How do we engage faculty in training and QM? We know when online instructors do not receive proper training to transition from applying traditional best practices to applying online best practices that promote and encourage engagement, socially, cognitively, and with the instructor, students may disengage. As leaders, we must continue to develop and define transition plans, and best practices as technology changes. We must also encouraging a working relationship between instructional designers and faculty. Let's discuss what this looks like.
Universal Design for Learning provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone, not a single one size fits all solution, but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs (The National Center on Universal Design for Learning, 2012). Session attendees will share processes for creating flexible classroom environments by incorporating the UDL Principles of Representation, Action and Expression, and Engagement. Activities will include the development of flexible grading
Case studies encourage students to be active learners and critical thinkers. But in an online course, how can faculty ensure that students are ready to tackle a case, or move forward from one stage of a case to another? Expensive corporate training software can do this, but you don't need to spend money or time learning new technologies. Using the adaptive release settings in many LMSs, faculty can ensure learners have the support they need to work through a case, receiving appropriate feedback along the way.
This session will explain the benefits and rationale from applying QM framework to a course template in an LMS to embedded intelligent course design across all course delivery formats. Models and visual examples of how templates and course shells (pre-designed before faculty are added to courses) align with several Specific Review Standards from the QM Rubric.
Building buy-in from faculty during the course audit process is paramount for the successful improvement of an academic program. Traditional recommendations for successful audits include openness, with timely and relevant feedback, as well as clear expectations. An innovative, collaborative approach towards course auditing can incorporate these recommendations, and create an audit process that fosters success within an academic program. Using the acronym, BUY-IN, peer auditing practices can produce results that motivate and empower faculty to achieve QM Certification.
This session will provide a discussion and evaluation of the redesign of an upper-level hybrid research methods course intended to enhance students’ mastery of written communication and critical thinking skills. The hybrid format offers unique opportunities for providing feedback and continued practice, and the course redesign involved the use of online resources and incorporating learning activities aimed at engaging students. Both direct and indirect evidence of student learning suggest that this interactive approach is effective at promoting competency-based learning.
Ever since the concept of course design emerged as part of a course's creation, faculty's perceptions of design have ranged from adapting to extra work added to teaching, to feeling somewhat robbed of academic freedom, to experiencing frustration at lacking ownership of their classes.
This session discusses ways in which faculty's buy-in can be obtained through an honest discussion of what models of design they need to pursue in collaboration with instructional designers while taking ownership of the courses they teach.
Wouldn't it be great to be a new college? Distance learning courses, proactively designed from scratch to meet accessibility standards, would eliminate terms like "legacy course" and "faculty buy-in". Imagine a world where WCAG did not require a Google search on acronyms.
