FSW Online Course Quality Assurance Plan

Academic Technology Committee and Learning Technologies

Progression: the process of developing or moving gradually towards a more advanced state.

Contents

• Purpose
• Introduction
• Stakeholders
• The Course Review Cycle
• FSW Online Master Courses
• Reference Documents

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to define the roles of various stakeholders in the online course review process; outline the criteria used for prioritizing course reviews; distinguish between FSW Online master courses and faculty courses; and identify all asynchronous online courses to be included in a tiered review cycle. This is a “living document” that will be collaboratively maintained by eLearning and the faculty-led Academic Technology Committee (ATC). Updates may be warranted by changes to policy, college operating procedures, or the course catalog.

Introduction

In the decade since FSW adopted Canvas as our Learning Management System (LMS), the consistent growth in FSW Online enrollment and course offerings speaks to the importance of distance education in achieving the College’s Mission and meeting the goals outlined in Dedicate to Graduate: Florida SouthWestern State College’s Strategic Plan 2020-2023 (PDF) [01]. Through shared governance, faculty and administrators have developed policies and practices to ensure the collaborative development of online courses that meet a set of defined quality standards. This has resulted in a mature and rich catalog of quality online course offerings developed by FSW faculty with support from eLearning.

As of AY 20-21, nearly half of the courses FSW offers can be taken in an asynchronous online option (Fig.1), demonstrating the faculty’s commitment to realizing our strategic initiative to engage in best practices to expand and innovate online and distance education to make learning accessible and responsive to global trends. As the demand for new online course development declines, the need for a quality assurance plan has emerged to ensure that established online courses engage in continuous improvement to keep up with rapidly evolving technology and distance learning pedagogy.

Furthermore, FSW is committed to upholding the standards set forth by national [02] and regional entities that govern distance education. The Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC) Interregional Guidelines for the Evaluation of Distance Education (2011) [03] informs the policies of regional accreditors [04], including the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools on Colleges (SACSCOC). The C-RAC interregional guidelines are outlined in SACSCOC’s Guidelines for the Evaluation of Distance Education (On-Line Learning) [05] approved in September 2020 and the statements excerpted here make clear the expectation that:

• The institution's plans for developing, sustaining and, if appropriate, expanding online learning offerings are integrated into its regular planning and evaluation processes as evidenced by

  • Development and ownership of plans for on-line learning extend beyond the administrators directly responsible for it and the programs directly using it.
  • Plans for expanding online learning demonstrate the institution’s capacity to assure an appropriate level of quality.

• Online learning is incorporated into the institution’s systems of governance and academic oversight as evidenced by

  • The institution’s faculty have a designated role in the design and implementation of its online learning offerings.
  • The institution ensures the rigor of the offerings and the quality of the instruction.
  • Approval of online courses and programs follows standard processes used in the college or university.
  • Online learning courses and programs are evaluated on a periodic basis.

• Curricula for the institution's online learning offerings are coherent, cohesive, and comparable in academic rigor to programs offered in traditional instructional formats as evidenced by

  • The curricular goals and course objectives show that the institution or program has knowledge of the best uses of online learning in different disciplines and settings.
  • Course design and delivery supports student-student and faculty-student interaction.

• Faculty responsible for delivering the online learning curricula and evaluating the students’ success in achieving the online learning goals are appropriately qualified and effectively supported as evidenced by

  • On-line learning faculties are carefully selected, appropriately trained, frequently evaluated, and are marked by an acceptable level of turnover.
  • Faculty members engaged in online learning share in the mission and goals of the institution and its programs and are provided the opportunities to contribute to the broader activities of the institution.

In 2020, the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) assumed a leadership role in the revision of the 2011 C-RAC interregional guidelines and proposed a new set of 21st Century Guidelines [06]. As a member institution, FSW agrees to comply with these guidelines and, of direct relevance here, the expectations that:

• The academic team includes individuals with expertise in the subject-matter, instructional design, interaction with students, and assessment of student learning.
• Learning activities and assessments are aligned with measurable learning outcomes. Formative and summative assessments of student learning provide feedback to students and serve as a basis for program improvement.
• Programs offered through distance learning are reviewed on a regular cycle that includes external perspectives.

With the ratification of the 2019-2022 Collective Negotiations Agreement (CNA) [07] FSW adopted the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Ed. Rubric for Course Design to align our standards with Florida’s Statewide Online Course Quality Initiative and modified the model for online course development to distinguish between “FSW Master Online Courses” and faculty-owned courses, of which both are required to meet adopted quality standards as outlined in Article 8 of the CNA:

• All new online courses must be evaluated using a QM rubric and must meet the Quality Matters Review Expectations to be placed on the schedule. A tiered schedule for existing courses will be developed in collaboration with eLearning and the Academic Technology Committee (ATC).

The following sections provide information on the Online Course Quality Assurance Plan stakeholders and criteria used in establishing the priority of course reviews.

Stakeholders

The successful implementation and execution of this quality assurance plan are dependent on representatives from Academic Affairs and Learning Technologies. The commitment and engagement of the key faculty, staff and administrators outlined below are necessary to sustain the process of continuous improvement.

The Course Review Cycle

The Online Course Quality Review Cycle provides a tiered schedule of course reviews. In accordance with the CNA, each online course will be reviewed upon its initial development to ensure it meets quality standards before being placed on the schedule. At a minimum, each course should undergo a subsequent review again in five (5) years in order to retain any Florida Online Course Design Quality Designations and/or Quality Matters certifications. As a member of the Florida Quality Matters Consortium, FSW course reviews follow the Quality Matters review model, which relies on collaboration between stakeholders to ensure the course meets expectations. (Fig. 2).

Incremental course updates over time are normal and expected, but courses may be prioritized for earlier review if there are significant changes to the course design. These may include, but are not limited to:

• More than 20% of the course or module learning outcomes have changed.
• More than 20% of the course as a whole has changed.
• Instructional materials are converted to Open Educational Resources (OER).
• New textbook adoptions.

Textbook edition updates typically do not result in a significant change to course design and can be made without a full re-review. Instructional design support is available as needed and can be requested using the Instructional Design Support Request form.

When a course is due for a quality review, eLearning will contact the faculty course developer and work with stakeholders (Table 1) to coordinate the review as indicated in the course review cycle timeline (Table 2). At the conclusion of a review the course either does or does not yet meet standards and follows the Post-Review procedures in Table 3.

FSW Online Master Courses

The definition and processes for determining, developing, distributing and compensating FSW Online master courses are outlined in the current CNA [07] and in College Operating Procedure (COP) 03-0802 Course Development and Course Redesign for Courses Requiring Online Content (PDF) [08]. Selected excerpts are highlighted here:

Reference Documents

• [01] Dedicate to Graduate: Florida SouthWestern State College’s Strategic Plan 2020-2023 (PDF)
• [02] U.S. Department of Education, Distance Education and Innovation Federal Regulation (34 CFR § 600)
• [03] Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC) Interregional Guidelines for Distance Education (PDF)
• [04] SACSCOC Distance Education and Correspondence Courses Policy Statement (PDF)
• [05] SACSCOC Guidelines for the Evaluation of Distance Education (On-Line Learning) (PDF)
• [06] National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) Proposed 21st Century Guidelines
• [07] Florida SouthWestern State College Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) 2019-2022
• [08] COP 03-0802 Course Development and Course Redesign for Courses Requiring Online Content (PDF)

Academic Technology Committee Approved: 10/15/2021