Online Instructor Skills Set
Current Edition: 2016
Description: Six areas of competency for Online Instruction that are further divided into associated skills that can be translated into specific competencies — tasks and demonstrations of skill, prior knowledge and ability. The list of skills provide a framework for assessing the presence of competencies necessary for effective online instruction.
Who uses this Skills Set?
QM developed seven workshops to form the Teaching Online Certificate (TOC) that contain competencies with associated outcomes mapped to the Teaching Online portion of the Online Instructor Skill Set (OISS). Successful completion of the TOC means an instructor has demonstrated knowledge, ability and skill for the six areas of competency from the OISS. Future use of the OISS by QM and its members will extend the application of quality assurance for online learning into the Faculty Readiness portion of the Online Learning Quality Pie.
Key Features
The OISS contains the following areas of competency:
Teaching Online
I. Institutional Context: The instructor understands the institutional context in which they teach
II. Technologies: The instructor is knowledgeable about the technologies used in the online classroom
III. Instructional Design: The instructor understands the instructional design requirements of an online course
IV. Pedagogy: The instructor understands the pedagogical components of the online teaching and learning process
V. Assessment: The instructor is knowledgeable about various methods of measuring the success of the teaching and learning process in the online classroom
VI. Social Presence: The instructor establishes a social presence and communicates effectively through writing and/or audio/video
Faculty Hiring
VII. The instructor meets the academic and/or professional standards in their chosen field of teaching.
Development Notes
The Online Instructor Skills Set (OISS) is a validated set of instructor skills that former QM Board member (and "father of the QM Rubric") Jurgen Hilke developed and gave to QM. It was validated by online teaching faculty as the set of skills they complete while teaching online.
