Tidewater Community College has adopted Quality Matters, a faculty-centered, peer review process. To support that adoption, an approved online course template was developed by the Online Quality Assurance Task Force, demonstrated for the college Faculty Senate, and modified in response to faculty suggestions.
The template addresses standards from the Quality Matters rubric including Standard 6.2: Navigation throughout the online components of the course is logical, consistent, and efficient.
In addition to ease of navigation, the approved template provides students with consistency in online delivery. The template does not dictate content; it ensures consistency in delivery format aligned with QM principles. Each element of the template either fulfills a QM standard or provides an opportunity to address QM standards with the goals of assisting student success in the classroom and ensuring faculty successful completion of QM peer reviews.
Within the template, faculty course development will be assisted by the inclusion of many resources related to student services, as well as communications, introductory activities, discussions, and content design by learning modules.
Perhaps the most important pedagogical tool in the template is the inclusion of learning modules (units) designed to help faculty organize and deploy discipline content. Learning modules provide an instructional sequence and are a useful way to organize course content and learning activities for faculty and students. Modular design can also simplify course creation and course updates for future semesters.
Learning modules are provided in the approved template that allow faculty to customize their content organization around units or weeks.
Register today for an Adopting the Blackboard Template Workshop! Review the spring 2013 schedule here and email Lynn Rainard, Faculty Liaison in the Center for eLearning. |
