Quality online education should support diverse students' needs and incorporate active learning. Presenters will review findings from a piloted intervention to promote online course quality assurance through evidence-based innovation. Content outlines collaborative strategies and key replicable components including the design of an online professional development and handbook for new course authors.
Evidence-Based Practices
Asynchronous, online education offers a technology-rich environment with natural opportunities to create accessible learning spaces for diverse students (Rao, Edelen-Smith, & Wailehua, 2015). Within these virtual environments, students can face challenges in their courses, such as a lack of tailored content explanation, minimal opportunities for learner-to-learner interaction, a lack of variety in assignments, and unclear assignment directions (Rao, Edelen-Smith, & Wailehua, 2015).
According to best practice standards, course design should reflect a clear understanding of all students' needs and incorporate varied ways to learn and master the curriculum (Adelstein, & Barbour, 2017; Littlefield, Rubinstein, & Pittman, 2015). A course should embody a logical sequence and provide opportunities for students to engage in higher-order thinking and critical reasoning (Sanga, 2017). Activities should encourage students' interests and goals while fostering meaningful social interaction in a “community of inquiry” (Rao, Edelen-Smith, & Wailehua, 2015; Jacobi, 2017). Online curriculum is at its best when crafted using a team approach (Adelstein & Barbour, 2017).
To design for quality, American College of Education (ACE), an online, higher education institution, uses a team approach to promote student-centered practices. Through a pilot, team members have facilitated course structure, provided faculty support, and fostered inter-department collaboration all while evaluating, assessing, and improving course quality.
This presentation will describe the quality assurance process and the evidence-based, innovations taking place. This team approach is replicable and prioritizes student achievement and success. Presentation attendees will learn strategies and review developed tools.
Curriculum Development at ACE
Historically, in the course design and development process, ACE provided course subject-matter-expert (SME) authors with templates and reference documents at the onset. Then, curriculum development fielded questions via email or instant message. Once the author delivered a course, the content underwent a retroactive, quality-assurance process with substantive editing and fact-checking.
However, as the college grew, and the course development load increased, a strategic change was needed. As a pilot, American College of Education’s production team aimed to find out what questions authors had about course design and development to strengthen the process. The team sought to provide collaborative support for authors throughout the design and development process.
Innovation Through Iterative Support and Feedback
In response to the need to offer authors more support, ACE developed virtual, synchronous, open-office hours, a structured professional development course and handbook, and tiered resources. These components aid authors in course design and development.
During the weekly, virtual, open-office hours, author attendance is not mandatory but has proved consistent. For the collaborative sessions, three departments come together:
1.) academic
2.) curriculum development
3.) course production
The partnership ensures consistent quality throughout the process. The weekly open-office hours create an inviting opportunity for authors to ask questions and receive feedback on their work.
Rather than evaluating a course retroactively and providing feedback, as was done in the past, the team looks at the course with an author as it unfolds and identifies areas well done and those needing further development. Minor corrections are made on the spot.
Collaborative editing and proofreading are detail-oriented and focused on student engagement. Authors are encouraged to embed interactive storytelling to create a personalized experience.
Following the meeting, answers to attending authors’ questions are e-blasted out as a formal support resource to all authors—those who attended and those who did not. This resource is formatted with graphics and color. The goal is to create enjoyable and repeatedly read reference items for authors.
These support resources have accumulated and are the basis of a professional development (PD) course for course authors. In creating an author course, a checklist developed and doubled as an informal rubric. The checklist incorporates input from all team members to ensure alignment, readability, scholarly rigor, and formatting.
The checklist is serving as a living quality assurance document that evolves as author and student needs are clarified.
Goals and Data
The team goals of conducting this pilot were to:
- increase faculty involvement in course design and development,
- ensure high quality,
- test innovative approaches, and
- increase efficiency and effectiveness in course design, development, and production.
Through this initial data collection and open-office pilot, the team analyzed and addressed the design and pedagogical issues that SME authors encountered while developing courses in their areas of expertise. The team collected, and continues to collect, qualitative and quantitative data on open-office attendance among authors, question type, support materials provided, and outcomes such as alignment.
The production team has used the data to design and create an author support course for new SME authors. This course allows authors to get a “feel” for the LMS and to experience an online, universal design course. The professional development guides authors through designing a course on employability skills.
Experienced authors reviewed the course and provided feedback before its launch. Any veteran author who reviews the course and provides feedback earns a professional development "badge."
Improved processes which promote student achievement benefit multiple stakeholders: authors, students, faculty, instructional designer, and administrators.
Through a close-knit partnership between the academic department and the curriculum development team, SME authors are supported in their process of sharing knowledge in accessible ways. Tight collaboration between authors and production ensures that course design considers diverse learning styles and ways of knowing and provides multiple ways for students to show their knowledge and experience dynamic, learner-to-learner interaction.
Replicable Components
This presentation will include a detailed review of the checklist, support resources, and author support PD blueprint. Key replicable components of the ACE approach include:
- Linking the production team to the academic team for collaborative work;
- Designing an asynchronous professional development to guide SME authors;
- Supporting authors through synchronous, virtual, weekly, open-office hours;
- Creating a checklist to clarify and itemize quality assurance criteria, and
- Cultivating resources for authors based on questions.
Initial Findings from the Pilot
Findings show that SME authors are empowered when they receive collaborative support and, as a result, are taking on greater responsibility for the design and development of their courses. They are striving to meet the requirements of the checklist and use the checklist to self-evaluate each course before submission to production. This process is saving curriculum development and production time while yielding a higher product. Because input is provided sooner, the end-product is higher quality.
Findings suggest that SME authors benefit from support regarding ways to promote active learning through varied content presentation. Authors are increasingly using descriptive vignettes, case studies, and storytelling to resonate with students. The ACE team also realized the importance of supporting authors in designing varied assignments and making assignment instructions clear and detailed.
Furthermore, SME authors benefit from support in cultivating online social interaction. SME authors aim to inspire students to share ideas, collaborate, and co-construct knowledge through authentic tasks. The team approach helps engineer opportunities for students to uncover real-world relevancy, initiate complex investigations, take on different perspectives, and welcome cultural diversity.
This pilot is still in progress. The ACE team is collecting data on the required time to quality assure a course pre- and post-pilot and pre- and post-professional development. The team hopes that by collecting these data, providing virtual, open-office hours, and structured professional development, ACE online courses will undergo an ever-improving level of quality.
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