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A Foundation for Considering Online Course Quality

A Foundation for Considering Online Course Quality. What’s Out There. Prescriptive. Descriptive. Simple. Complex. Simple/Prescriptive. Exhibits emphases of particular institution Tends to focus on “minimum acceptability” Needs little training to complete form

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A Foundation for Considering Online Course Quality

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  1. A Foundation for Considering Online Course Quality

  2. What’s Out There Prescriptive Descriptive Simple Complex

  3. Simple/Prescriptive • Exhibits emphases of particular institution • Tends to focus on “minimum acceptability” • Needs little training to complete form • Suited for systematic implementation

  4. Complex/Prescriptive • Can be quite esoteric with many “rules” • Can also be fairly comprehensive • Tends to focus on “minimum acceptability” • Evaluators need training • There are challenges to a systematic implementation

  5. Simple/Descriptive • Emphasis is on a skilled/knowledgeable evaluator • Relatively little dependence on the form • Categories provide some structure • Feedback can be robust • Likely to have smaller number of evaluators taking more time to complete

  6. Complex/Descriptive • Essentially a full-blown research study • Usefulness limited to a small number of courses of particular interest • Many hours to complete • Requires evaluator who knows the methodology and who has a diverse knowledge of online courses • Not for the faint of heart!

  7. Bottom Line • The practical isn’t particularly rigorous • The rigorous isn’t particularly practical • Scalability is an issue!

  8. A Foundation Theoretical basis (for comprehensiveness) + Synthesis of many online course standards (for practical relevance)

  9. A Foundation • Schwab’s (1973) Commonplaces • Learners • Teachers • Subject matter • Milieus

  10. A Foundation • Learning Environment Facets (Perkins) • Modular Reusability (Thompson) • Community of Inquiry (Garrison et al) • Spectrum of Teaching Styles (Mosston & Ashworth) (See packet for more information)

  11. A Foundation • Two dimensions of online courses • Nine “should” statements • Integrated best practices

  12. Two Dimensions Course Environment Course Experience

  13. Two Dimensions • Most sets of standards focus on course environment only • Some faculty focus on course experience • Both dimensions are necessary to tell the whole story

  14. Online Course Environment • Clearly communicate scope, sequence, and length of learning activities to students while providing feedback on progress. • Provide authoritative sources of reputable subject matter content. • Provide for abstract communication by each student. • Incorporate ready-made components for student manipulation or real life opportunities (or simulations) to apply course concepts. • Balance contextualization and reusability throughout the course environment.

  15. Online Course Experience • Instructors and students exchange substantive ideas related to course content. • Instructors and students provide facilitation/guidance of the course experience. • Instructors and students represent themselves as “real people” in the course experience. • Ensure that power roles of instructors and students are clear and consistent throughout the course experience.

  16. Framework for Best Practices

  17. Best Practice Examples

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