4.2 Guidelines & Standards for Effective & Exemplary DE Classes

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Online course design rubrics, standards, and guidelines have been around since shortly after the dawn of online education. These are usually a compilation of research, theory, and the practical experience of veteran online educators.

Personally, I think these are useful. But clearly, given that online education is not yet as successful as we want it to be, we are still figuring this out, especially as we seek more equitable outcomes for online students from disproportionately impacted populations. While online course rubrics may not be blueprints for success, they certainly can help instructors to see their online courses and teaching practices in a new light, and hopefully to make adjustments that will improve the student experience.

As the Manifesto for Teaching Online so pithily states, "There are many ways to get it right online. 'Best practice' neglects context." I completely agree; yet, at the risk of being mildly provocative, I would also say, there are many, many ways to get it wrong. For most faculty, approaching online course design from an intuitive sense of "let me just figure out how to do what I do in the classroom, online" can lead to some significant challenges.

In that sense, online course design guidelines and standards can be seen as offering boundaries that can help instructors get creative, while maintaining some assurance that their efforts will at minimum "do no harm" to students. In a more positive light, personally, I've worked with many faculty in my career who have found that not only do online course design and teaching guidelines help improve their practice of online teaching, but they also feel that they become more effective classroom instructors, too, as they learn to incorporate the guidance.

Becoming familiar with, and fluent with, online teaching guidelines does not happen overnight. The intent here is simply to introduce you to two resources especially recommended for use at College of the Desert. Engaging in ongoing collegial dialogue about these is important. Sharing what's working - and what's not - with other faculty on the journey is priceless. Attending online teaching workshops and conferences can also be a great help.

College of the Desert Online Class Quality Guidelines

At College of the Desert we use the Online Education Initiative's rubric to guide our course design. A great way to begin to design your course, or to improve an existing course, is to review the OEI Rubric and use it as a self-evaluation tool. This is the rubric the Distance Education Subcommittee is using to evaluate course shells, so this is the standard that is helping us improve our courses.

We have also been certified as a "Local POCR" Campus.

Peer Online Course Review (POCR) was established in 2014 by the California Virtual Campus Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) Professional Development Workgroup to ensure that students in the California Community College system have access to high-quality online courses designed to support student learning and success. As of April 2023, College of the Desert is a Certified Local POCR Campus, meaning that we have an experienced team of faculty trained and ready to review YOUR online courses.

POCR is a non-evaluative process of faculty reviewing the online courses of other faculty. During a review, we use the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric as the standard for online teaching best practices. There are four sections of the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric, with a total of 44 elements between them.

To learn more, email the DE Team.

Additional Resources in Effective Course Design

DE Website

Canvas Community

Connect here with your peers and the broader Canvas Community.

@ONE Online Courses

Self-paced or facilitated courses, currently free for all California Community College faculty, learn more about best practices in online teaching.

Byte-sized Canvas

This video series, hosted by Helen Graves, @ONE's instructional designer, is comprised of short desktop sessions that focus on the wonderfulness that is our common course management system—Canvas. Learn what’s new (or just new to you!) and how you can use it, along with other pedagogical and technological tips to support high quality online course design.

Extending Your Professional Learning

Interested in reviewing other course design/teaching rubrics? There are many, but a few that may be especially useful include:

Peralta CC district's Online Equity Rubric
California State University's QLT Course Review Instrument
State University of New York's Open SUNY Course Quality Review Rubric
Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric

Also recommended: a three part article series comparing and discussing higher education online course design rubrics.

What: Comparing 7 rubrics
So What: Importance and impact of these rubrics
Now What: Recommendations for rubric providers and users

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