Online and Blended quality review initiatives require detailed processes, documentation, and guides to succeed. This presentation will discuss the strategic network of support created for instructional designers, faculty, and support teams to champion for the online and blended Quality and High Quality Course review initiative at a large university.
With the creation of the Florida State University System 2025 Strategic Plan for Online Education, universities across the state began to mobilize review processes to ensure that online courses being offered were well designed to meet the students’ needs. These steps towards quality assurance set a formalized review into motion to ensure that the expectations that had long been pursued in the online and blended courses offered to students were being met.
Through the creation of a formalized process, a Quality Initiative was formed to plan, create, and implement Quality and High Quality reviews, for both online and blended courses offered at the university. As the initiative grew in demand at the university, it became clear that providing support and guidance to those teams involved would be necessary for consistency and clarity.
In this Education Session, the presentation will cover a summary of the strategic networks created to support Instructional Designers, faculty, and support teams to effectively carry out the Quality Initiative. Over a period of five years, the Quality Taskforce incrementally designed, developed, and implemented these targeted areas of need:
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A Quality Companion course was created to document the Quality and High Quality processes, as well as support the Instructional Designers as they conduct these reviews.
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A High Quality training course was created for faculty to educate and support them through the review process as they reviewed their own course as part of the High Quality process.
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To track and archive in-progress and earned designations, multiple updates were made to the department’s internal reporting system to adequately document these designations as well as support the Instructional Designers when reaching out to their faculty. The reporting system also had to be updated to support stagnant reviews, as well as future expiring designations.
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To help incentivize the Instructional Designers in conducting and offering these opt-in faculty course review requests, milestone rewards and a department-recognized individual award were implemented to recognize the efforts and contributions the Instructional Designers have made towards this initiative. Digital badges and letters are also awarded to faculty who receive a designation.
The presentation seeks to engage the audience in a collaborative discussion to share ideas to help participants who participate in their own quality initiatives. Through the growth we have made during this five year period, we will be able to share our lessons learned for those who may be starting out or seeking to refresh their own professional development offerings. Participants will be provided with the Creative-Commons licensed quality and high quality rubrics, as well as links to the Quality Initiative website.
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