When talking about online education, quality can be hard to define. This should come as no surprise, though. Institutions have been struggling for years to define quality in face-to-face courses.
Consider this dictionary definition of quality: The standard of something as measured against other
Faculty presence is a component of the online classroom that’s sometimes overlooked or underestimated by new online instructors, but it is often the most important determining factor for a student’s success and overall satisfaction in a course.
Instructor presence influences the ways that your students
▢ Do you reach out to students first before the semester begins? ▢ Do you send a welcome email outside the course, perhaps to college email or another email provided by the student? ▢ Do you post a welcome message for students
Student success comes from strong leadership, including establishing rapport, providing resources, and putting the onus of responsibility on the students, rather than the instructor. Perhaps the most important area for success in any online course is what I call the “start here” area. Let’s explore
Children learn language not by being given a list of words to memorize and practice, but by simply absorbing language from their environment by listening and using it in their daily lives. The total immersion method replicates this process by putting the learner into the
As instructors, we learn a lot about our students by their physical presence in a face-to-face course, from their dress to their demeanor. Students also learn a lot about us this way. But that information is lost in an online class. Thus, it is important
As colleges and universities continue to invest in and expand the number of online courses and degree programs they offer, retaining online students is an area of focus for college faculty and administrators. There is a variety of ways that colleges can keep their online
Last month, I talked about the benefits of providing voice feedback to students. Screencasting takes these benefits one step further by adding a visual element to the instructor’s voice (Orlando, 2016)
My students participate in an activity called “Building a Learning Community” during the first week of classes. In this activity, completed via a discussion board, I ask them to share about three topics: what their best and “not best” teachers did that helped or hindered
What is instructor presence? It’s the way that instructors present themselves to the students in the online classroom. It also involves simply being present to students through the regular posting of course materials, discussion posts, and announcements.
Instructor presence increases student retention because students are
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Download the UW-La Crosse’s online course evaluation guidelines
At some institutions, these quality course reviews are required prior to an instructor’s being able to offer an online class. At institutions such as mine, where faculty receive funding to develop online courses, a course review may be required to document that a course has been fully developed prior to faculty receiving payment. And some institutions utilize course reviews simply as a way to provide feedback to faculty about online course design and development. One item to consider when implementing online course reviews at your institution is who will be conducting the reviews. Sometimes peer instructors conduct the reviews; sometimes instructional designers and instructional technologists are involved; and sometimes teaching center personnel or even department chairs are in charge of the review process. At my institution, we conduct from 40 to 45 quality reviews a year for online courses. (Don’t underestimate the logistics involved in this undertaking, as these reviews can be time- and energy-intensive.) Following a course review, we also bring in the faculty member and go through the review with that person present, a unique practice. Providing feedback in person — both positive remarks as well as recommendations for improvements — allows faculty members to explain why they did certain things and facilitates interaction between faculty and our instructional design team. On occasion, faculty can be resistant to receiving recommendations related to course improvements; however, the vast majority of our faculty report that they appreciate these in-person reviews. Measuring and documenting the quality of online courses and degree programs can be a complex and time-consuming undertaking, but it is something that more and more institutions are pursuing. If your institution has not yet had a discussion about what quality online programming looks like and how it can be measured, I encourage you to gather the appropriate stakeholders (students, faculty, instructional designers, administrators, etc.) and initiate that process. Doing so will help build and ultimately sustain a culture of quality surrounding online programming at your institution. Dr. Brian Udermann has been teaching online courses for 12 years and has served as the director of online education at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse since 2007. He is an alumnus of OLC’s Institute for Emerging Leaders in Online Learning. Brian has published five book chapters, one book and over 50 peer-reviewed articles. He is a frequent presenter at regional and national conferences, speaking on a variety of topics related to online learning.Reprinted from Three Strategies to Improve the Quality of Online Education on Your Campus, Distance Education Report, 20.16 (2016): 1-3. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved.
