ERIC Number: EJ1294718
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Apr
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2165-2554
EISSN: N/A
Leveraging a Course Quality Checklist to Improve Online Courses
Kathuria, Hitesh; Becker, David
Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, v10 p400-407 Apr 2021
Designing high quality, interactive online courses in a technologically rich environment can be a daunting task even for experienced faculty. This process becomes more difficult when faculty are teaching multiple classes while juggling service responsibilities and research/creative scholarships. In order to help faculty focus on key aspects of online teaching and course design, we developed a checklist with links to institutional resources which help faculty meet several best practices for online teaching. Use of checklists and rubrics to meet quality assurance standards is common (e.g., OLC OSCQR Course Design Review Scorecard, 2018; Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, 2018), but they vary significantly with the time required to review a course (Baldwin, Ching, & Hsu, 2018). Our goal was to create a checklist that helps faculty design basic elements of the course and expedite the self-review process. Given the current 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation, when instructors were suddenly asked to teach remotely, this Course Quality Checklist helped faculty self-review their existing or new online course via multiple lenses, such as course orientation, policies, organization, and alignment, as well as Universal Design for Learning and interaction. Faculty may use this checklist to create a clear and consistent structure within their course. The checklist also links to several online, just-in-time resources (e.g., course templates, design and pedagogy training, and standards for interaction and accessibility). This will ensure they meet essential standards, save time, reduce cognitive load, and meet specific compliance requirements.
Descriptors: Educational Quality, Check Lists, Online Courses, Educational Improvement, Instructional Design, Higher Education, Faculty Workload, Best Practices, College Faculty, COVID-19, Pandemics, Alignment (Education), Course Organization, Standards, Faculty Development, Teaching Methods, Quality Assurance, Access to Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A