Quality assurance designing quality online course implementation

Phase Four: Implementation (click to expand)

Phase four is when the course is offered and taught. At this stage, all the course components have been thoroughly reviewed and the course is ready to be launched for the first time. If the course author is teaching the course, there are a few things listed in the process below that need to be taken care of prior to the course start date. If the course author is not teaching the course, s/he may be asked to meet with the course instructor and Project Manager/Instructional Designer as the course is handed over to help prepare the instructor.

4. IMPLEMENTATION

• • Ensure faculty support (mentorship, technical, peer review, and academic)
• • Teach (pedagogy, technology, and research)
• • Ensure student support (technical, institutions’ accessibility policies and services, and academic support)

Note:

At this stage, the instructor needs to review the course to make sure everything, including exams and assignments, is set up correctly and the course is ready to be launched and taught.

Tasks to be completed by the Project Manager/Instructional Designer (click to expand)

1. The Instructional Designer needs to ensure that before the course starts, a welcome letter/email is sent to students registered in the course. It is recommended that the instructor send this letter to start building the learning community and introducing himself/herself. This letter provides students with information about how to order their books, how to contact their instructor, how to login to the course website, how to familiarize themselves with the course platform as well as other resources.
2. At this point, all the payments for the development of the course should be made to the team members involved.
3. Final exam arrangements are set and confirmed with the team at the Enrollment Services or any other units that are in charge of the invigilated exams. If the exams are online, they should be created and reviewed before the course start date.
4. Throughout the course delivery, the Project Manager/Instructional Designer is available to mentor and guide the instructor, as well as to ensure that the course is running smoothly, and to assist with any issues that might come up.
5. The course instructor and Project Manager/Instructional Designer will track issues and edits that will need to be made for future offerings, as well as make minor changes as needed.
6. In the first offering, formative and summative assessments, as well as student feedback and evaluation throughout the course offering is recommended.
7. The frequent course instructor's presence in the first few weeks of the course is essential, as it facilitates the online learning community.
8. Timely Learner support is important.
9. Teaching includes pedagogy, research and technology.

Supporting Quality Assurance Documentation (click to expand)

Groups of people have contributed to the development of these resources for those new to teaching online.

All of these resources can be used as is, and are in development based on feedback received:

1. Introduction to Online Teaching

2. Creating the Online Learning Environment

3. Developing Social Space

4. Supporting Critical Thinking Online

5. Teaching Challenges: Online

6. Developing Cohesion Between Goals and Assessment