improve Your Online Course", the laboratory provides an environment whereby participants can investigate new methods of course design, and receive one-on-one mentoring from experienced online faculty representing a variety of higher education institutions. Anyone who teaches online needs first-hand experience as an online learner to better understand the online learning environment. The Sloan-C Online Teaching Certificate series proves unique in that faculty can take key learnings from the Getting Started and Quality Matters workshops, immediately apply this learning in a laboratory environment, and receive feedback from both the faculty mentors and faculty peers. The Effective Practices Laboratory also provides the opportunity to access and discuss sample courses currently being offered to online students. With the guidance of the faculty mentors, laboratory participants will explore diverse online classroom models from leading institutions. Laboratory participants will also gain experience in using different forms of asynchronous and synchronous applications in the foundation courses and the Effective Practices Laboratory. The following faculty will be leading the first series, which begins on January 17th. (Subsequent series begin on April 25th and September 12th.)
Concept Mapping as a Dynamic Pedagogical Construct for Asynchronous and Synchronous Interactions Concept maps have been used for many years as way of graphically organizing thoughts about concepts. Concept maps come in lots of different forms, typically of a "spider" type in which a central theme is surrounded by nodes that explain the theme or in a hierarchy in which a concept is decomposed. Other forms frequently used include flow charts, schematics and the like. Most maps are quite useful for assisting understanding of concepts, especially for visual learners. One can read details of concept maps in various publications. (e.g., see: Novak, Joseph D., Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998). Click here to continue reading this article.
What Does "Effective Practice" Mean? A lively discussion ensued when a dean wrote to the Sloan-C listserv with this question about introducing faculty to online education: The paradigm here is still heavily teacher-centered, so you can imagine the discussion when faculty are asked to engage in conversation about student-centered, active learning approaches to online teaching and learning. When we introduce faculty to best practices, several tell me well you know "best practices are always just a judgment call anyway." I am writing to you all for suggestions on how to engage faculty in a positive and constructive fashion that does not further alienate those who simply do not want to shift their teaching paradigm. Excerpts from the listserv responses show the importance of this question: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Norma Scagnoli
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Much of the time in these programs is spent in small groups organized by school, program or course with faculty sharing their ideas with those who are teaching in the same discipline. Most faculty are taking notes on these ideas planning to use (adapt) them in their own teaching. Faculty who share their ideas are reinforced by this response knowing that they are not only doing something well in their teaching but also contributing to the learning of other faculty. The challenge is in finding a way to collect all these ideas and make them accessible to all faculty. George Drops, Ph.D.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Sener
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANY structure can be both a cage and a support... Sure, the CMS can be construed as content-centered, even hegemonic. But good teaching means providing students with a structure for how to manage new information or processes. Not all structure is bad. Any tool can be used for both constructive and destructive purposes. It is healthy to problematize the concept of "best" or "effective" practices, but it can also be productive to make good use of the tools we have available. How do you know you're "working outside the box" if you aren't faced with a defined box? "The artist's job is to build a box and let the audience watch him escape from it." Peg Wherry
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We need to consider the concept of "best practices" as being non-neutral, historical, and benefiting certain arrangements and practices. I wonder if when an administration asks faculty to follow a set of practices named "best", it is limiting academic freedom, innovation, and risk taking, and in a real sense "working outside the box." So, my point is, there is a world of difference between the implications of "best" and "effective", except when "effective" leads to the "best", and the "best" is understood as being "effective". Terms like "accountability", "efficiency" and "effectiveness" have deep roots in the history of education. We need to be watchful and critical/reflective when we use them. Roberto Muffoletto
Learn From the Experts - The Sloan-C 2007 Workshop Series The new Sloan-C 2007 workshop schedule has been posted. Based on research and the Sloan-C effective practices, this workshop provides the foundation for designing and delivering online courses. Faculty gain enhanced pedagogical knowledge and learn effective strategies for creative, online classroom facilitation. During the three-week workshop, facilitators will review the benefits and challenges of online curriculum development and teaching and address the qualities of effective online education. The workshop is designed as an 'active' learning experience, enabling faculty to explore actual online courses in several disciplines and institutions. Additionally faculty will create a syllabus leading to the major outcome of the workshop: identifying the critical components necessary to complete the development of their online course. Click here for details and registration. Transforming Curriculum Development and Assessment Practices - February 7 - 16 In distance education, the risks of failure can be quite high. Pressured by mounting institutional and public scrutiny, requirements from accrediting organizations, a desire to increase enrollment, and operate more effectively, online educators are looking for curricular alignment and student assessment strategies that truly measure learning outcomes. This workshop offers new insights into practical curriculum development, evaluation methodologies, and online assessment strategies institutions can implement into their own programs. Facilitators represent for-profit and non-profit institutions. Click here for details and registration. Using the Quality Matters Rubric to Improve Your Online Course - February 21 - Mar 16 Recognizing quality is much like recognizing art - you know it when you see it, but everybody sees something different. And when it comes to online courses, your students, faculty, administrators, peers, and accrediting bodies may certainly not see what you do. In fact, they might not even know what to look for in assessing quality. Sloan-C announces an interactive online workshop focused on learning how to improve your online course(s). Learn how to use the rubric tool developed by the nationally recognized, FIPSE-funded Quality Matters (QM) project. The QM rubric provides a research-supported framework with annotations and examples for applying quality practices to specific course design standards. Affirm the strong areas in your course(s) and generate specific ideas for improvements. The QM rubric is the centerpiece of the QM process. Additionally, this course serves as a stepping stone for faculty interested in becoming certified course peer reviewers. Click here for details and registration. Copyright Compliance for Online Educators - March 21 - 30 As an online educator, you need to know how copyright affects you when using materials to supplement your online courses. You also need to know how your original works can be protected. In this workshop, Linda Enghagen, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will take you through the key copyright issues that you and your colleagues should be aware of when preparing and delivering your online courses. Click here for details and registration. |
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