PBSC Online Certification Policies and Certification Guidelines
Course Site Certification and Site Requirements
All Online and Hybrid courses must be certified by the PBSC Online department to qualify for instructional use. Certification of Live Online and Face-to-Face LMS support sites/courses is encouraged but not required. To achieve certification, the course site must adhere to the following guidelines:
Standard Course Home Page Design – Hybrid & Online
The course home page must consist of a college-approved page inclusive of the banner, module tile structure/navigation, resource links/icons, and color scheme, and contain standard information per the college-developed and adopted course home page design.
Content & Delivery – Hybrid & Online Course
Hybrid and Online course content must be organized into Modules, each module containing a related set of instructional content and activities. Modules may be titled as lessons, units, chapters, etc. (per instructor/faculty preference), taking into account that the module titles must be descriptive to provide students with an effective/intuitive navigation structure to locate desired instructional material.
Modules are to contain, at minimum:
- Introduction Page (learning outcomes, outline of the lesson components/requirements, special instructions, reading assignments, etc.)
- Instructional Content (i.e., personal faculty expertise presentations, handouts, videos, resource links, animations, etc.)
- Discussion(s)
- Assessment(s) (i.e., tests, quizzes, assignments, student presentations)
- All other material related to that particular Module (lesson, unit, etc.)
- Each Module is to engage students in appropriate student contact time – equivalent to classroom contact time. Traditional homework assignments/time (i.e., reading a textbook, writing a term paper, etc.) do not count toward online course instructional contact time.
Course Certification Criteria
Hybrid and online courses must use a standardized Home page template provided by the PBSC Online department and adhere to four key pedagogical principles. First, the contact time and content organization must ensure that every hour of classroom instruction removed is replaced with an hour of online activities. Content should be organized into modules (lessons, units, etc.), with each module containing related activities, and the total time for all modules must equal traditional in-class contact time, excluding homework. Second, periodic assessments are essential, with continuous feedback required to monitor student progress. Faculty must assess students' completion and understanding regularly, as frequent assessments are more crucial in an online environment. Third, interactive exercises must include faculty-student interactions to encourage conceptual thinking, with faculty initiating these interactions. Finally, courses should integrate the instructor’s personal expertise to enrich the material, making it comparable to traditional classroom instruction.
Additionally, the majority of the course content must reside in the College Learning Management System (Canvas). While external resources like E-Packs and third-party instructional sites can be used, they cannot constitute the majority of the course content. All instructional components such as discussions and assignments must be performed within Canvas, and any external testing must have grading criteria and records posted in Canvas. Courses cannot rely solely on auto-graded activities and must include instructor-initiated collaborative components. Once an instructor finishes developing their course, they must request certification from the PBSC Online department. Certified courses can be shared with other instructors upon written permission and proper authorization. The PBSC Online department will then manage and distribute these certified courses as needed, ensuring instructors possess the necessary skills for online instruction.
Sample Form:
I (name of faculty) give permission for (name of faculty/department) to use my certified(course prefix/number) Canvas course (reference number of section to copy) for instruction.
Granting Faculty Signature: _____________________________
Supervising Administrator: _____________________________