Course Certification Criteria

The course site certification review evaluates the following online course site design and content delivery pedagogical principles:

Hybrid and Online Course
Must use approved standard course Home page design (e-Learning department provides a template of the approved Home page for instructor adoption) and must satisfy the following four online learning pedagogical principles:
1. Contact Time and Content Organization
  1. For every instructional hour removed from the classroom, an equal one hour of online instructional activities must be provided.
  2. Instructional content must be organized into a set of 'Modules' (titled as lessons, units, chapters, etc.), with each Module presenting a series of related activities (presentations, discussions, assignments, assessments, etc.).
    
    The time it takes to complete all Modules (lessons, units, etc.) needs to equal traditional 'in-class' contact time. Traditional 'homework' (i.e. reading textbook, writing term paper, etc.) does not count for online instructional activity time.
2. Periodic Assessments
  1. Students must receive continuous/periodic feedback to let them know how well they are doing.
  2. Faculty need to assess whether students are completing assigned instructional material, and assess students’ comprehension/achievement of the learning outcomes.
    Assessments can be applied in a variety of formats. It is recommended to provide this assessment/feedback in every Module (lesson, unit, etc.). In an online environment, the need to provide periodic assessments is much greater than in a traditional classroom -- a 'midterm and a final' is not enough to ensure an effective assessment schedule. Since faculty do not see if the students are attending class and paying attention, more frequent assessments are required.
3. Interactive (critical-thinking-skill) Exercises
  1. Online Instructional Activities need to include faculty and student interaction.
    This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, students need to interact with faculty and be given the opportunity to discuss concepts and theories to stimulate conceptual thinking and provide an additional learning modality. In the online course environment faculty need to initiate these interactions -- since students are not in a controlled environment (classroom), 'online class time' competes with many external stimuli, and thus many students are not likely to initiate the collaboration on their own account.
4. Present Personal Expertise
  1. The course must be enhanced with instructor's personal expertise to provide instructional material comparable to the traditional in-classroom lecture presentations and/or demonstrations.
    
    This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, such as voiceover presentations, video, text based material, scripted discussions, feedback on assignments, etc. The Instructional Design Technology (IDT) Department assists faculty with development of this multimedia material upon request.

E-Packs, Cartridges, Building Blocks and Third-Party Instructional Sites

The majority of course instructional content must reside in the College Learning Management System -- Blackboard (Bb). The use of e-Packs, Cartridges, Building Blocks and/or Third-Party Instructional Sites cannot constitute the majority of the course content. Instructional components such as discussions and assignments must be performed/submitted within Bb. If external sources are used for testing purposes, grading criteria must be provided in Bb and all grading records must be transferred/posted into Bb’s grade book.

Course Instruction

Courses cannot be instructed in an auto-run delivery, utilizing only auto-graded activities as periodic assessment/feedback and without instructor initiated collaborative components. Collaborative components and faculty assessment/feedback on students’ performance must be present periodically within the course activities.

Course Certification Requests

When an instructor finishes development of their Bb course site, a request for certification needs to be sent to the e-Learning department. The site will be reviewed using the 'Online Course Certification Guidelines' and the instructor will be notified of the result. PantherNet (Workday) will be updated to reflect instructor's approved certification status.

The instructor needs to notify their department of their approved certification(s) and request to have their course(s) listed/updated in PantherNet (Workday) with a special designator(s) to reflect the Component, Hybrid or Online status for the next semester. This designator needs to be added into PantherNet's (Workday) Instructor Resource Management system in order for the course to be offered (and have a course site available) via the Blackboard learning (course) management system. If this course modifier is not in place before first day of registration of the upcoming semester, the Bb course site will not be activated for that term and delivery of instructional content via Blackboard will not be possible.

Granting of Certified Course Use

Individual faculty members can volunteer to allow other instructors to use a copy of their certified course for instruction or designate the course as a ‘departmental template.’ Permission of such must be granted in writing (sample form below) and be authorized (co- signed) by the supervising administrator. A copy of the form must be forwarded to the e-Learning department for record keeping. Once such form is received, the e-Learning department will provide a certification record for the faculty granted to use the certified course and copy the designated certified course into the receiving faculty’s section. This instructor can then be assigned to instruct such course as long as the instructor possesses basic skills for online instruction. If the course is designated as a departmental template, e-Learning will archive the course and distribute copies per departmental needs. The department must assign a course template manager to provide management/updates of the course template and serve as a course template liaison to the e-Learning department.

Sample Form:

I (name of faculty) give permission for (name of faculty/department) to use my certified (course prefix/number) Bb course site (reference number of section to copy) for instruction.

Granting Faculty Signature: Supervising Administrator: _____

Online Course Template Development (Department/Cluster Owned Templates)

Based on the needs of a department and/or cluster, development of an online course template can be requested by the department’s dean, associate dean or director. The department’s dean, associate dean or director needs to fill out the ‘Scope of Work – Online Course Template Development Form’ (http://edtech.palmbeachstate.edu/elearn/Resources/Academic- Manual/Scope-of-Work-Work-for-Hire---Course-Template-&-QM-Certification.pdf) and submit the Form for approval per procedure designated in the Form.

Upon approval, the department/cluster may contract with a content expert to develop the instructional material per compensation guidelines listed below. The content expert will be expected to work closely with an assigned e-Learning instructional designer that will assist the content expert with development of the course template and instructional content, ensuring the course template meets the College’s online course certification standards. The e-Learning instructional designer will format, structure and publish the instructional material into the course template. Instructional Technology staff member will be assigned to assist with development of multimedia instructional material.

The course template will then undergo a review process (as listed in the Scope of Work – Online Course Template Development and Maintenance Form). Upon approval, the content expert will be compensated for the development of the instructional material and the course template will become property of the College.

The department/cluster must appoint a template manager (must be a full-time employee) that will serve as a liaison to e-Learning, and ensure the template’s instructional material remains current and ready for deployment for instruction. The e-Learning department will assist with template updates and revisions.

The department/cluster must adopt the course template for instruction in all online sections of this course for subsequent terms. The department’s dean, associate dean or director will submit to eLearning a list of all online sections at least 10 workdays before the first day of each term, and the e-Learning department will manage the template’s distribution, populating all course sections based on the provided list.

The department/cluster may assign any instructor to teach the courses – e-Learning will provide template-based faculty certifications. It is the department’s dean, associate dean or director responsibility to ensure the instructor has the skills to instruct online utilizing the College provided LMS. Should any training needs be identified by the department, e-Learning will provide such training based the department’s request.

The following guidelines govern the compensation for online course template development/redevelopment as requested by Palm Beach State College.