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How to Describe Principles,
Recommendations, Guidelines
to Encourage, Enable, and Support
Faculty Members
to Improve Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Especially by Developing,
Using, and Improving BHWs,
BHTLMs
Purpose
Beliefs
Table - First Try at
Rewriting Standards:
"Quality Matters"
Other
Guidelines/Standards/Rubrics
Purpose
Respectfully revise the wording of guidelines and standards
for improving teaching and learning in higher education to
be more appealing, comfortable, and useful to faculty
members.
Address the
needs and preferences of those faculty members who are NOT
likely to acquire the expertise and language of
instructional design, educational research, pedagogical
theory, educational psychology, etc. Revise the wording in
ways that demonstrate respect and admiration for the
institutions, projects, and individuals who developed the
guidelines and standards that most clearly reflect a high quality of research, expertise, experience,
and thoughtful commitment.
Make guidelines and
standards engaging, easy to understand. Provide small
steps for improving teaching and learning that can be taken by faculty
members - small steps that are likely to result in
both perceptible improvements and additional
steps in the same directions.
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Beliefs
[Steven W. Gilbert, June 1,
2008]
Most faculty members are already trying to improve their own
teaching and their students' learning. Through their
own teaching, most experienced faculty members have
developed some important capabilities, attitudes,
perceptions, and judgment on which further improvements can
be respectfully built.
Every recommendation or
resource for improving teaching and learning has within it
some assumptions about human nature, pedagogy, and politics.
I'm sure that applies to this Web page too.
Many valuable standards
and guidelines developed for distance education or online
education have been based on premature acceptance of some
technological and pedagogical limitations that are no longer
absolute and may soon be obsolete. In particular, even
college courses that are intended to be entirely
online, are no longer restricted to being mostly text-based,
and mostly asynchronous.
The accelerating spate of new
technology applications, especially the Internet-based
services and resources loosely labeled "Web 2.0," are making
the frequent use of audio, video and
animation, and many varieties of synchronous interaction easier for and more expected by both faculty and students -
and less expensive. Cell phones
and other hand-held digital devices are becoming more
ubiquitous and handheld digital devices have already begun
to offer prospects for
classroom and online activities that we can barely imagine
and certainly not predict. The trend toward
offering more hybrid or blended courses to undergraduates
continues to grow. This confluence of changes makes it
more imperative, more attractive, and more challenging than
ever for mainstream faculty members to find ways of taking
advantage of these new opportunities.
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First
Try: "Quality Matters – General Review Standards"
[One-Third Baked as of June
1, 2008: i.e., slightly less than half-baked]
I hope that the alternate versions offered in the
table below lead others to offer better alternatives.
I welcome responses suggesting how to improve these
alternatives and how to proceed more effectively. -
Steve Gilbert, June 1, 2008
I. Course Overview II.
Purpose III. Assessment IV.
Resources V.
Interaction VI. Support
VII. Accessibility
| Original Title |
Original "General Review Standard" |
Revised Title |
Revised Guideline |
|
I. COURSE OVERVIEW
AND INTRODUCTION |
The overall design of the course,
navigational information, as well as course,
instructor and student information are made
transparent to the student at the beginning of the
course. |
I. COURSE OVERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION
|
The overall plan of the course, including how
students are expected to get and use instructional
materials, is presented clearly to students at the
beginning of the course - along with appropriate
information about the faculty, students, and others
who will be participating in or supporting the
course. |
|
II. LEARNING
OBJECTIVES (COMPETENCIES) |
Learning objectives are clearly
defined and explained. They assist the student to
focus learning activities. |
II. COURSE GOALS |
The goals for the course are explained clearly in
ways designed to assist students to plan and
organize their own learning activities. To whatever
extent appropriate to this particular course, some
goals are stated in terms of specific knowledge,
skills, or attitudes that students are expected to
gain from successfully completing it.
|
|
III. ASSESSMENT AND
MEASUREMENT |
Assessment strategies use established ways to
measure effective learning, assess student progress
by reference to stated learning objectives, and are
designed as essential to the learning process.
|
III. ASSESSMENT |
Assessment strategies and methods
are appropriate to the goals of the course, the
characteristics of the students, the experience and
judgment of the faculty, and the kinds of resources
and expertise available to support the design and
conduct of evaluation. To whatever extent
appropriate to this particular course, some
assessment activities are frequent and integral
elements of the course and provide information
useful both to teachers and learners in shaping
their respective course activities. |
|
IV.
RESOURCES AND MATERIALS |
Instructional materials are
sufficiently comprehensive to achieve announced
objectives and learning outcomes and are prepared by
qualified persons competent in their fields.
(Materials, other than standard textbooks produced
by recognized publishers, are prepared by the
instructor or distance educators skilled in
preparing materials for distance learning.) As
opposed to??????? |
IV. COURSE MATERIALS |
Course-related materials cover the
subject matter and effectively support the kinds of
teaching and learning activities identified by
course goals. Course-related materials are
prepared by professionals who in combination (since
more than one may be collaborating) are recognized
and respected for their abilities within the
relevant academic disciplines, teaching and learning
strategies, and technologies. |
|
V. LEARNER
INTERACTION |
The
effective design of instructor- student interaction,
meaningful student cooperation, and student -content
interaction is essential to student motivation,
intellectual commitment and personal development.
|
V. INTERACTION |
TO BE ADDED - RECOMMENDATIONS WELCOME |
|
VI. LEARNER
SUPPORT |
General Review Standard: Courses are
effectively supported for students through fully
accessible modes of delivery, resources, and student
support. |
VII. STUDENT SUPPORT |
TO BE ADDED - RECOMMENDATIONS WELCOME |
|
VII. ACCESSIBILITY
|
General Review Standard: The course is accessible to
all students. |
VIII. ACCESSIBILITY |
TO BE ADDED - RECOMMENDATIONS WELCOME |
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Other Useful Standards, Guidelines, Rubrics
The following seem useful for helping faculty improve Online or Distance Education.
This list is incomplete, and is only intended as a useful
starting place. Steve Gilbert, June 1, 2008
1.
Quality Matters - MarylandOnline, Inc.
Quality Matters: Inter-Institutional Quality
Assurance in Online Learning
2.
Rubric for Online Instruction (ROI) - CSU Chico
3.
Quality Matters Rubric - Chippewa Valley Technical
College
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